The Study Habits of Adult College Students Essay Example for Free

The Study Habits of Adult College Students Essay Abstract: The study habits of adult college students over age 25 were compared to a group of younger students at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. The younger students were matched with the older groups on four characteristics: sex, major field of study, semester credit load, and class standing. All 56 participants were undergraduate students (sophomores or juniors) who were registered for the fall 1982 term. The participants kept running records of their study habits, patterns, and difficulties for an academic year. In general, older and younger students showed similar patterns in terms of how much they studied, what activities were engaged in while studying, the time distribution, and places for studying. There was some evidence that older students studied slightly more per credit hour than did younger students. While the total numbers of difficulties encountered in studying were about the same for both groups, the character of the difficulties was noticeably different. Both older and younger students reacted very favorably to having a mixture of the age groups in their classes. Recommendations for working with adult students and suggestions for further study are offered. Appendices include interview schedules and a study log form. (Author/SW) INTRODUCTION It is an understatement to say that the standard of education in Nigeria has fallen. However, it has been realized that students who possess adequate mental abilities sometimes do not perform well in their academic work either because they do not know how to study effectively or they do not use the most effective method of studying. Many questions have been raised by teachers, parents and students themselves on why students perform so poorly academically. Even the state government has shown some concern over this in recent times by introducing low costs books for both primary and secondary schools. Although this was meant to create the desire to study by students, it has not helped the situation much because, students do not read these books. Many of the students complained of lack of time and conducive environment for study, others who try to study complained of lack of understanding. There is no doubt that these complains evidently point to one fact. That is, lack of effective study habits. It is this problem, the researcher wishes to investigate as it appears to be one of the root causes of the dwelling standard of our educational system today. Research questions: * What proportion of junior secondary school students possess good study habit than those in senior secondary school? * Will male students in junior secondary schools perform better than female students in senior secondary schools? Hypothesis: The following conjectural statements were postulated for this study: * There is no significant difference in the study habits of junior and senior secondary school students in Egor Local Government Area of Edo State. * There is no significant difference in the study habits of male and female students in junior and senior secondary schools in Egor, Local Government Area of Edo State. * There is no significant difference in the academic performance of male students in the junior secondary schools and female students in Senior Secondary Schools. LITERATURE REVIEW Psychologists as welt as layman have attempted some definitions of the word study. To some of them, study means hard work and is usually associated with school work. To others, study is applicable to other situations in life other than academic work. Mace (2002) pointed out that study is a systematic acquisition of knowledge and an understanding of facts and principles that calls for retention and application. Kelly (1998) stated that study is the application of ones mental capacity to the acquisition, understanding and organization of knowledge; it often involves some form of formal learning. Crow and Crow in Okorodudu (2000) explained that study is a program of subject matter mastery. It involves hard work. However, study involves the individuals thinking, feeling, personality, social interaction, physical activities and health rather than men learning of fact on the thought system for the purpose of recall when asked. For those who belong to the school of thought that study is not only applicable to academic work, Olatubosun in Oladele (2000) explained that a teacher is studying when he examines the results of an experiment, a lawyer when he prepares his case, a salesman when he learns about his product and a citizen when he tries to understand the issues in an upcoming election. Studies require time spent in a deliberate attempt to learn. It should be differentiated from simple leisure to reading. Thomas and Robinson (1990) emphasized that the learner needs to use a systematic discipline and purposive approach to study. Effective study consists of a conscious sequential series of inter-related steps and processes. Okorodudu (1995) asserted that, study involves the total of all behavioral patterns (addition, verbal, psychomotor, emotional) determined purpose and enforced practices that the individual adapts in order to learn and achieve competence.

Book Report Angelas Ashes Essay -- essays research papers

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt A Look at Irish Culture during the Depression Era Frank Mc Court, the author of Angela’s Ashes, was born during the Great Depression. A few years after immigrating to the United States because their families believed they would find their fortune here, his Irish family moved back to Ireland in hopes of a better life. They were met with only more hardships in their native country. His book shows the struggle and small joys of daily life with siblings, school friends, and the adults in his life. It also provides much insight into the way the people in Ireland lived at that time. The author tells the story from the viewpoint of Frank, the oldest child of a father whose background in "the North" (having been involved with the IRA) causes continual suspicion. His mother, Angela, had never known her father and her own mother is very miserly and offers no help to the woman and her children. Through the course of telling about his own life and his family’s hard times, McCourt touches upon the fighting that went on between the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland and the toll this had on the Irish people. He also delved deeply into the issue of poverty among the Irish and the many ways they dealt with the hardship in their lives. Life in the Irish city of Limerick is so hard that starvation is a way of life for most of the residents "Consumption," pneumonia, and typhoid are rampant; children go to school barefoot or in pie...

