Ethics and Corporate Responsibility: Accounting Fraud

Ethics and Corporate Responsibility: Accounting Fraud The key issued described in the suit against Xerox Corporation is that Xerox had overstated its revenues during the past four years by almost $2 billion. The fraudulent scheme had misled investors about Xeroxs earnings to polish its reputation on Wall Street and to boost the companys stock price. These accounting fraud cases show us that ethics is a real issue, a very current issue and it is one that needs to be addressed. Unethical behaviour is common and reasons exist for such behaviour. Recent accounting scandals involving high-profile companies such as Xerox Corp have called into question accounting practices and undermined public confidence in the profession. These ethical scandals in the real world suggested a market economy being out of control and raised demands for more stringent and effective government regulation. Such deception by management hampers the ability of the users of financial statements from gaining accurate business information for decision-making and leaves their interests unprotected. 2.CASE DISCUSSION a)What are the ethical issues confronted in these cases? The term ethics refer to a system or code of conduct based on moral duties and obligation that indicate how we should behave; it deals with the ability to distinguish right from wrong and the commitment to do what is right. Unethical behaviour in the corporate world is political and business scandals, which arise with the disclosure of misdeeds by trusted executives of large public corporations. Such misdeeds typically involve complex methods for misusing or misdirecting funds, overstating revenues, understating expenses, overstating the value of corporate assets or underreporting the existence of liabilities, sometimes with the cooperation of officials in other corporations or affiliates. For Xerox Corp. it has been defrauding investors since 1997 till 2000. In a scheme directed and approved by its senior management, Xerox falsely portrayed itself as a business meeting its competitive challenges and increasing its earnings every quarter. Xerox knowingly or recklessly increased revenues and earnings by accelerating the recognition of revenues through mostly non-GAAP accounting actions, overstated its earnings by using so called cookie jar reserves and interest income from tax refunds, disguised loans as asset sales and manipulated its accounting in violation of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). All of them should have been disclosed to investors in a timely manner because, singly and collectively, they constituted a significant departure from Xeroxs past accounting practices and misled investors about the quality of the earnings being reported. Besides that, senior Xerox management reaped over $5 billion in performance-based compensation and over $30 million in profits from the sale of stock. The practices summarized above constitute an unlawful scheme by Xerox to defraud investors through undisclosed accounting practices and other material transactions, some of which the company knew or should have known violated GAAP. Xerox failed to tell investors that these actions were the reason Xerox met or exceeded consensus earnings estimates quarter after quarter. b) The possible reasons or factors that may cause the unethical actions in the cases. The ethical issues faced by Xerox corp can be explained from a personal, organizational and systematic level and it possible reasons why they commit unethical actions. Personal Level Possible reasons: Individual moral failures and greed Personal level calls for the character evaluation of the main individuals that participated in the various fraud as for Xerox Corp Former Chairman and CEO, Paul Allaire, Former Chief Financial Officer, Barry Romeril and KPMG partner, Michael Conway, in a statement reported that they are the main person whom in charged by the SEC way back years of 1999. The values and ethical behaviours of these individuals have continuously been called into question. Many of the charges directed towards these individuals are a clear indication of acquiring personal interest. It is not that the senior executives did not receive any ethics training earlier on but it is their own individual moral failures and greed that led to the distortion of financial statements. They did not consider the social implications of their unscrupulous decision on their company and also all parties with interests in the company. What concern these executives are their own individualized interests especially in wealth maximization. Organizational Level Possible reasons: The need to follow orders from bosses and pressure from top management on their accountants to make the numbers add up. An unethical practices by the Top management to ensure that the accountant of the Corporation to make up the financial statement reporting to reflect the corporation financial position was on a good position no matter what it cost as long as they can manipulate the treatment of accounting practices. This might be the reasons for the accountant in that organizational tied up( unable to perform as an independent parties) with the mislead accounting practices in order to follow the command of the superior management. As in Nicor Energys overstated unbilled revenue by approximately $4.5 million for 2001 was a collusion between Johnson (senior-most financial officer) and Stoffer (NEs President CEO) in inflating the unbilled revenue number. Stoffer also directed a reversal of a portion of the incurred expense of 2001 into 2002 to meet year-end earnings targets. Besides that, Johnson who was responsible for setting the level of the bad debt reserve was under pressured by Stoffer to purposely understate the bad debts reserve. Systematic Level Possible Reasons: Cosy relationship the firms have with their corporate clients and Enormous pressure from Wall Street investors to keep up short term earnings. As been spell out, many external factors have contributed to the confront of this unethical issues. Such possible factors from the external forces are Corporations often hire accountants and other personnel from their auditor and accountants and much of the pressure brought to bear on accountants; stems from the cosy relationships the firms have with corporate clients. As for Xeroxs auditors, KPMG kept silent when it found out about the accounting discrepancies in Xerox so that they can maintain their relationship and businesses with Xerox. There was no watchdog ( legal and structure) at Xerox. KPMGs bark sounded no warning to investors; its bite was toothless. Beside the possible causes that might led them to commit in these unethical actions possibly might be due to the investment climate of 1990s added insults to injuries. Cited back, year of 1990s, Companies that failed to meet Wall Streets earnings estimates by even a penny often were punished by significant declines in stock price. In addition, compensation of Xerox senior management team depended significantly on their ability to meet increasing revenue and earning target. c).Who were the stakeholders (individual or groups) that