Collection of Film Review Examples

Collection of Film Review Examples Shane Meadows is known to make movies about his own experiences. This is England is no exception. The idea for the movie came from the director s childhood, and it is the most personal film Shane Meadows has made so far, as he said himself. In an interview at the British Film Institutes Southbank theatre in April, Meadows talked about his upbringing. Yeah, every moment of joy in my life usually stunk of sadness. Every time I was just about to get somewhere someone stuck a dart up my arse. Thats how I remember growing up in Uttoxeter. When things were at their shittest, people seemed to be at their best and when things were at their best, people seemed to be at their worst The film starts with a sequence of clips, introducing the viewer to England in 1983. When watching the intro, I got the feeling I am about to see some kind of documentary, due to the footage being shown. The mise en scene is outstanding in this piece C to be perfectly honest, I was silly enough to believe it was actually shot in 1983 in the beginning, which makes me extremely embarrassed. The careful casting, costumes, sets and props makes it hard to believe the film was actually shot in 2006, which makes the story much more believable and easier to get into. The piece is put together extremely well and the soundtrack comprises of the hits from the eighties, which sets the mood perfectly. The main character is alone in the beginning C he doesnt really have friends, he is being bullied at school, he gets in a fight with a boy, who makes fun of his dead father. Although the movie talks about some really serious issues like gang culture and racism, lack of jobs and immigration, it still manages to make you smile, like the bit when Shaun comes back home to his mother and complains about his trousers. This way not only are you amused and it takes off the depressing mood in the movie, but it also feels more real, less movie-like. The movie is a typical coming-of-age sort of piece, where the main protagonist changes and matures as the story unfolds. His story basically starts when he crosses paths with skinheads and discovers belonging to a group makes things easier. They go out hunting together, and this comes from a real story of the director s childhood. The group he joins is relatively harmless C compared to what lies ahead. The good days don t last long C soon enough, Combo comes back from prison and steps up as the leader of the group. There is a feeling of tension building and although we see Shaun developing attachment to Combo, who is now like the father figure the boy never had, there is a strong feeling something will go seriously wrong. Soon everything goes from a group of youngsters, fooling around, to Shaun attending a National Front meeting. For me, a person, who isn t too political, this movie is also educating C seeing what life and politics were like in 1983. In the movie we see Shaun becoming a man in a very short period of time. A very important scene in This is England is when Shaun gets his cross tattoo. The director, Shane Meadows, has the exact same tattoo on the same finger. This marks Shaun, as a worthy member of the Skinheads, who agrees to stay in the group for the rest of his life. Although Shaun is now Combos protegee   and receives his undivided attention, we see that his relationship is starting to become dangerous and Combo is a bad influence on the young boy. Silly hunting games that Shaun used to play with the previous skinhead group turn into real acts of violence in Combo s. It must be noted that the performance by Stephen Graham, who plays Combo, is simply astonishing C when the group robs the shop, the intimidation and hatred he created were so real and believable, for one moment there I got into the action so much, I was scared for the shop owner s life, only to realize it s just an actor. In my opinion, Combo is just as important as Shaun, because the complexity of Combo s character is what drives the story. One second he is talking to Milky with respect and treating him like a brother, the other, he bursts out and beats him to death, which shows Shaun the real face of his beloved idol, when the latter unleashes his fury even upon his close friends. The piece ends with a reference to 400 blows , which is another coming-of-age film. The main character Shaun runs to the sea, which is considered to be a symbol of freedom and throws the England flag into the water, freeing himself and making clear that he is not coming back to the group. The last shot, exactly like in 400 blows , is him, looking up at the camera, making a connection with a viewer. After all, this is exactly what Shane Meadows intended to do in the first place. Pierrot Le Fou by Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard always said that he doesn t really plan his movies too carefully, and he does not intentionally leave any secret messages in them. It is all up to the viewer, to make what he or she wants of it. After watching it I think Pierrot Le Fou is one of those films that you either hate or love and it is definitely not for everyone C the plot here can be confusing sometimes and the main characters hard to understand. Also, there are references to Vietnam War, which I didn t even notice and thought it was another random element of the main characters fooling around. The movie is about Ferdinand and Marianne, a complicated couple who decide to run away together. They find each other, two misfits, and realize they want to isolate themselves from the fake reality they live in. This is really well portrayed in the beginning of the movie. We see Ferdinand in a party, which looks a lot like a parody for TV commercials. The guests are talking about different products in such manner you would expect to find in a commercial. The effect of it all being fake and distant to Ferdinand is also strengthened with experimental lighting. I think one of the most brilliant scenes in the movie is at the same party, when Ferdinand meets a movie