Effective Meeting Management in a Team Environment Essay

Effective Meeting Management in a Team Environment - Essay Example In the formal presentation to the team, as the manager, one would present the projected sales volume with corresponding pro-forma expenses that would generate a particular net income for the month. From the solicited feedback and figures of actual sales, the presentation would therefore cover projected versus actual financial status of the new product’s performance for the first three months. Audience Analysis Milestone 2. Audience Analysis The team members are assigned different target markets to represent nearly regions within the vicinity of the organization. They are therefore, geographically dispersed domestically. However, since some areas are specifically identified to be predominantly occupied by distinct racial and ethnic background, the approach of the team member should cater to cultural norms and preferences that would entice the target clients to purchase the new product. The team member identified to focus on customers with diverse cultural orientations must know other languages (particularly spoken by the potential customers) and other preferences that could influence the purchase decision. As such, team members require competencies and qualifications on cultural awareness and diversity consciousness to be more effective in determining customer demand and in evaluating the target markets, as required. Presentation Milestone 3. Informative Presentation (See Attached PowerPoint Presentation) Meeting Agenda Milestone 4. Create a meeting agenda The meeting agenda appears below: FOR : Team Members for the Newly Launched Product FROM : , Product Manager RE : Agenda for Performance Evaluation of Newly Launched Product DATE : July 15, 2012 The following is the agenda for the Performance Evaluation of Newly Launched Product meeting to be held on July 20, 2012 at 3:00 pm. Venue is in the Conference Room. 1. Meeting Presided by Product Manager and disclose purpose of the meeting 2. Presentation of Pro-Forma Financial Statements (projected sales and i ncome for the first three-months (April to June 2012) identified per respective area) 3. Team Members to Report on Actual Performance of Newly Launched Product a. Gregory Smith, Sales Representative to report on Aberdeen (District 13) b. Susan Rodgers, Sales Representative to report on Berkeley (District 9) c. Timothy Brown, Sales Representative to report on Cape May (District 1) d. Nicole Maine to report on Denville (District 25) e. Catherine Frost to report on Lakewood (District 30) 4. Report on Problems and Challenges identified New product did not conform to customers’ expectations Adverse reaction and response from competitors Lack of customer awareness on the new product Lack of supply on target areas 5. Suggestions to Address Weaknesses and Problems Intensify advertisements and promotional campaign Conduct customer satisfaction survey Improve logistics Improve product features Change strategies in the marketing mix 6. Planning of New Strategies Time frame for planning: Week after meeting Implementation: 2nd Week after meeting Monitoring of New Strategies: 4th to 6th months (July to Sept. 2012) Next Performance Evalu