are affected by the unethical actions? How are they affected by the fraud or unethical actions? Stakeholders are those groups who can affect or [are] affected by the achievement of the firms objectives. Stakeholders in a company may include shareholders, directors, management, suppliers, government, employees and also the community. The unethical actions in Xerox Corp have affected the stakeholders in a way or so. Shareholders Shareholders are invariably the first victims of top management fraud. When news of fraud by a firm becomes public knowledge, it immediately reduces the stock market value of the companies involved. Bondholders and other creditors of the firm can also end up bearing the negative effects of management fraud. After news of the financial fraud at Xerox Corp. is released, Xeroxs stock has been declining sharply and is now trading at about $7. Shareholders can no longer assume that management is acting within the law or with their best interests in mind. Shareholders now require greater openness on the part of their senior managers. Society Fraud also depresses the overall moral climate in a society. It can lead to a general lack of faith in the integrity of senior managers, erosion in the confidence in the free market system, including its political institutions, processes, and leaders, and a general growth of cynicism in a society. The failure of accounting firms to detect managerial fraud has also led to less faith in audited financial statements. Worse still, many believe that the accounting firms have compromised their own integrity because of the lure of lucrative consulting contracts from firms they were auditing. In Xeroxs case, their auditor, KPMG complied with management at Xerox to allow the accounting irregularities to continue. Employees Employees of companies whose top managers engage in fraud often are hit the hardest, even when they are unaware of their executives illegal activities. Fraud can cause employees to lose their jobs, their retirement savings (which often are tied up in company stock) and their reputations. Frequently, the very fact that employees have worked for a fraudulent company taints their resumes to the point that some find it difficult to find jobs elsewhere. The negative impact of Xeroxs fraud was that Xerox has laid off thousand of workers in the past two years and may make further retrenchments in the future. d) Discussion on the governance and control issues arising from the companies experienced. The highly visible accounting scandal in Xerox Corp showed us one significant matter; the corporate governance and internal controls is failed in the corporations. The worst incidences of fraud are usually committed by insiders, among whom those executives figure prominently who are assigned to manage and control their organizations. Corporations are now looking at how they can make their respective boards of directors more effective. Xerox Corp, has made a good progress on corporate governance and control issues arising from the companys experience. They have adopted strict new guidelines on what constitutes director independence. Applying this definition, 75% of their directors are independent. Proactively integrated Sarbanes-Oxley Act and proposed NYSE rules into their governance processes. Revised and strengthened the charters for their Board of Directors committees. Hold regular executive sessions of outside directors without Xerox management present. Launched a massive effort to strengthen internal controls, train their people and promulgate a clear and strong Code of Conduct. Established an Ethics Help line for their employees and have taken other measures all aimed at making Xerox a role model in ethical behaviour. Bear in mind that, no laws or policies will ever be sufficient to end all corporate misbehaviour. We are confident, however, that truly independent and inquisitive boards of directors will provide the best safeguard against corporate wrongdoings. such Audit Committees must be autonomous and vigorous, Financial Information is inherently judgmental ,give Sarbanes-Oxley a chance to work, excessive executive compensation can be tamed by the Compensation Committee and directors must be selected and appraised by Independent Nominating Committee. 3.Conclusion Fraud had damages the reputations of the individuals and firms involved. Revelations of top management fraud have caused the public to question the ability of boards of directors to monitor senior executives and protect shareholders wealth. As for Xerox Corp, in order too minimize the harm caused by the unethical actions by the executives, firstly Law and regulations are, and will remain, the most influential external drivers of corporate ethics, but legislation is no substitute for the presence of leaders who support and model ethical behaviour. The single most important ethical leadership behaviour is keeping promise, followed by encouraging open communication, keeping employees informed and supporting employees who uphold ethical standards. Corporate leaders need to communicate ethical values throughout the organization, but they must do more than talk the talk in order to establish and sustain an ethical culture. As for specific programs and practices, a corporate code of conduct is viewed as being most important to prevent or minimize accounting frauds. Such a code must reflect and reinforce the values and principles of an organization. Besides that, ethics training for all members of the organization, corporate social responsibility programs, ombudsman services and help lines can be done to combat unethical behaviour. In summary, employees need to have a code to set the ethics foundation, training to help people truly understand it, and programs that permit them to inquire about and report ethical violations. A comprehensive Whistleblowers Act to provide wide-ranging protection for whistleblowers in all sectors too can help encourage whistle blowing. Study Of Knowledge | Empiricists Vs Rationalists Study Of Knowledge | Empiricists Vs Rationalists The dispute between empiricism and rationalism begins within epistemology, the study of knowledge. Epistemology attempts to answer the questions: what is knowledge?, what can we know?, and what is the difference between opinion an knowledge? The study of knowledge began in Greece with the Pre-Socratic thinkers, as far back as the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.E. Zeno, a Pre-Socratic, is the first thinker to bring about the two schools of philosophy, rationalism and empiricism, which would grow to become a popular focus among other philosophers. Rationalism is defined as the epistemological view that true knowledge is derived from reason and from within the mind. This school of thought is based off of the a priori: truths that can be known independently of observations, and innate ideas: ideas believed to be present from birth. Empiricism, on the other hand, is the view that true knowledge is derived from sense experience. Empiricists believed that a priori and innate ideas were none existent, and rather all significant knowledge came from the a posteriori, the belief that truth is established only through observation. Zeno chose to focus on information derived from mathematics or rationalism, because he believed this information to be certain. He thought that information derived from the senses, or empiricism, could be deceiving. From there, the way by which we obtain knowledge continued to be argued over. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, philosophers began to take sides as to what they believed was the source of knowledge. They formed two groups: the Continental rationalists and the British empiricists. In the Continental rationalist group were philosophers Rene Descartes and Baruch Spinoza. The philosophies of Descartes and Spinoza are similar because they are systematic, logical, and rational. Both Descartes and Spinoza sought a system of thought that possessed the certainty of mathematics and was free of Scholastic tradition, because they believed scholasticism could not be trusted. They thought that judgments must be made from a mathematical basis and believed in a mechanistic worldview, the real world is not the world as known by the senses but rather by mathematical physics. They were also both pantheists, which meant that they equated God with nature. Spinoza worked off of Descartes ideas from his Cartesian Method, that nothing is true unless it is clear and distinct. This idea of only believing what is certain was an idea brought up years ago by the Pre-Socratic thinker, Zeno and developed further by the Continental rationalists. The biggest difference, however in Spinozas p hilosophy was his opinion on substances. Descartes defined substance as that which can exist by itself, without the aid of any other substance. He divided the world into two kinds of substances, thinking substance (the mind) and extended substance (the body). He then divided thinking substance into the infinite thinking substance (God) and finite thinking substances. Although Descartes believed that there was only one infinite substance (God), he believed that there were many finite thinking substances, so he was a pluralist. Spinoza rejected Descartess divisions of substances and his plurality of finite substances. He did not agree with Descartess division of infinite and finite thinking substance. For Spinoza, there was only infinite substance, and no thinking substance and extended substance. Spinoza claimed that there was only one substance, infinite substance, which he equated with God. Spinoza also argued that the definition of substance makes it impossible for the mind and th e body to be distinct substances. He said that mind and body are modes of that single substance. So, Spinoza took Descartes idea of substances and built upon it, but Spinoza was a monist rather than a dualist like Descartes. The other major philosophical group during the seventeenth and eighteenth century was the classical British empiricists. The empiricists believed that all knowledge is derived from observation. Hume and other British empiricists rejected the intuition/deduction thesis and the idea of innate knowledge proposed by Descartes. Hume believed that true knowledge came from a posteriori, sense experience, rather than from a priori. A major difference between Hume and Descartes is their take on the issue of Gods existence. When the two applied their very different theories to the topic of Gods existence, they arrived at different conclusions. In Descartes efforts to doubt everything, he realized that only one thing was certain, I think, therefore I exist. Descartes concluded that God exists when he realized that if he himself is subject to doubt, he is imperfect, and cannot be the cause of his existence. Because he had an idea of perfectness, this idea must come from a perfect being, or God. However, Hume was not able to prove Gods existence. Hume built upon Leibnizs analytic synthetic distinction in creating his Humean Method. He separated ideas into three categories: analytic propositions, synthetic propositions, and nonsense. He created a set of questions that one could ask to come to the conclusion as to what category an idea fell under. In contrast to Descartes conclusions about Gods existence, the Humean method suggests that God should be placed under the nonsense category because it is not possible to trace God back to sense data. Descartes, the rationalist and Hume, the empiricist had differing opinions. However, the two philosophers are similar because they both raise very skeptical issues. Descartes idea of the possibility of an evil demon putting thoughts in our heads and Humes conclusion that the idea of God is nonsense caused people to begin questioning traditional teachings and what they had always thought to be true. New ideas like the ones presented by D escartes and Hume later caused problems because as people became more aware of these ideas, more rebellion from authority and religion began to occur. Part Two: Immanuel Kant In the Preface to the second edition of the Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant compares his philosophy to the Copernican Revolution. It is said that as Copernicus believed that all heavenly bodies moved round the sun, Kant believed he was the center, and that everything moved around his philosophy. The philosophy of Immanuel Kant was so revolutionary because he brought together rationalism and empiricism. Because of Kant, the debate between rationalists and empiricists ended, and epistemology could move forward. Kant was inspired to build his philosophy after he encountered a copy of Humes Inquiry. He realized that he disagreed with many of the issues Hume brought up, and decided to refute them. In his book, The Critique of Pure Reason, he combined the ideas of Hume and the ideas of rationalists. Kant agreed with the empiricist claim that sense experience is the source of all beliefs, but disagreed with the conclusion that those beliefs may not necessarily be true. He also disagreed with the rationalist idea that truths about what does or does not exist could be decided through reason alone. He eliminated the debate by claiming that thinking and experiencing cannot let us know how things really are. Instead, Kant asked if it was possible that we have metaphysical knowledge. He claimed that the mind analyzes the data it perceives in terms of space and time. So, space and time are not features of external reality, as the empiricists and rationalists before him believed. Kant said that in order for human beings to interpret the world the human mind imposed certain structures on the incoming sense data. Kant defined these structures in terms of twelve categories: substance, cause/effect, reciprocity, necessity, possibility, existence, totality, unity, plurality, limitation, reality and negation. These categories were characteristics of the appearance of any object in general. However, these categories are related only to human language. When making a statement about an object, that person is making a judgment. A general object, that is, every object, has attributes that are contained in Kants list of Categories. In a judgment, or verbal statement, the Categories are the predicates that can be asserted of every object and all objects.