director and talks about cinema with him. This is obviously self-referential, but it was also brilliant to observe the misconnection between the two of them, because of the language barrier. The funny thing is, when Ferdinand asks the American director what is cinema, although the woman translates the sentence completely wrong, asking about his movie, not cinema in general, his answer, in my opinion, is exactly right. It is a battleground. It is love. Hate. Action. Violence and death. One word C emotions. This conversation, that might not leave a big impression on the others, left me in awe of the script-writing for Pierrot Le Fou . Another thing that I realized is the lighting changing, when he moves on from the TV-ad conversation to the American director. It goes from red, which is usually considered a colour of danger, alarm, awareness to green, which is soothing, nature-like. It is another way of the director showing that Ferdinand is very interested and comfortable talking about the arts. The colour scheme in Pierrot le Fou is very important; I would say that at some points the colours even tell the story better than the action. I noticed two leading colours, which represent the main characters C red and blue. Blue is Ferdinand s colour C he is often shot next to the blue sky, or the sea, he drives a blue car and even paints his face blue, before committing suicide. I think the blue also represents his character, quite calm, relaxed, and even cold sometimes. Red, on the other hand, is the complete opposite and it is the colour of Marianne C she drives a red car, wears red clothes, and is simply a vivid, energetic character. Another important colour in the film is yellow, which is represents jealousy and betrayal. Toward the end of the movie, we see the exchange of the colours C Ferdinand s head, wrapped in a red scarf, when being tortured; symbolizing the fact that it s all happening because of his relationship with Marianne. Also, the couple exchanging cars and Ferdinand starting to wear a bright red shirt. When Ferdinand and Marianne separate, after Marianne taking the briefcase with her, we notice yellow flowers in the background. When Ferdinand approaches the dock, where Marianne is leaving on a boat, with her new lover, on his way there, red and yellow are dominating in the background. Ferdinand reaches the dock, where a single yellow barrel is standing, as he watches the woman he loves running away with another man. The next shot of him is approaching a man sitting the ground, singing. We now see yellow taking over, as it is seen, as Ferdinand walks with his head down. When he is on the boat, in the front there is a big yellow box, as if it was telling us that jealousy is driving him to the island. Ferdinand is walking through a field and singing Do you love me at the same time as he passes yellow flowers. The yellow starts to dominate again, as he approaches and shoots Marianne. The climax of this is Ferdinand s suicide, when he is wearing the red shirt, painting his face blue, and wrapping himself with red and yellow dynamite, which represents Marianne s betrayal. Pierrot Le Fou is definitely now one of my favourite films of all time, and has so many different sides to it, that to decode the whole piece would take me an eternity, but I guess that is one of the reasons why I fell in love with it. Meshes of the Afternoon by Maya Deren Although I am not a big fan of surrealism, Maya Deren s film had much more meaning to me, than Dali s and Bunuel s work. Meshes of the Afternoon , in my opinion, was less random, more carefully set and the symbols carefully picked to convey a message. It s a movie about a woman s state of mind, her dream world and her reality mixing together in the end. This film, just like many surrealism films, is an experience C you cannot watch it like you would watch a drama or a comedy. You could call it brain exercise, if you wish. Throughout the film there are a lot of symbols and the randomness at first might seem pointless, but the production is made really carefully. The film starts with a flower, put in the middle of the road by a long female hand. We instantly realize this is not going to be an ordinary movie C both time and space are distorted C the hand comes from nowhere, and suddenly disappears. The flower, of course, symbolizes beauty, love and femininity. Soon after this we see a woman picking up the flower, which indicates it is a piece about her and her place, as a woman. The fact we do not see the main character s face, creates tension and curiosity about her intentions. As she tries to open the door, she loses the key and it falls all the way down the stairs. To me the key probably symbolizes answers, freedom and solutions. She enters the house and sees things scattered all over the place C newspapers, a knife and a telephone. Once again, I can only interpret it in my own way C a knife is an obvious danger, also a possible symbol of a phallus. A telephone is probably a representation of the main character s connection, in this case C with herself. When she goes upstairs, she sees a window open, which also can be interpreted as a symbol of freedom and escape. She notices a record player working, but not making any noise. I cannot really explain why, but to me the record player symbolizes her own life C it is playing, but there is no music, no purpose, so she turns it off. Maya Deren keeps jumping from one place to another C just like it would be in a dream. As we see the world through her eyes, she turns her head and finds herself in a whole different room. This is all done to disrupt any feeling of order and continuity. When she falls asleep, in her dreams, we see the cloaked figure for the first time. After seeing the whole movie I can only interpret it as the symbol of death, the Grim Reaper. This creature has a mirror for a face and it makes me wonder whether the main character is following it, because she is desperate to look at the mirror and see her true self. The cloaked figure is moving really slowly and the main character