Syria Conflict

Introduction The Syrian Arab Republic is an Arab country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the North, Iraq to the East, Jordan to the South, and Israel to the Southwest. In March 2011, the Syria conflict has begun due to various reasons and is still going on today. This outbreak is one of the key factors which resulted the Arab Spring (Arab Uprising). Arab Spring refers to the democratic uprisings that arose independently and spread across the Arab world in 2011.The protest originated in Tunisia in December 2010 and quickly took hold in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. In these countries, the citizens intiatied the protests as the ruling families have been keeping the power for too long (Arab Spring, 2012). In Syria, the conflict goes up to its peak as the revolution against the rule of Syria President Bashar Al-Assad’s (Mr Assad). According to the latest report of the Human Right Organization, mor e than 36,000 people were killed in this civil war (Khera, 2012).In this essay, the roots of the conflict will be traced and analysed using the International relation (IR) theories. Literature Review A literature review has been conducted to investigate the causes of the conflict by applying IR theories. The traditional core of IR relates to issues concerning the development and change of sovereign statehood, in the context of the larger system or society of state. In general, there are four (4) major theoretical traditions in IR and will be covered as part of the study scope: †¢Realism; †¢Liberalism; International Society; and †¢International Political Economy (IPE). Realism Several general realist ideas and assumptions were discussed (Jackson, 2010). These are related to different aspects such as pessimistic view of human nature; international conflicts that are ultimately resolved by war, high regard for the values of national security and state survival and basic scepticism that there can be progress in international politics that is comparable to that in domestic political life. In summary, with realist, states are the most important factor.All states tend to pursue self-interested and their primary concern is survival (Wikipedia). Liberalism The other theory is Liberalism, which started by John Locke in the seventeenth (17th) century. He believed that as the development of technologies and people can master the nature, there are great potential that people could flourish in states that guaranteed individual liberty. Liberals, differ from realist, take a positive view of human nature. And for them, conflict and war are avoidable.According to John Locke, the core concern of Liberalism is the happiness and contentment of individual human beings. A country is in a state of liberalism when a citizen within that country can live their lives and pursue their happiness without other people interference. (Jackson, 2010) There is a major debate betw een idealist Liberalism and pessimist Realism. A main point in this debate is concerned about â€Å"human nature†, as Liberalism takes a positive view of human nature while Realism holds a negative view. (Jackson, 2010) (Arab Spring, 21) International SocietyUnlike Realism and Liberalism International Society is one of classical IR approach which tries to avoid the stark choice between state egotism and conflict and human goodwill and cooperation. Instead of adopting the classical Realist pessimistic view or classical Liberalism optimistic view, it occupies a position between those two and develops that into a separate IR approach. (Jackson, 2010) International Political Economy International Political Economy (IPE) is the debate where they claimed that there is a link between politics and economics as well as the nature and extent of economic globalization.IPE is ultimately concerned with the ways in which political forces (states, institutions, individual actors, etc. ) sha pe the systems through which economic interactions are expressed, and conversely the effect that economic interactions (including the power of collective markets and individuals acting both within and outside them) have upon political structures and outcomes. (Jackson, 2010) Syrian Confliction review The first protest erupted on March 2011 in Deraa after the arrest and torture of some teenagers who were painted with revolutionary slogans on a school wall.In order to manage the uncontrollable chaotic situation, minimum military forces were suitably in place to minimise the protest through the use of checkpoint road blocks. As the protest continued and spread widely over the country the citizens demanded for the President Bashar Al-Assad’s resignation. By July 2011 hundreds of thousand people taking to streets, town and cities across the countries such as Alepo, Hama, Homs and Deraa (BBC, 2012). As the act of protest has become uncontrollable, the government applied the militar y forces to crush the dissent and sending tanks to Deraa in late March 2011.Rockets and mortars were also used to hit the rebel stronghold (See Appendix 1. 1 – Homs Feb 2012). After a month of bombardment, the rebels retreated with an estimate of more than 700 people were killed. People within the country have to flee to neighboring countries such as Turkey up to several months. According to the statistics recorded by the United Nations refugee agency, there are more than 200,000 Syrians who have registered with the agency fled to Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey. There was also an unofficial estimate of the refugees which puts the number much higher and those figures are expected to rise.The Government in Jordan as well as other countries permitted the stay of Syrians within the countries, provided with minimum necessities and protection such as food and security guards. All the refugees were instructed to assemble in one common area, allowing the government to take care and control the crowds easily. In this Syria crisis, number of bomb blasts took place in different cities. Many people were killed in the civil war due to the bomb strikes. Apart from causing deaths most of the facilities in the cities were destroyed.The war has deniably resulted various negative implications to Syria in terms of people, environment and asset. The Syrian government has put the blame of these activities to the terrorists which linked to the al-Qeada as well as a shadowy group called al-Nusa Front. The al-Nusa Front has said to be one who controlled and manipulated all the attacks and bombing activities. Based on the latest figures provided by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the number of deaths reported has been increased to 21067 and 5980 people were killed due to the security forces.Therefore the United Nations has charged the Syrian government and security forces for the violation of international humanitarian law. A peace plan was sugge sted and conducted by the UN envoy, Kofi Annan and the negotiation mission started in April 2012. However as violence escalated, Mr. Annan resigned and withrew from the country. At the same time Mr. Assad still shows no sign of leaving his power and there seems to be no end to the crisis. Trace down the root of the problem. As mentioned in the previous sections, the outbreak of the civil war has brought many negative implications to the country.There appears to have no solution for the civil war. Thus various researches were conducted to investigate and analyse the causes of the problem. In most recent research, Manfreda has pointed critical points which has led to the Syrian uprising (Manfreda, 2012): †¢Political Repression; †¢Unstable Economy; †¢Media influence; and †¢Fear of state power. The political repression is one of the main reasons which causes the outbreak of Syrian war. Since 1950s, there was not any peaceful transfer of power, as the change appears t o happen through a military coup or an uprising (Manfreda, 2012).For instance as soon as the President Bashar al-Assad has inherited the power in 2000, he quickly rushed into the process of reformation while the power remains concentrated in the ruling family. Besides political repression, the unstability of economy in Syria is believed to be one of the causes which led to the uprising. The economy in Syria has become unsustainable due to the quick expansion of the population. At present the population in Syria is estimated to be 20 million, with an average growth rate of 2. 