Critical and Creative Thinking Essay

INTRODUCTION What is thinking? Basically, thinking is one way for human to practice the act or exercise their intellectual or process of thought. In other way, thinking can also mean as a way of reasoning and judgment. In easier words, thinking is the active process by which human develops by understandings of us, others and our world. The process of thinking enables us to solve problems, interpret information, make sense of our feelings and attitudes, discuss important issues, establish beliefs, and work toward the completion of goals. Thinking is an essential component in our life as a human being. As saying by Bill Beattie goes, â€Å"The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think – rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men.† Thinking can be derived in two ways, critical thinking and also creative thinking. Critical thinking is active and purposeful thinking about how we arrive at our understandings of everything in this world and selecting those modes of thinking which are most successful in clarifying and enhancing our understanding. Critical thinking is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way. People who think critically in a consistent manner attempt to live rationally, reasonably, and empathically. â€Å"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.† – Martin Luther King, Jr. Critical thinking is an exceptional mode of thinking about any subject, content, or problem – in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skilfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them. Creative thinking is a way of looking at problems or situations from a fresh perspective that suggests unusual solutions which may look unsettling at first but eventually become useful and brilliant. Creative thinking can be inspired both by an unstructured process such as brainstorming, and by a structured process such as lateral thinking (higher order thinking). A simple definition of creativity is the ability to imagine or invent something new. However, creativity is not the ability to create out of nothing, but the ability to generate new ideas by combining, changing, or reapplying existing ideas. Some creative ideas are surprising and brilliant, while others are just simple, good, practical ideas that no one seems to have thought of yet. â€Å"Creative thinking is not a talent; it is a skill that can be learnt. It empowers people by adding strength to their natural abilities which improves teamwork, productivity and where appropriate profits.† — Edward de Bono Creative thinking is the process which we use when we come up with a new idea. It is the merging of ideas which have not been merged before. Brainstorming is one form of creative thinking: it works by merging someone else’s ideas with your own to create a new one. You are using the ideas of others as a stimulus for your own. This creative thinking process can be accidental or deliberate. â€Å"It is the function of creative people to perceive the relations between thoughts, or things or forms of expression that may seem utterly different, and to combine them into some new forms, the power to connect the seemingly in connected.† – William Plomer The importance of critical and creative thinking is undeniable. In order to comply with the National Education Philosophy; which emphasize on the development of a whole-rounded individuals and capable of taking challenges, CCTS is very crucial and important to be nurtured in every students or individual. Part 1 – CURRENT SITUATION OF CCTS IN SCHOOL. I have been working as a contract teacher for 3 years in two different schools. Throughout those 3 years, I have been teaching Mathematics for one year and teaching English Language for about 2 years. As far as I can remember, during my contract as an English teacher, CCTS was not being implemented and in fact, I don’t even know the importance of critical and creative thinking skills that have to be highlighted and implemented to the students. But, I realize that the Literature Component that currently being taught in school is very suitable and able to nurture CCTS in students. This is because, it promotes students to think of the situation, analyse the current situation and interpret what is going to happen in the future. Besides, some of the literature components such as poems make students think something outside of the ordinary and be creative to play with the words and also the meaning of the sentences. I remember from my previous course on Literature Component during my contract teacher is that, the awareness as to the need to cultivate CCTS among students in Malaysia has been an issue of concern to many. Malachi Edwin (1992) stated that literature in English besides developing reading skills will also help develop students’ critical thinking skills. He adds that these skills will in turn provide students opportunities to understand themselves and their fellow human beings better. In line with Malachi Edwin’s view on the potentials of literature and its role in the cultivation of CCTS, the present research is aimed at using literature as the base through which CCTS can be promoted effectively. Literature in English has been chosen from the many subjects offered in the Malaysian curriculum for two reasons. Firstly, literature in English can be seen to cut across the various subjects in the curriculum as the contents of literary texts are so diverse that they incorporate social, political, scientific, technological, medical and all other areas of life. Secondly it is an undeniable fact that literature plays an important role in our present curriculum since it is now being taught to students from Form 1 to Form 5 as a component of the English Language syllabus. There is no doubt that the very nature of the subject which requires analysis, solving problems and interpretation can encourages critical and creative thinking. In English Language, other syllabus that are currently being taught such as grammar, reading comprehension and others would not make student to fully use their thinking process. As the knowledge is something that you can remember and it is basically a skill that u can achieve. It is strongly believe that learners can only become proficient language users if they, besides using the language and knowing the meaning, could display creative and critical thinking through the language (Kamarul Kabilan, 2000). This suggests that the learners must be creative in their production of ideas, and critically support them with logical and rational explanation, details and particulars and also examples. For me, as a teacher, it is essential for us to recognise the subject in our curriculum before we can understand and trying to teach students or cultivating CCTS in studying literature. The role of literature in English in the Malaysian curriculum has gone through tremendous changes. Before this, literature components that have been taught in school are just simple to know about the story and how to answer the examination. Most of the students or even teacher do not know that the literature components is actually a powerful tool that can be used to instil critical and creative thinking in students. The English language syllabus for Form Four states clearly a number of objectives of the curriculum but the objective which is of relevance to the present study is Objective Number Three as quoted below: ‘listen to, view, read and respond to different texts, and express ideas, opinions, thoughts and feelings imaginatively and creatively in spoken and written form’. (Huraian Sukatan Pelajaran, Ting IV. KPM, 2003) Part 2 – CHALLENGES FACED IN IMPLEMENTING CCTS IN SCHOOL. There are basically three reasons why CCTS is quite difficult to be implemented in school. They are: 1) Teachers themselves, 2) Students background, and 3) School Authority. First, during my contract with the school, I have never been exposed to CCTS. I don’t even know the existence of CCTS in school. The first time I heard about CCTS is when all English teacher was sent to short courses on Literature Component in 2009. Besides that, I have never know about the training in CCTS and the school never emphasize and put interest in getting the teacher trained in CCTS. Even though the teachers has been sent to the courses on the implementation of CCTS in Literature Component, we have no idea on how to implement the CCTS and still lacking in the