is running, but she cannot get even close to catching up with it. This represents her conflicted persona and the difficult state her mind is in. When she comes back to the house once again, the knife is now on the stairway, in her way, indicating that it is unavoidable that she uses it. After this we have a sequence of shots, which adds to the feeling of a dream C slow motion of her footsteps, tilted camera angles as she climbs up the stairs. Once again, the feeling of continuity is disrupted, as she enters the room through the window. The main character discovers the telephone and the knife on the bed, which creates a feeling of unavoidable danger. She goes back to the window and it seems like there is no gravity, a quite common dream that probably most of us have. The main character now looks down and sees herself sleeping in the armchair, with the record player by her side and turns it off again. The circle begins again, as she approaches the window and sees herself running. This creates a feeling of her being trapped in a vicious circle, with no chance to change it. She then opens her mouth and takes out the key, which to me symbolizes coming up with a solution to her suffering. The cloaked figure is now in the house and we get the feeling that death is coming for the main character. When the cloaked figure disappears, the main character finds the knife again, but this time she doesn t look scared at all C she looks like is now at peace with the fact she is about to die. The key appears in her mouth again and transforms into a knife, which clearly symbolizes that death in the answer. The three representations of the main character now gather around a table and play a bizarre surrealistic game, where they find out who will have to be the killer. The chosen one is now wearing strange glasses, which to me feels like a symbol of her, not seeing clearly. I found it quite fascinating, when the killer walks towards the sleeping woman and the surroundings change with each step C it starts out with a beach, then she steps on grass, then sidewalk and then finally C onto the carpet in the house. This, I think, represents the journey you have to make, when deciding to kill yourself. It is probably the hardest thing you could ever do and the steps represent exactly that. As the main character wakes up, the killer in the dream turns into her lover in reality, but we see the symbols from the dream around the room and the two start to mix together. The main character s lover is acting exactly like the cloaked figure and we realize the main character is blaming all her problems on him. As she breaks the mirror that appears to be her lover s face, we see the sea behind it, which is widely interpreted as a symbol of freedom. When her lover enters the house, we see the main character covered in mirror shards, dead. The mirror represents finally breaking free. All about my mother by Pedro Almodovar To Bette Davis, Gena Rowlands, Romy Schneider to all actresses who have played actresses, to all women who act, to all men who act and become women, to all the people who want to be mothers. To my mother. Dedication, All About My Mother, 1999 Pedro Almodovar is one of the most successful and well known Spanish directors of all time. He is famous for his movies, where he tries to explore the nature of being a woman. His movies, although quite complicated, almost always have a big international success and are being shown in cinemas all over the world. You could say this one is a chick-flick for the more intellectual woman. All about my mother is another film about women suffering, with many characters and different stories, intertwining and showing different sides of womanhood. It is also worth mentioning that almost all the cast is female in this piece. This particular film declares that to be a woman you do not have to be born one, so we get characters like Lola and Agrado, who are transvestites. Almodovar always liked complicated stories and although he tries to make it as real as possible, the lives of the characters sometimes seem so dark, it made me question whether there is actually too much drama involved. The film begins with mother and a son, Esteban and Manuela. I got the impression in the beginning that the story will revolve around Esteban, his wish to become a writer and the story he began to write about his mother. This illusion was soon shattered, when Esteban died after being hit by a car. The shot of him, lying on the ground for me was probably the most impressive shot in the film C the camera takes Esteban s POV and spins around, before falling to the ground. We see his mother approaching Esteban is slow motion, her coat red, the colour of blood and taking the camera, Esteban s head, into her palms. As she screams and lets go, the camera slowly moves back to the ground. This way of showing the tragedy that happened adds to the drama so much more than a normal two-shot ever would. Manuela, who works as a transplant coordinator, is the one who has to give the consent to donor her boy s heart this time. Searching for some kind of closure, she secretly follows the recipient after the operation. This crushes her completely and she decides to go to Barcelona, where she used to live with the boy s father, who is a mystery to the viewer so far. The focus from then on turns to the main character s relationships with other women she meets, her road to self-discovery and opening up once again. The different characters is what makes this movie interesting to watch. Although for the most part, it focuses on Manuela, we get a good glimpse at the lives of other women that surround her. This film, although so complicated and melodramatic, resembles real life as well C it makes us cry and laugh with the women who are in it. Manuela, who loses her son, discovers she can deal with her grief helping others C she becomes a personal assistant to actress Huma, who is going through an emotional crisis, rescues Agrado from an enraged client and helps pregnant nun Rosa through her pregnancy. Film references