4 percents. Based on the statistical review this figure stays among one of the world’s highest growth rate.A Syrian economist, Nail Sukkar has agreed that Syria is currently having a problem with the oversizing of population. It is difficult for the government to sustain the citizens by providing sufficient welfares and healthcares. The unemployment rate has increased because the government is not able to create sufficient job opportunities to the people. An official figure was reported by the governmnet stating that the unemployment rate is estimated to be 10 percents. However with the combination of other independent estimates the rate of unemployment is believed to be approximately 25 percents.In addition, the natural disaster such as persistent drought struck north-eastern of Syria. This has caused a severe devastation to the farming communities and affected more than a million of people since 2008. Due to the negligence of the government, thousands of farmer families were suffered from poverty. These people from the farming communities have vented their angers and frustrations through participation of the protest activities. Furthermore due to the cautious reform of the remnants of socialism, it opened the door to private investment which in turn triggered an explosion of consumerism among the urban upper-middle classes.However, privatization has favored families with personal links to Assad, which made the jobs remained scarce for people within the country (Manfreda, 2012). Apart from that the awareness was raised by different means of media. The advancement in technology has exposed the people to the world issues throguh various approaches for instance internet. Previously the government tried to refrain the youths from exposing to more information by limiting the means of media. However the attempt was failed since the state media is no longer the main channel to the citizens.The use of the new media is critical to the activist networks that underpin the uprising in Syria (Manfreda, 2012). Although the fear of state of the citizens has existed for a very long time since the ruling of Assad family, the brutal responses to the people in the peaceful protest in Spring 2011 has outraged the people. As a result of the snowball effect, more citizens joined the protest. Additionally, many Syrians resent the fact that so much power is monopolised by the Alawi families, a Shiite religious minority to which the Assad family belong.Although this is not considered as the driving force of the uprising in Syria, the combination of a majority Sunni pretest movement and an Alawi-dominated military has added to the tension in religiously mixed areas, such as city of Homs (Manfreda, 2012). Analysis the problem using IR theoretical. The causes led to the outbreak of the Syrian war were discussed in the former section. In this section the problems will be analysed using the IR theory. Irrefutably, the brutal and aggressive way of ruling in Syria by Assad family triggered the anger of the people in the country.The Realism theory can be accounted for the approach adopted by the Assad family in ruling the country. As stated in the Realism theory, as a human character, people always desire to be in driver’s seat. Thucydides (1972:406) also stated that the standard of justice depends on the equality to compel and that in act the strong do what the y have to power to do and the weak accept what they have to accept Also, Machiavelli (1984:66) indicated the main responsibility of the ruler is always to seek the advantages and to defend the interests of their state and thus ensure the survival.In this , President Bashar Al-Assad’s ways of ruling the country is understandable, as he wants to lead the country to the new path of development, which can secure the country state and position amongst the Arab countries (Robert, 2010). However, these action moves created a massive conflict between the citizens and Assad family as the security of the citizens is being abused. This has directly caused he citizens losing their senses of security with the ruling family and consequently the rebellion arose.According to Thomas Hobbes , he believes that Sovereign states are the principal factor in international system. States are inherently always obsessed with security which might lead to â€Å"security dilemima† whereby increasi ng one’s security power can bring along even greater instability as an opposing power builds up its own arms in response. Since ruling Syria, the Assad family had built up a very strong security power through various means such as developing the massive destruction weapons.This has indeed intimidated the safety of the neighbouring Arab countie and it is now understandable why certain countries such as Turkey and Isarel supported the rebel by providing armors and weapons for the people to go against the government. At the same time, Mr. Assad was assisted by Russia with the supply of weapons to continue fighting in the war. Therefore the situation has gone worse due to the supports from other countries in the war. With Liberalism theory, liberals believe that monopoly in power must be avoided.With the Republican liberalism theory, it is believed that democary states do not go against each other as they share the same moral values, and to their mutually benifical tie of economi c cooperation and interdependence. However, for the Arab countries in general and Syria in specific, the monarchy system has been adopted by these countries over the centuries. Based on the findings in the previous section, it was identified that there is no peaceful power transfer in Syria since 1970. The prolonged imbalanced situation has resulted in the rise of the awareness among the citizens.Besides the issues of wealth and porverty mentioned by IPE are critical in the world of politic. Violent conflicts nowadays can even take place inside the states due to the unstable economy, especially the weak states where the conflict can be bonded up with the development and underdevelopment. Since 1970, the Assad family has been tightly manipulated the economy. All the privileges of ecocomy went to the family and thus creating an imbalanced condition between the ruler and citizens. In addition, due to the overgrowth of population, there were no adequate job opportunities provided by the government to the citizens.As a result the unemployment rate has increased causing the people to suffer from poverty. Conclusion In a nutshell, the revolution in Syria is inevitable due to the number of reasons such as the adoption of monarchy system and unstability of economy. It is believed that the only way to terminate the civil war is through the assistance of external forces to suppress the furious citizens and introduce a fair and transparent political process for the selection of new ruler in the country for instance through the adoptation of democracy system.Bibliography Wikipedia. (n. d. ). Realism (international relations). Retrieved 11 17, 2012, from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Realism_(international_relations) Arab Spring. (2012, 09 21). Retrieved 11 20, 2012, from Sourcewatch: http://www. sourcewatch. org/index. php? title=Arab_Spring BBC. (2012, 08 30). Syria: The story of the conflict. Retrieved 11 04, 2012, from BBC news: http://www. bbc. co. uk/news/world-middl e-east-19331551 Jackson, R. (2010). Introduction to International relations Throries and approaches.Oxford University Press. Khera, J. (2012, 05 29). Syria crisis: Counting the victims. Retrieved 11 04, 2012, from BBC News: http://www. bbc. co. uk/news/world-middle-east-18093967 Manfreda, P. (2012). Syrian Uprising : Top ten reasons for the uprising in Syria. Retrieved 11 5, 2012, from middleeast. about. com: http://middleeast. about. com/od/syria/tp/Syrian-Uprising. htm Robert, G. (2010). Realism. In Introduction to International Relations (pp. 59-94). Oxfords: Oxfords Univerity Press.