idea to teach CCTS in class. We basically have the basic idea of CCTS but the problem is, we do not know how to implement the skills in teaching the language. Besides that, teachers have a lot of responsible rather than teaching students. There is lots of clerical work that should be done. This is somehow can interrupt teachers focus in giving all out in class. Teachers were given work out of their scope. There is too much administrative work and teaching subjects they were not trained for. In Malaysian education context, teachers play huge role in teaching and learning. They determine and direct the content, activities and processes of teaching and learning in classrooms. It is the teachers who decide on the aims, goals, and strategies of teaching to be implemented in classrooms. Unfortunately, not all teachers have the same idea about teaching. It is not only the students who need to think and act creatively and critically but the teacher should also do the same. When I was thinking about the Set Induction for my lesson, I had been challenged to think of a set induction that I had never use or seen before. In making the students interested to what the lesson are going to be for that day, I have been using songs, drama or even quotes from famous celebrities for my induction set. Secondly, the education system should teach students to be great thinkers, not followers. Unfortunately, it did not work out that well. This might be happening because of the student’s background. Sometimes, the family is not very helpful in ensuring the successfulness of one student. Parents also play an important role in providing encouragement for children to learn. Encouragement and incentives such as praise and prizes should be given to kids if they get good results. The education of the child is the collective responsibility of the family members. The education of the children in a family is the collective responsibility of all family members. The student will become a good thinker and they should be able to master critical and creative thinking. As such, they should be trained with activities that have been focused and aimed to produce a high intellect thinker. Unfortunately, not all students are interested because they fail to see the importance of thinking skills or even learning English. In short they do not know why they need to learn English. One way to solve this problem is, we as a teachers have to give a reason and rational in learning English. I have to do this, because students nowadays always want to know or have rewards when they do things, including studying. Thirdly, the school authority can also become a problem for teacher to implement the CCTS. The task given to teachers by the school authority sometimes can take teachers time and energy. Besides that, the teachers need to comply with the syllabus that they had to finish in the given time. This is sometimes can become a challenge for teacher to spend time in conducting critical and creative thinking in class. Even when I was a teacher, I have some difficulties in finishing the syllabus on time, especially Literature Component. When teaching Literature Component, I need to take some extra time to let the students think about the story or poems. Some students do not know how to interpret the information from the poem. This is actually quite hard for teacher to teach the students the thinking skills when there is no enough time. Thinking skills is not something that the teacher can teach over night, but it takes some time to do it. Part 3 – POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATION Every problem must have a cure. In order for CCTS to be fully implemented and useful in school system, all the teachers need to be exposed to any new invention in general and ‘thinking skills’ specifically as well as how to incorporate them in the lessons, such as through videos, workshops, talks, and others. Besides that, continuous development must be carried out from time to time as ‘refresher’ course for the teachers. This is because, teacher are just like another human being that always forgets and tend to be careless. Apart from that, teachers need to be aware of the importance of thinking skills so that it will be carried out in the classroom more and can be fully utilised on classroom. Furthermore, the questions asked in the classrooms will determine the ‘thinking’ that the pupils are doing, so teachers need to be exposed and nurtured to have and apply questions and questioning technique that will elicit thinking. Teachers should also know the activity that will be done in classroom. The activity should be able to get students to observe the texts particularly literature components carefully and critically, to draw upon their vocabulary and to think creatively and critically about the material given. Besides training and preparing teacher to be critical and creative, problem-based learning (PBL) can also be one of the methods that can be used to challenge students to learn how to think. Students will work cooperatively in groups to find solutions to real world problems and more importantly, to develop skills to become self-directed learners. Here, the goal of problem-based learning is viewed as learning for capability rather than learning for the sake of acquiring knowledge. Students develop critical thinking abilities by constantly relating what ideas they generate and to what they want to do with the information (Gallagher, 1997). In an activity like problem solving, both kinds of thinking are significant to us. First, we must examine and study the problem; then we must create potential solutions; next we must pick and implement the best solution; and finally, we must assess the efficiency of the solution. As you can see, this process reveals an alternation between the two kinds of thinking, critical and creative. In practice, both kinds of thinking operate together much of the time and are not really independent of each other. Furthermore, for me, as a teacher we have to think aloud in front of our students. Let them hear what are we thinking and puzzling our way slowly through problems in the subject. I have tried to think aloud in class in front of my students, and they show a good response. Especially, when they say that they never think the way that I thought and surprise to hear my thought. But, when doing this, the teacher should voice our thinking slowly and clearly, so the students able to hear them and response to them. In Critical and Creative Thinking Skills class, I have learned about Socratic questioning. Now I know that as a teacher, we have to regularly question our students Socratically. Such as, investigating various dimensions of their thinking: their purpose, their evidence, reasons, data, their claims, beliefs, interpretations, deductions, conclusions, the implications and consequences of their thought, their response to alternative thinking from contrasting points of view, and others. CONCLUSION Creative and critical thinking skills should not be taught separately as an isolated entity, but embedded in the subject matter and woven into the curriculum. Due to this, the present educational system in Malaysia no longer put emphasis on the 3Rs but rather stressed critical thinking skills, scientific skills as well as technological skills in the schools’ curriculum. It is in fact possible to do creative and critical thinking activity often, in any English language class. However, being stuck in the curriculum system as in Malaysia, with the exam-oriented teaching and learning in school, I tend to predict that CCTS will be quite hard to be fully implemented in school. However, with the fresh English curriculum introduced by the Ministry of Education starting from year 2010, I really expect that students will be further exposed with new ways of teaching and learning in English. It was stated that the change of the curriculum involves the language art and grammar components with focus on fun learning as well as the ability converse in Standard English, with emphasis on pronunciation and phonics (Ministry of Education, 2009). If the changes are actually applied and assessments are made on the result, I am certain that we can do better in enlightening the teaching and learning of English in Malaysia and at the same time produce students who are able to think critically and creatively in any situations. REFERENCES Beyer, B. (1987). â€Å"Practical Strategies for the Teaching of Thinking.† Boston: Ally and Bacon Inc. Kamarul Kabilan ( 2000) .Creative and Critical Thinking in language Classroom.The internet TESL Journal, Vol. VI, No. 6, June 2000 retrieved 16th April 2010 from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Kabilan-CriticalThinking.html Moore,K.D. (2005). Effective instructional strategies: from theory to practice. California: Sage Publications Inc Nurliza Othman (2002) Thinking Skills; A motivational Factor in ELT. Jurnal Pendidikan IPBA (2) 5 2002 ; 101-109 White, R.V. (1995) .New Ways in Teaching Writing. USA : Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages ,Inc