are very important in this piece as well C it begins with the mother and son watching All about Eve , which resembles the film s name and gives Esteban the idea how to call his work. Another significant film that is constantly brought up is A streetcar named desire . The main character, Manuela once played Stella in a drama group, when she was younger and this piece holds a special meaning to her, since she also met Esteban s father there, who played Kowalski. After so many years, due to the original actress not being able to perform, Manuela has to play Stella s part once again. This, for me, is a key point in the story, when the main character lets go and releases her pain. I found it interesting, because by acting, and pretending to be somebody else, she could finally be herself and cry out loud. The colour scheme in the movie is quite controversial and has been criticized numerous times for overshadowing the actual story. Just like in Pierrot Le Fou we see red, blue and yellow dominating, but the two movies are so different, it makes you wonder whether the colour scheme is appropriate in All about my mother . In my opinion, the colours are completely suitable and well thought out, because in a way they represent the colourful life and characters of the women in the film and by losing the colours the film would lose a bit of it s soul as well. Overall, I enjoyed watching All about my mother C Pedro Almodovar is one of the directors who really tries to understand women and what it s like to be one. I found the film really emotional and touching, Almodovar knows how to create a bond between a character and a viewer, so you end up really involved with the story and the destinies that these women have as well as getting to know individuals like Agrado and Lola who to some viewers might be a mystery and really hard to understand. The 400 Blows by Francois Truffaut The 400 Blows is a very important film, which started the French New Wave. It introduced another level of cinematic experience through cinematography, acting and much more naturalistic look and feel to the movie, which, for today s viewer, might be really hard to imagine. The camera in The 400 Blows moves around much more freely and more smoothly, and besides recording, starts to tell the story with it s movement as well. Different angles and camera positions are introduced. Antoine Doinel seems like an ordinary boy, who seems to get in trouble wherever he goes, his teacher constantly punishes him for the slightest mischief, his mother disregards him as simply being a waste of space and the beginning of his teenage years is proving to be a real hassle for young Antoine. He soon finds out his mother is having an affair, but we can see the boy is not bothered at all C he is much more concerned whether he ll get in trouble for skipping school. Later that day when his father comes back home and announces that the mother won t be joining them for dinner, it seems that Antoine is hoping that she will never come back, when he asks the father if she has left for good. This establishes the fact that the relationship between Antoine and his mother is less than perfect. For myself, it was hard to watch how the adults treat Antoine; it seems there is nobody at all, when it comes to adults, who understand him. He sleeps on his tiny bed, lonely, disposable, like the trash he has to take out every night. Although Antoine is disregarded as hopeless and simply ungifted he, as many children of his age, is simply starting to question the system and the fact he does not perform well in class certainly does not mean he is not capable. This film serves parents who find it hard to understand their children, because we get a glimpse of how hard it sometimes is to be a teenager C parents seem to forget it. It is much like a documentary in a sense that we observe Antoine, an ordinary boy and his transformation to a young man, as well as the work of camera being hand-held. For a short time in the movie, seems like the family has come back together and Antoine does not feel isolated anymore, but after failing yet another paper in class, he runs away once again and stays with his friend. I think one of the most important scenes in the film, since it represents French New Wave, is the scene where small children are watching Little Red Riding Hood . Their expressions, reactions to the play are so genuine and lack that over the top acting, that the viewers who sat in the cinema theatre, watching the movie in 1959 should have been fascinated. And they were, since the cinema was never the same again. The main actor s Jean-Pierre Leaud s performance in the scene where Antoine is being questioned by the psychologist once again brings me back to think of this film as a documentary C the acting is extremely believable and it is hard to tell yourself that it is a character, not a real person in front of you. The most famous scene of the film, of course, is the scene where Antoine runs away from the Juvenile Detention Centre. There are two extremely long tracking shots, that break the conventions of cinema and stay with the subject for much longer than usual, but this is exactly what fascinates the viewer. His run symbolizes his long and constant search for freedom, and his desperate wish to be acknowledged. His last look at the camera to me looked like he was thinking And what do I do now..? This last shot has been widely interpreted, but to me it feels like he has reached the sea, but he cannot escape from himself. When watching this film, I thought about how lucky I was to have a childhood, and that many kids grow up all too soon. My mother used to say that you can tell if a person was loved, when they were little. This all applies to Antoine C he grows up too soon, due to the time he lives in, his parents not caring enough, the educating system failing to acknowledge his efforts to study and him wanting to be noticed, even if it s for misbehaving. Even to this day, The 400 Blows is a remarkable film, which has and still is influencing many directors.