World War I And Its Effects On America - 1703 Words

At the time the U.S. entered into World War, it had already been raging for some time. Between the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand during the tension between Austria-Hungary and Russia for the sake of dominance, the increasing competition from Japan for Chinese trade, and the increasingly offensive tactics of Germany concerning the U.S., the American population began to contemplate whether or not America should get involved, a topic that is still debated to this day. World War I and its effects were perceived as both good and bad by different people before, during, and after the war, interventionists saying it would be beneficial for patriotic and social aspects of America, and isolationists saying it would be harmful due to a†¦show more content†¦Another event that bolsters the fact that Americans strongly believed in the power and necessity of democracy during this time was the Red Scare. This was a short period in which, due to the popping up of communist ideals in European countries, Americans feared and defended against the infiltration of communism into the United States, seeking to maintain democracy. The combination of these beliefs and events show that America was heavily invested in its democratic ideals and wanted to spread them, encouraging them to enter the war for this cause. Another reason why Americans wanted to enter the war was due to the fact that Germany was becoming increasingly aggressive toward the U.S. The sinking of the Lusitania and the interception of the Zimmermann Telegram, a communication between Germany and Mexico where Germany asked Mexico to attack the U.S. to distract them in exchange for land, both played a part in rallying support for entrance into the war. This pro-war sentiment was also expressed after the war, as is clearly evidenced by the support for the Treaty of Versailles, which included the rejected proposal for the League of Nations, among some people. Some people, such as Herbert Hoover, argue th at the League of Nations is crucial to the economic recovery of Europe from the war and should be ratified for that reason (Doc 3). He sent this in a letter to Woodrow Wilson - a strong advocate for the League of Nations and the man who