Rationalist Approaches Essay

International relations (IR) are ‘the diplomatic strategic relations of states, and the characteristic focus of IR is on issues of war and peace, conflict and cooperation’ (Brown and Ainley, 2009). Many different theories exist within IR to define and analyse certain situations. Rationalism is classified as the major in IR analysis theory (Baylis, et al, 2011). The study of IR according to a comprehensive and scientific methodology became a key demand after the First World War, resulting from a desire to clarify international politics. Following the First World War, international relations were initially taught in different fields, such as international law and diplomatic history and international organisations. The importance of studying international relations as an independent rapporteur emerged after the Second World War, precipitated by unprecedented US involvement in global affairs (both during the war and in the subsequent Cold War) and the decline of the European empires in the post-war political situation (Hook and Spanier, 2007). International relations seeks to interpret the phenomena of international reality and reliably and realistically conceptualise and analyse international events for the purpose of building theory and prediction and the study of IR itself. IR aims to reach analytical exact facts of the international situation by recognising the power that controls the formation of various approaches of States with each other and by determining how they dynamically interact, and their consequent impact on the conditions of the international community (Burchill, 2011). International relations are changing constantly under the influence of international politics and pressure, which affect the content and characteristics of IR. The problem of correlation between domestic and foreign policy of the most complex and controversial problems precipitates debate in many theoretical trends in the science of international relations, such as neo- realism (Baldwin, 1993). The theory of international relations is a homogeneous group and methodology of assumptions that seeks to clarify relations, which we call internationalisation. This essay will demonstrate critically some of international relations theories and the interpretations of some key concepts, for example power, state and world order, by using historic and contemporary examples in terms of: firstly, realism and neo-realism; secondly, liberalism and neo-liberalism; thirdly, decision-making theory; and finally, to evaluate the extent to which the rationalist approaches are appropriate in the study of international relations and to illustrate the weaknesses and the strengths of rationalist approach in the study of IR, to bring out the essence of various social entities through epistemological approaches grounded in rationality and interpretation based on the event goal finding forms of social organisation. The events of September 11th, 2001 (hereafter referred to as ‘9/11’) and the subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and 2003 respectively have alerted researchers in international relations to the role of ideological factors in the behaviour of states, something that contributed to the enrichment of the debate and opposed some fundamental assumptions of Western sociology, especially those relating to humanitarian actions based on rationality and social councils, and the associated view that the world is moving towards a common destiny of liberal democracy and market economy, overriding the self-specificities of peoples and cultural differences (Baylis, et al, 2011). Many researchers have tried possible analyses of reality and built theories from to enable a preview of variable events in international reality, and others used these models for intellectual and contemplative purposes in an attempt to extrapolate theoretical exchange, leading to a different understanding of reality and perception and overcoming the impact of the analysis of external behaviour with proposed forms and formats of relations and international transactions; this is the so-called war of paradigms. In addition, the most important reasons for the differences between these paradigms are due to the complexity of the field of international relations and the complex nature of these relations on the one hand, and the difference in perspectives and ideological motives from which each approach on the other. There is no doubt that the selection of work by the term â€Å"paradigm† is the most effective and beneficial, as the hallmark of this field is relative to these paradigms that do not live up to many researchers’ level of theory, but there are poles of paradigms to serve the interests and certain objectives which sometimes may not be available in scientifically objective conditions, and which facilitate the ideological framing of the general orientation of groups or individuals. Firstly, the theory of realism called for overcoming differences among nations through the international rule of law. The most prominent representatives of this trend, such as Morgenthau, considered that the international system is by nature chaotic and driven by a single law (Schuett, 2011). Realism has interests and is supported by historians. However, the theory suffers from uncertainty because it lacks universally supported definitions for example â€Å"power†, and it assumes that state officials act for national interests in accordance with the interests of power; if this is true, this indicates that the state is in a constant struggle (Brown & Ainley, 2000). Morgenthau was mostly concerned with his concept of power. The policy is determined in relation to the power, and aims to own and keep them and their development. The power is always the ultimate goal of the policy. For Morgenthau, sovereignty is authority over the thought or actions of other human beings; he accordingly rated different countries depending on their political objectives (Cozette, 2008). This category consists of four sections: rated countries seeking to adopt the status quo with any exposure to the existing arrangement; rated countries seeking to develop their strength, practicing a policy of imperialism; and states seeking fame. Three forms of power parallel these categories: to retain power, power development, and highlighting power. The classification uses Morgenthau’s concept of power in a relative sense, a classification that lacks rigour in terms of the definition of terms and reference problems posed by the application of this classification (Turner & Mazur, 2009). However, he also warned that common errors can occur when assessing power, resulting in the following recommendations: first, one should not deal with the power as an absolute concept, and should use a relative analysis; second, power should not be regarded as something acquired; and third, one should not restrict focus to one of the power components, rather all should be carried by the dimensions of this concept. Kenneth Waltz diverged from the realist school and added the experience of new realism in his development of the theory of international relations in his book Theory of International Politics (1979). His new concept of foreign policy is based on the understanding of the system and systemic dynamics, and not of peoples or countries, Waltz pioneered realistic visualisation alongside his focus on the study of manifestations of international economics, with the development of the theory of stability to maintain the status quo, when superpowers impose their concepts that are antithetical to some parties such as the initiative to establish neoliberal international financial institutions to support imaginable ideological outlooks (Waltz, 1959). According to Waltz, the main actors that unite on the basis of securing their survival are states. Neo-realism is an alternative vision. Waltz tried in his book to refine the theory of realism by searching for â€Å"essence.