Vygotsky’s Views On Cognitive Development Complements Piaget’s

Methods and approaches to teaching have been greatly influenced by the research of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Both have contributed to the field of education by offering explanations for children's cognitive learning styles and abilities. This essay will discuss how rather than being an alternative, Vygotsky’s views on cognitive development complements Piaget’s. Initially, the term cognitive will be defined before having a look at Piaget’s stages of cognitive development and subsequently analyzing how Vygotsky’s views complement Piaget’s.Flanagan (1996:72) states that, ‘Cognitive development is the acquisition of mental process involved in thinking and mental activity, such as attention, memory and problem solving. ’ It is therefore a totality of mental processes. Piaget and Vygotsky were both influential in forming a more scientific approach to analyzing the cognitive development process of the child active construction of knowledge . While Piaget and Vygotsky may differ on how they view cognitive development in children, both offer educators good suggestions on how to teach certain material in a developmentally appropriate manner.Both Piaget and Vygotsky agreed that children's cognitive development took place in stages. (Jarvis, Chandler 2001 P. 149). However they were distinguished by different styles of thinking. Piaget was the first to reveal that children reason and think differently at different periods in their lives. He believed that all children progress through four different and very distinct stages of cognitive development. This theory is known as Piaget’s Stage Theory because it deals with four stages of development, which are sensori-motor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational (Ginsburg, Opper,1979:26).In the first stage sensori-motor, which occurs from birth to the age of two is the time in an infant’s life when the child basically deals with what is presented to him. They learn about physical objects and are concerned with motor skills and the consequences of some of their actions (Thomson and Meggit, 1997:107). During this stage children will learn the concept of object permanence. This is where an object will continue to exist even if it is out of sight. (Ginsburg, Opper 1979 P. 48) For instance if the toy fell off the bed, the child will begin to look for it because he understands it continues to exist.The preoperational stage last from two to seven years. In this stage it becomes possible to carry on a conversation with a child and they also learn to count and use the concept of numbers. This stage is divided into the preoperational phase and the intuitive phase. Children in the preoperational phase are preoccupied with verbal skills and try to make sense of the world but have a much less sophisticated mode of thought than adults. In the intuitive phase the child moves away from drawing conclusions based upon concrete experiences wi th objects.One problem, which identifies children in this stage, is the inability to cognitively conserve relevant spatial information. This is when, when a material is manipulated and no longer matches the cognitive image that a child has made, that child believes the amount of material has been altered instead of just its shape. (Jarvis and Chandler,2001:135) During the Concrete Operational stage from ages seven to ten, children of this age are in school and they begin to deal with abstract concepts such as numbers, relationships and how to reason.They can now group certain things into categories, and put objects into size order, number order, and any other types of systematic ordering. There is a form of logical reasoning and thinking. Using logic, the child is capable of reversibility and conservation, which is the understanding of that mental operations and physical operations, can be reversed. They are now beginning to understand other people’s perspectives and views an d are capable of concentrating on more than one thing at a time.In this stage a person can do mental operations but only with real concrete objects, events or situations (Jarvis and Chandler, 2001:139). Finally, in the formal operational stage, age twelve to fifteen, the child has become more adult-like in their thought structures and processes. They begin to reason logically, systematically and hypothetically. (Jarvis, Chandler 2001 P. 139). In other words, they can imagine things that do not exist or that they have never experienced.This stage is generally like the preceding stage but at a more advanced level. The formal operational person is capable of meta-cognition, that is, thinking about thinking. Piaget also theorized on Adaptation, and Development. The adaptation theory (also known as the Constructivist theory) involved three fundamental processes, which contributed to the child’s cognitive development. These are assimilation, accommodation, and equilibrium. Assimila tion involved the incorporation of new events into pre-existing cognitive structures.Accommodation is the adjustment involved in the formation of new mental structures needed to accommodate new information. Equilibration involved the person striking a balance between him and the environment, between assimilation and accommodation. When a child experienced a new event, disequilibrium set in until he was able to assimilate and accommodate the new information and thus attain equilibrium. There were many different types of equilibrium between assimilation and accommodation, which varied with the levels of development and the problems, which needed to be solved.  (Thomson and Meggit 1997:105)This dual process, assimilation-accommodation, enabled the child to form schema, and with each stage there came new methods for organizing knowledge together with the acquisition of new schema. Schemas are â€Å" Form action plans which guide us in understanding what is going on around us† ( Hayes b. P. 15) These are similar to responses but imply more cognitive processes. A schema includes ideas, information, actions and plans. People can learn by adopting new schemes or combine smaller already present schemes to create new larger ones.  (Hayes a. 1999 P. 98)In contrast of Piaget, Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist and philosopher in the 1930’s, is most often associated with the social constructivist theory and came into three general claims; Culture – which is that higher mental functioning in the individual emerged out of social processes. Secondly Language – which human social and psychological processes are fundamentally shaped by cultural tools. Lastly the developmental method Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) which is the concept that the potential of the child is limited to a specific time span.  (Jarvis, Chandler 2001 P. 149-150).Vygotsky believed that it was adults and the Childs peers, which had the responsibility in sharing their grea ter collective knowledge with the younger generations. (Jarvis, Chandler 2001:149-150). This type of learning supports a discovery model of learning and places the teacher in an active role while the students’ mental abilities develop naturally through various paths of discovery. Vygotsky argued that through social activities children learnt cultural ‘tools’ and social inventions.These included language, rules, counting systems, writing, art, and music. Language for Vygotsky was a system of symbolic representation, which had been perfected over many previous generations and allowed the child to â€Å"abstract† the world. It provides the symbols for the child's equations concerning the world; Language came into three separate categories, which were Social, Egocentric, and Inner. For Vygotsky language was what made thinking even a possibility. Language is the difference between thinking on an elementary level and on a higher level.According to Vygotsky's the ory ‘ZPD’ had to do with a child’s current and potential abilities to do something (Flanagan 1999 P. 72). He believed that problem-solving tasks could be placed into three categories, which were as follows: (a) those performed independently by the student â€Å"independent performance† (b) those that could not be performed even with help; and (c) those that fall between the two, the tasks that can be performed with help from others â€Å"assisted performance† (Santrock, 1994).Vygotsky believed the concept of ‘ZPD’ recommended a better move towards to education and allowed a better understanding of the learning process. (Flanagan 1999 P. 73) Bruner built on Vygotsky's idea of the ZPD, by introducing what he described as scaffolding. Scaffolding is the help, which is given to a child that supports the child's learning. Scaffolding is similar to scaffolding around a building; it can be taken away after the need for it has ended. When a chi ld is shown how to do something he can now accomplish this task on its own.  (Jarvis and Chandler 2001 P. 154).Vygotsky believed that the history of the child and the history of the child’s culture needed to be understood because it overrides the cognitive schema process that Piaget described (Santrock, 1994). Piaget believed that the sequence of how children experience the stages was universal, but acknowledged the rate at which each child moved through these stages was flexible and relative upon factors such as maturity, social influences, and other factors.Because of the difference in the skills needed for each level, Piaget believed that children should not be forced into learning the knowledge of the next stage until the child was cognitively ready. (Flanagan 1999:105) However, Vygotsky believed that instruction came before development and that instruction lead the learner into ZPD. Piaget and Vygotsky had many contrasting views which included Piaget believing that cog nitive changes precede linguistic advances, unlike Vygotsky who proposed that language allowed the child a far greater freedom of thought and lead to further cognitive development.  (Flanagan 1999 P. 59)Piaget believed in the development of thinking and that language moved from individual too social (Ginsburg, Opper 1979 P. 84). However, Vygotsky believed that language moved from the social to the individual. (Jarvis and Chandler,2001:150). Vygotsky, like Piaget, believed the relationship between the individual and the social as being a necessary relational. However, Vygotsky believed that it was adults and the Childs peers, which had the responsibility in sharing their greater collective knowledge with the younger generations.He did not believe it was possible for a child to learn and to grow individually and the culture and the environment around the child played a big part in their Cognitive Development. (Flanagan 2001 P. 72). He also believed a child was unable to develop the way he or she had without learning from others in the environment in which they were raised. In contrast, Piaget maintained that children were naturally inquisitive about their own abilities and about their environment (Jarvis, Chandler 2001 P. 129) and that children advanced their knowledge because of biologically regulated cognitive changes.(Flanagan 2001 P. 57). Whereas, Piaget believed that a child was only possible of learning the processes in each stage at any time (Flanagan 1999 P. 60) and overlooked the role of the child's activity with relation to thought processes. For Piaget, children construct knowledge through their actions on the world. By contrast, Vygotsky’s stages, unlike Piaget’s, were that of a smooth and gradual process. That understanding is social in origin. For Vygotsky the cultural and social aspects took on a special importance which is much less symmetrical than Piagets theories.Vygotsky was critical of Piaget's assumption that developmental g rowth was independent of experience and based on a universal characteristic of stages. Vygotsky believed that characteristics did not cease at a certain point as Piaget did. When one thing was learned, it was used from then on. It did not stop just because a child entered another stage of development. Everything was progressive. Vygotsky also disagreed with Piaget's assumption that development could not be impeded or accelerated through instruction.  (Flanagan 1999 P. 57)Vygotsky believed that intellectual development was continually evolving without an end point and not completed in stages as Piaget theorized. Piaget’s stages only approach up to, and end with, approximately age fifteen. This theory does not seem to have any major factors after approximately age fifteen. Due to experiences Piaget had over the years he changed the way he thought and modified his techniques of research to include a greater emphasis of the role of the child's activity.Vygotsky although critica l of Piaget, realized the importance of the information that Piaget had gathered and in spite of his criticisms, Vygotsky built his educational theories on the strengths of Piaget's theories. After examining Piaget’s and Vygotsky's theories on how they complement each other cognitive development there is still more which we can continue to learn and build on with both Piaget’s and Vygotsky's ideas and theories, especially when applied in education construction. Piaget proposed many applicable educational strategies, such as discovery learning with an emphasis on activity and play.However, Vygotsky incorporated the importance of social interactions and a co-constructed knowledge base to the theory of cognitive development. In conclusion, a teacher's focus should be to provide assistance to students in need, and provide cultural tools as educational resources. Teachers should provide for group and peer learning, in order for students to support each other through the dis covery process. Especially in today's diverse classroom, the teacher needs to be sensitive to her student's cultural background and language, and be an active participant in his knowledge.

