Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Interview on Prejudice and Discrimination

What do you understand by the terms, prejudice and discrimination?
Prejudice is a preconceived belief, opinion or judgment made without establishing the facts of an issue. This could be related to one’s race, ethnicity, social class, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, line of work, personal characteristics, fear, aversion and antipathy.
Discrimination is the unfair behavioral treatment towards a person or a group of people. This could be due to the person’s ethnicity, gender, age, educational background, nationality etc.
Prejudice is not visible and is internal, whilst discrimination is visible and is external. Discrimination is an action, usually as a result of prejudice.

Have you experienced any prejudice or discrimination?
Yes. In my work place, people are prejudice towards female bosses, and think that they are temperamental and emotional and do not perform efficiently as their male counterpart.
As a result, male colleagues get their promotion faster and subordinates generally prefer to work for male bosses.

Why do prejudice and discrimination occur?
This could be relating to one’s belief and values, their experience, etc. As a result the unfair treatment comes about.

How do you think prejudice and discrimination can be avoided/ eliminated?
This can be avoided when you are able to look at things in a wider perspective, be more tolerant and optimistic, and expand your horizons and experience.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Multiple Intelligence



Many a times, schools have sent their students for multiple intelligence tests, similar to the one I have just took from Birmingham Grid for Learning. Most schools would want to find ways to help their students learn better, and thus it can be assumed that schools sent their students for these tests in hope of their improvement. Despite this, are students really improving through this?

Multiple intelligence tests are tests which help to determine your study method, and the way you look at things. These tests are designed to calculate the best way you absorb information through various multiple choice questions. But come to think of it, does schools change their teaching style for every single one of their students who learn in a different manner? Can schools even afford to scrape their previous teaching methods to accommodate every new batch of students with different learning styles? If not, then does knowing your study method make a difference? Although some may point out that learning happens all the time, and that you could use the knowledge of your learning style to help you learn better at your own time, but I would like to state that for students, they gain their knowledge mostly from their teachers, who are mostly unable to accommodate to their specific learning styles.

Therefore, is knowing your learning style going to help you?