† The theory concerns the international system, and maintains this level of analysis as the only way to understand the actions of the actors who make up the elements of this system, which impose specific restrictions on acts. In this sense, Waltz does not have any hostile vision of international relations. The only issue of importance is the system; albeit other factors such as religion, psychology and internal politics and the economy are considered to some extent in a secondary capacity, he believes that the essence of international relations is located above the other factors. Moreover, the appreciation that the chaotic situation of international relations obliges states to pursue policies that are realistic renders the theory of Waltz a revolutionary one that abrogates a number of factors to permit a general theory of international relations. Waltz stresses on properties that are analysed at the level of the base units and conducts classification systems for example (Islamic, democratic) to enable the interpretation of international relations. Waltz claimed that the foreign policies of states are not the most important elements in the interpretation of international relations; opponents say that the g lobal system is the sum of the states and mutual decisions and actions (Waltz, 1959). The most famous example of the new realistic analysis was conducted by Mearsheimer (1990) on the future of Europe. The baseline of the scenario for analysis was the assumption that the end of the Cold War was absolute, and that the complete withdrawal of Soviet influence from Europe was imminent. It is noteworthy that in 1990 the dismantling of the Soviet Union could be a potentially destabilizing danger that could exacerbate the crisis situation and prospects of major wars for two main reasons: first, because the multi-polar system was less stable due to the increased diodes and the growing relations between states in the international system and the lack possible symmetry authorities, and miscalculations tensions and power; and second, because there was a change in conventional military force. Mearsheimer identified four scenarios based on nuclear deterrence: nuclear disarmament of Europe, which was not expected because of the fundamental role of nuclear deterrence in consolidating international relations; to maintain the status quo, which would raise a number of countries such as Germany or Eastern Europe, and could also precipitate an escalation reaction to their possession of nuclear weapons, and resorting to internal action against threats to other countries owning nuclear weapons; nuclear proliferation in the hands of bad management, which could cause an increase in the potential for conflicts in Europe; fourth, nuclear proliferation in the hands of a good management policy associated with the balance of power led some key countries (Mearsheimer, 2007). The latter was the solution proposed by Mearsheimer. This entailed the provision of nuclear weapons to Germany, based on a balance of power engendered by the United States and Britain transferring powers to Europe. His argument was based on the proviso that nuclear weapons are a stabilising factor and that Germany was seeking to consolidate its security. The criticism of Mearsheimer that can be addressed by specialists in the affairs of the institutions is that the policy of maintaining the status quo through organisations such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was entirely possible. The counterpoint to the realist theory is the liberal approach, which is thought to be the dominant paradigm capable of producing dimensional explanation essential to international relations, with the evolution of scientific and technological progress and economic shifts, which laid the foundations of the liberal intellectual paradigm, which emerged with the seminal pioneers of international law such as Jean Bodin (1552-1608) in his book The Law of War and Peace (1625). Pioneers of liberalism glorified personal freedom and inflated the status of the individual within the state and society and the rule of law against the caprice and tyranny they associated with states, a trend which continued into the era of Classical Liberalism during the 19th century, epitomised with regard to states by Richard Cobden’s argument that Free Trade engendered peace in international relations, and with regard to the individual by John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty (1869) (Grey, 1995). Modern neo-liberalism has outgrown the narrow framework of national sovereignty, focussing instead on the building blocks for international cooperation such as organisations and regional institutions supporting this ethos (Baldwin, 1993). One more recent development is that of the notable neoliberal Karl Doetsch, who moved from inside-loop integration to the role of communication and information between individuals and groups. However, other theories calling for a different vision about international reality cannot be overlooked, such as the theory of dependency developed by some thinkers concerned with Third World countries, in parallel with which political theories and academic attempts to explain changes in the international situation after the end of the Cold War emerged, which predicted the type and nature of upcoming global conflicts such as the notion of the end of history (Francis Fukuyama) and the clash of civilisations (Samuel Huntington), which reduced future conflicts to the spheres of religion and culture (El Anis, et al, 2010). In fact, no single claim has the rigour to encompass and comprehend all dimensions of the complex characteristics of world politics, and a wide range of ideas compete away from the traditional theoretical paradigms, and this competition between theories exposes the strengths and weaknesses of each, and identifies the necessary modifications to be made. In the process of decision-making in a rational manner, one of the logical operations follows a path that starts by defining the problem until a solution is reached, and revolves around the idea of ​​the role of individuals’ ability to increase their own personal benefit; this self-interest of individuals is held to collectively produce the public interest. (Cuban) Rationality is restricted to a basis dependent on personal impressions as well as control methods that are followed in making and implementing decisions. Before turning to the theory of rational choice, studying each of the conditions of the emergence of the concept and definition of the theory of decision-making is necessary. Decision-making theory scrutinises the comprehensiveness of the various elements that must be taken into account when analysing a specific policy, whether in general or in a particular moment; the theory works between these variables, but hypotheses do not necessarily require the decision maker to work on this basis, and it is perhaps more appropriate that the latter consider the decision theory of partial theories rather than the theory of a school if they are focusing on the political system as a whole or specifically on certain private units. Decision-making as an attempt to develop a systemic study of international politics began in the 1950s, led by Richard Snyder and Graham Allison, inspired by the international circumstances then prevailing. At the time, other theories appeared circumstantial and contingent to Cold War policies in the context of the international standoff between the Soviet Union and the United States of America and their allies. The Cold War was at one of its peaks during the 1950s, and led to the emergence of numerous critical scenarios worldwide, which erupted into proxy wars between the USA and USSR in numerous instances for instance the Korean War during the 1950s, and the Vietnam War during the 1960s, fuelled by the competition for military, economic or ideological influence between these two states. This led theorists of international relations in that period to find theories that kept pace with the tense reality of life, and thus came the theory of decision-making in order to determine who makes the decision taken and what frameworks affect relationships between states, and how crises can be managed. Richard Snyder focused his search