Persuasive Conflict Essay - 981 Words

Maya Angelou once said, â€Å"I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.† Like Maya Angelou, we must fight back against conflict with a war of words. When we are faced with adversity, we need to respond forcefully with nonviolent approaches and be confident when answering the call. Rather than be physically aggressive towards the opposing group, people need to remain united through their purpose to truly accomplish and solve the problem. The best way for people to respond to conflict is to react peacefully. Many characters try to solve conflicts by using violence. This form of retaliation does not solve the problem, but makes it worse and causes the people†¦show more content†¦While responding to conflicts, we need to remain hopeful that we will be victorious. According to a graph by the Washington Post, nonviolent campaigns had a 50% greater chance of succeedi ng when compared to violent protests. Likewise, when resolving conflict, there is a greater rate of success when using a peaceful method, rather than violence. When we are faced with an issue, we need to take a peaceful route when trying to solve it, because it is more likely that you would be victorious when being peaceful, instead of violent. Throughout history, it has been proven many times of war and conflict, that when violent actions are taken towards the opposing groups, the loss of life and emotional trauma lasts longer than the small victories. Thirteen.org states â€Å"conflict is inevitable among people, aggression or violence need not be. While people have learned to respond to conflict with aggression, they can just as well be taught to respond to constructive methods of problem solving and negotiation.† This is relevant because even though we know that we can’t avoid conflict when we do face a problem, we need to be peaceful and fight with words. We need to learn to respond to conflict peacefully. Throughout history, a repeating theme seems to be that when using heartless and violent methods, we solve our issues. This is not true. Violence causes many losses and grief towards the terrible situations, resulting in our nation being torn apart becauseShow MoreRelatedThis paper is about the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict and favors the side of Israel. Basically a persuasive essay and argues for Israel.2639 Words   |  11 PagesSince the establishment of Israel in 1948, there has been constant fighting between Israelis and Arabs. The Israelis have the right to live peacefully in Israel, but there is a conflict because the Palestinians feel that Israel is their land. During recent years the conflict in the Middle East had been exploded on to our television screens. Day after day images of violence and suffering have dominated the news. Scenes of heavily armed Israeli soldiers facing young Palestinian children hurling stonesRead MoreArgumentative (Persuasive) Essay Guidelines857 Word s   |  4 PagesWriting Handout E-5: Argumentative (Persuasive) Essay Guidelines Structuring a Argumentative (Persuasive) Essay A persuasive essay is simply a writer’s attempt to convince readers of the validity of a particular opinion on a controversial issue. The following steps should help you write a persuasive essay. 1. Carefully select a topic Choose a topic that interests you. An argument does not have to be a burning issue, but it must be a debatable topic. It can be anything you feel strongly aboutRead MoreJohn Aaronovitch s Voodoo Histories1242 Words   |  5 Pagestake away from the idea of conspiracy. Conspiracy can be such a conflict with how we perceive the world around us. From reading this article one can see that how we process the thought of a tragic event, we make our stories how we want them to end. 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On way is writing essays about certain discourse communities like the â€Å"Persuasive† essay, where I had to write about a discourse community I was part of and how it used writing. It was a challenging e ssay on the part where I had to explain and give examples since my discourse community was my criminal justice study group. It was hard to describe how writing took place and make it persuasive showing why writing is important to my discourse community.SecondRead MorePersuasion Theory is Using Messages to Influence Others1346 Words   |  5 Pagesand â€Å"value†, which refers to what people think is, true or false and right or wrong. When someone asks, Do you believe in ghosts? they are implying that it is a fact that ghosts exist and want to know if it is true for you too. Another important persuasive communication definition to be aware of is attitude. When a person says, What is your attitude toward gay marriage? they want to know if you are favorable or not to the recent policies around this particular issue. People can have attitudesRead MorePolitical Participation in Hong Kong703 Words   |  3 Pagesthe political campaign in order to draw the attention from general public in specific issues. As a member of this citizenship, I will participate in the political events in order to give some pressure to the government to listen our opinions. In my essay, there are three major parts. Firstly, I am going to explain the background information of political participations. Secondly, I will discuss the ways that the Hong Kong citizens express their complaints in political participations. At last, I will

Rhetorical Analysis Of Steve Jobs Speech - 848 Words

Throughout time, many inspirational speeches have been remembered, because of how they connect with the audience. Steve Job’s speech during the Stanford’s graduation was inspiring to many of the college graduates. Many people think in order to be successful a college degree is mandatory. Even if they do not like what they are doing. People should love what they do, and should not follow dogma. With his speech, Steve Job’s convinced the multicultural population at Stanford University to be prominent and to pursue their passion by relying on three personal stories in a balanced structure that enables pathos to be clearly developed. Steve Job’s presents his personal stories and a little bit of history as evidence. Even though, this was all†¦show more content†¦His inclusion of such an emotional background as a child born to a women out- of-wedlock, shows that even underprivileged students can achieve success. Jobs tells his audience in his speech how he got into the lows of life and how life was not all peaches and creme for him when he dropped out. His personal experiences helped him create and develop his individuality. He uses pathos to get his audience to understand that he barely had food or money, had no place to sleep and how he got only one good meal a week. It might have seemed strange to his audience, that he was sharing this stage of life with them. That is how he pulled his audience that even the most successful peoples could come from slums and become something just by living out their dream. Steve Jobs then develops an ethos with his audience explaining that he faced adversity in the form of sickness as well as other things. He comes out as a strong man who has overcome his challenges in life. â€Å" your time is limited so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.† Steve Jobs uses his death experience to tell his audience that life is too short. He uses pathos also as he is telling his audience to follow their hearts. He is stating the consequences of these graduate students that not living the best of their abilities after graduation, are much greater, than if they did it when following their real passion. BeingShow MoreRelatedRhetorical Analysis Of Steve Jobs Commencement Speech929 Words   |  4 PagesHarmon 1 A Rhetorical Analysis of Steve Jobs Commencement Speech for Stanford Universitys Graduating Class of 2005: Jobs titled his speech Youve got to find what you love. Steve Jobs is best known as an American entrepreneur, inventor and industrial designer. He was the cofounder, chairman and CEO of Apple Inc. and founder, CEO and chairman of Pixar Animation Studios. Jobs and cofounder of Apple Inc. Steve Wozniak are wildly recognized as pioneers of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970sRead MoreRhetorical Analysis Of Steve Jobs Speech1208 Words   |  5 Pagesperspective on whether to listen or not? Yes. This man, Steve Jobs, a college dropout, someone who didn’t even have enough for food stood before the students of Stanford College; graduating class of 2005. Words are just words if not spoken in a correct manner. What a person speaks with passion is what moves an audience. Throughout time, speeches have been remembered because of how they connected with their audiences:  "If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, likeRead MoreRhetorical Analysis Of Steve Jobs Speech735 Words   |  3 Pages Steve Jobs, a businessman in Silicon Valley, gave the Stanford Commencement Address in 2005. Rhetorical tools are used to persuade the audience. Ethos deals with the speakers credibility, Pathos appeals to emotion and Logos appeals to logic. Steve Jobs’ successfully used the rhetorical tools Ethos, Pathos, and Logos throughout his speech. Within Steve Jobs’ Commencement Address, the rhetorical tool Ethos is used. 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There is no denyingRead MoreSteve Jobs Commencement Speech Analysis1462 Words   |  6 PagesOn his commencement speech to Stanford students on June 12, 2005, Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple computers and PIXAR animations, used carefully crafted inspirational anecdotes and rhetorical devices like ethos and pathos to move his audience to explore, follow their dream and do what they love no matter the odds. Jobs’ gave his commencement address at Stanford students graduation ceremony in 2005, which had an audience size of about 23000. The audience is composed of immensely diverse groups of peopleRead MoreArt of Public Speaking5805 Words   |  24 Pagesall major aspects of speech preparation and presentation. Throughout The Art of Public Speaking I have followed David Hume’s advice that one â€Å"who would teach eloquence must do it chiefly by examples.† Whenever possible, I have tried to show the principles of public speaking in action in addition to describing them. Thus you will find in the book a large number of narratives and extracts from speeches--set off from the text in a contrasting typeface. 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Adams, California State Polytechnic University These examples work quite well. Their diversity, literacy, ethnic sensitivity, and relevancy should attract readers. Stanley Baronett. Jr., University