of international relations on attitudes and reactions and interactions between states, and this theory converged with the theory of realism in some dimensions due to its common identification of the state as the main determinant in international relations (Krasner & Stephen, 1976). Finally, rational analysis has an important place in the analysis of strategic traditionalists who deal with the actors’ behaviours according to the data and plans calculated (military school) that deal with states as the actors seeking to achieve the greatest benefit at minimal cost ( ). This perspective of rationality was enhanced by Hans Morgenthau’s study of rationality aspects relating to the behaviour of states. Morgenthau stressed that countries collide externally and internal variables do not contribute to the external behaviour. The theory is linked in some forms to the stream of the political right, but the 1980s saw the emergence of a school of Marxism espousing the theory of rational free choice, which constitutes an example that there is no necessary link between theory and the political situation. It is clear that the theory of rational choice in the social sciences in general, which first appeared and grew up in sociology, but later separated into different fields of knowledge in the social sciences, had room for application in all the social sciences, particularly political science, and in particular relations in international decision-making foreign policy, and in the profit and loss theories, specifically game theory (Myerson, 1991). This means that the options for each of the parties to the game options and priorities, and in front of opportunities to choose alternatives available to them. However, every alternative is open to each party to affect the value achieved by the other players. If these choices are available for any player, they are available to all other players. This theory helps researchers, especially as they deal with the international strategic situation, in clarifying the alternative options before the decision-makers and helps them understand the problem and the ability to solve systematic analysis more deeply. Rationality in decision-making theory is based on determining rational behaviour, intended behaviour of decision-makers and which player can win. It does not address what route people actually take, and individuals may behave contradictorily and irrationally at times. The advocates of this theory used rational behaviour on the basis that it is most able to make the fittest theory of inte rpretation, and rational behaviour means that each player in international politics has a set of values ​​and goals and decides its policy accordingly, without errors. This is analogous to the analysis of sports, but this game theory is a method of analysis that provides evidence to choose the best route to work; states are required to look for the best ways to work and the attitudes and the results of this appear in the actions of others. The goal is to identify potential irrational acts that can and do lead to decisions and the most convenient work in order to achieve goals. Rational decision links the objectives and means thinking about the results, and rational analysis analyses the relationship between means and goals. Rationality provides full information in advance, so actors are able to stop their analysis when the results they expect are produced. However, the results of rational decision-making are not necessarily useful. It could be argued that one of the signs of an irrational decision is not using the information available. But we experimentally note that the decision is a rational decision in terms of the integration of the goals and objectives, including any tuning account of costs and benefits for explicit values ​​given, and states should take into account the various means at their disposal and also analyse and evaluate the results. In conclusion, neo-realism along with neoliberalism can be categorised as rationalist approaches in IR. While neo-realism is a concept of foreign policy based on understanding the system not the individual states, neo-realists cannot explain change in the system or in some circumstances predict potential dangers (Keohane, 1986). Neoliberalism refers mainly to economic liberalisation, and the facilitation of trade throughout the globe, with the onus on the development of the private sector. To this fundamentally economic programme, a vague concept of political freedom is appended much less forcefully than in Classical Liberalism (Doyle & Michael, 1986). However, the reforms of neoliberalism focus on increasing competition and achieving high economic growth and ignoring the influences that could affect such activities. Although they differ in many aspects, they both look to determine phenomena requiring explanation, for instance, the new realistic analysis conducted by Mearsheimer about the future of Europe, and both approaches identify the key actors. It is clear that they are demonstrating how the findings would be under given conditions if the actors function rationally. References Baylis, J. et al. (2011), The globalization of world politics an introduction to international relations, 5th edition, Oxford University press, New York. Baldwin, David A., (ed.) (1993) Neorealism and Neoliberalism: The Contemporary Debate. (New York: Columbia University Press) Brown, C. Ainley, K. (2009), Understanding International Relations [online], PALGRAVE MACMILLAN, New York, Available from: http://www.coursesmart.co.uk/understanding-international-relations-4th/chris-brown-kirsten-ainley/dp/9780230213104 [Accessed: 22.12.2012]. Burchill, Scott (2001) â€Å"Introduction,† in Theories of International Relations, Hampshire, Palgrave Cozette, M. (2008) ‘What Lies Ahead: Classical Realism on the Future of International Relations’ International Studies Review, Vol.10, No.4, pp.667-679 Doyle, Michael W., (1986) ‘Liberalism and World Politics’, American Political Science Review, Vol. 80, No. 4, pp. 1151-1169 El Anis, I. et al. (2010), An Introduction to international relations theory perspectives and themes , 3rd edition, Pearson Education Limited , England. Grey, J. (1995). Liberalism. 2nd ed. Buckingham: Open University Press Hook, S. W. & Spanier, J. W. (2007). American foreign policy since World War II. 17th ed. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press. Keohane, R. (1986), Neorealism and its critics, New York: Columbia University Press. Krasner, Stephen D., (1976) ‘State Power and the Structure of International Trade’, World Politics, 28(3): 317-47. Mearsheimer, John J., ‘Structural Realism’, in Tim Dunne, Milja Kurki and Steve Smith, International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007) pp. 71-88 Myerson, R. (1991), Game Theory Analysis of conflict, President and fellows of Hravard College, United States of America. Schuett, R. (2010) ‘Classical realism, Freud and human nature in international relations’ History Of The Human Sciences, Vol.23, No.2, pp.21-46 Turner, S., and Mazur, G. (2009) ‘Morgenthau as a Weberian Methodologist’ European Journal Of International Relations, Vol.15, No.3, pp.477-504 Waltz, K. (1959) Man, the State and War, New York: Columbia University Press. Waltz, Kenneth, (2000) ‘Structural Realism after the Cold War,’ International Security, Vol. 25, No. 1

Stereotypes Of Native American Society Essay - 2376 Words

Native American people have a unique struggle in society. This stems from cultural epidemics like drug addiction, alcoholism, poverty, obesity, and rampant suicide, but also systemic racism and cultural lag (Flores 1999; Greenfield, Cocking 2014; Sarche, Spicer 2008;). This is not a critique of culture, just an observation of the condition of the families I have helped serve over the course of this internship. To be â€Å"Native† carries with it a slew of stereotypical representations (Gay 2002; Mihesuah 2009). Stereotypes do not represent reality, but they do affect one’s social standing (Gay 2002). More than that, stereotypes alter how individuals view themselves, and limit their ability to become something other than the stereotype (Gay 2002; Mihesuah 2009). And the cycle goes on and on. If Native American children grow up in a closed network, such as a reservation, the reality is brutal (Mihesuah 2009). Drug abuse, domestic abuse, alcoholism, and the like are everyw here. 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