Technical Education and Its Importance in Pakistan Essay Example for Free

Technical Education and Its Importance in Pakistan Essay ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Professor David Bergin for providing me with support and guidance throughout my research. Through my experiences working with him I learned a great deal about the research process and how to structure my writing and feel better prepared to move forward with research in the future. I would also like to thank my thesis committee members who provided me with a lot of feedback on how to improve my research topic and gave me ideas to build on in future research studies. A great amount of thanks goes to the schools sampled in this study. The director of the Area Career Center was very welcoming and open to my research topic allowing me to gain as much exposure to career and technical education and their students as I wanted. Without the ACC’s interest in my study this research would not have been possible. I also want to thank the local high school that allowed me access to a few students even though they had very demanding schedules. Gaining insight from Advanced Placement students creating an interesting element to my study that I have found very valuable. ducation at an Area Career Center in mid Missouri. Newer programs that combine career and technical education courses with traditional high school instruction can benefit students in allowing them to connect their academic training with real world careers and practical concepts. This study looks at students’ perceptions of CTE, the sources of influence they reported on their decisions to take or not take CTE courses in high school and the role cultural capital played in their views. Utilizing a qualitative method of data collection eight high school seniors enrolled in either CTE only classes, AP only classes or a combined CTE and AP course load were interviewed about their views of CTE at the local area career center. All of the students were white and there were four boys and four girls interviewed in the study. Results show that all students in the study associated CTE with some form of hands on education, with students enrolled in CTE courses reacting more favorably to CTE instruction and its connection to careers and occupations. The most significant influences on students’ decisions to take or not take CTE classes were their future academic or career goals and how CTE knowledge would or would not help them. Other reported influences include teachers, family members and personal experiences. Finally, the role of cultural capital in students’ views of CTE is explored reaching the conclusion that more data and analysis is needed to find more arguable claims. 1 CHAPTER 1: Introduction In this study, I interview high school students in order to understand their thoughts on career and technical education programs in high school. One reason why this is important is that according to a 2002 survey by the U. S. Chamber of Commerce Center to Workforce Preparation, nearly 75 percent of employers report difficulty when trying to hire qualified workers. Forty percent say that applicants are poorly skilled and 30 percent say that applicants have the wrong skills for available jobs (The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) www. acteonline. org). I believe this means that career and technical education can play a vital role in helping promote this environment and help students succeed through hands on education coupled with challenging high school curriculum. The current high school curriculum in the United States faces challenges with the No Child Left Behind legislation that mandates a standards-based education. This initiative makes career and technical education harder to promote in public schools because CTE courses are elective classes. It rests on the students to enroll themselves in courses that will provide them with the best preparation for post high school opportunities. In this study, I ask students about their attitudes toward CTE courses. Research on comprehensive education programs suggests combining more rigorous forms of education, such as advanced placement (AP) with CTE (Association for Career and Technical Education, 2006; Stern, D. , Dayton, C. , Paik, I. -W. , Weisberg, A. , Evans, J. , 1988). Because of this I include students who are taking AP courses in this study to gauge their responses to CTE. While government statistics show that most high school students 2 take at least one â€Å"vocational† course in their high school careers such as typing or home economics. (http://www. ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/cte/index. html), it seems unfortunate that high school students do not pursue a more advanced career and technical education if it is available to them alongside their academic coursework. Students who are interested in a more academic route with AP courses can balance their studies with career and technical coursework. While benefits of career and technical education can appear obvious to some, it is not difficult to understand the rejection of this alternative form of education when at least a college degree is becoming a requirement for the majority of jobs. Purpose and Research Questions Newer programs that combine career and technical education courses with traditional high school instruction can benefit students in allowing them to connect their academic training with real world careers and practical concepts. Research on career and technical education in the U. S. has a history of highlighting the faults of CTE education such as not delivering on its promises and in some cases being a one-way ticket to a working class life (Claus, 1990). These out-dated reports are representative of Career and Technical Education programs in the older sense and not the newer, academically and career focused model being utilized in many high schools today. There is little research on why students take their chosen classes in high school and how students connect their high school curriculum to their post high school decisions and careers. There is also little research on how social class might impact students’ views and use of career and technical education. In this study I addressed students views of current high 3 school career and technical education programs in an Area Career Center (ACC) in Missouri. Area career centers fall under the umbrella of CTE housing career focused coursework and training in a separate building from local high schools. I investigated how students’ reports of cultural capital seem to influence these views. I chose to conduct a qualitative study because qualitative research allows one to investigate the idiosyncratic meanings that people construct about their lived experience. I was able to pursue in-depth reasons that the students give for their decisions, and was able to use follow-up questions to elaborate on understandings. The present study will address the following research questions: Research Question 1: How do students who are enrolled in CTE or AP classes perceive CTE? Research Question 2: What sources of influence do they report experiencing regarding academic versus CTE coursework? Research Question 3: What role does cultural capital play in students’ views of CTE coursework and their decisions to take or not take CTE classes in high school? Limitations to the Study There were a few limitations to my method of recruiting students and the transferability of the findings. First, there are over 1100 students from the high school enrolled in CTE classes at the Area Career Center so eight participants is not a very representative sample of students. However, qualitative research methods required that I keep my participant pool small. Second, at the local high school, I did not have as much control over the students selected for participation as I did at the ACC. the site counselor who helped me in my 4 recruitment process may have introduced bias into the process. Third, all of the participants were white and there were more males than females in CTE classes and more females than males in AP/Advanced classes. Also, the three AP students in this study were all interested in theatre, an area of study not offered at the ACC so there was probably a general feeling of lack of interest in CTE because no courses were offered in their specific area of interest. Future qualitative studies would benefit from more diverse students from underrepresented populations. Also, because student recruitment took place in the spring, it was hard to recruit students, especially those enrolled in AP courses (either AP only or CTE/AP combined), because end of the year AP exams take place during the spring. Recruitment of students in the fall might create a wider participant pool. 5 CHAPTER 2: Literature Review History of Career and Technical Education Career and technical education began as vocational education in Europe in the 19th century in response to the increase in demand for skilled workers who were educated in industrialized professions. Other factors that influenced the birth of career and technical education include the interest traditional European elites had in their children receiving both an education as well as certification in skills. They wanted their children to gain access to positions in law and theology, and the middle class parents wanted their children to attain the necessary educational credentials to help them enter careers in the civil service or managerial positions (Benavot, 1983). In the U. S. , federal funding for career and technical education was initiated with the passing of the Smith-Hughes Act in 1917. Over the next 65 years and four modifications to the act in 1947, 1958, 1963 and 1968, career and technical education increased funding, expanded programs to improve in the areas of science, math, and foreign languages, offered support for technical occupations related to national defense, and included work study programs. In 1968, a National Advisory Council on Vocational Education was initiated to start collecting information about the progress and development of vocational education programs and students. In  1984, the Vocational Education Act was renamed the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act (Perkins I, P. L. 98-524). While continuing federal support for vocational education, it established programs emphasizing the acquisition of job skills through both vocational and technical education. The act also sought to make vocational education 6 programs accessible to â€Å"special populations,† including individuals with disabilities, disadvantaged individuals, single parents and homemakers, and incarcerated individuals. The Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act Amendments of 1990 (Perkins II, P. L. 101-392) made several revisions to the 1984 Act. Notably, the act created the tech-prep program designed to coordinate secondary and postsecondary vocational education activities into a coherent sequence of courses. Programs to eliminate sex bias were designed to prepare students for nontraditional training and employment (e. g. , training women to be welders or men to be nurses). Also, the law also required states to develop and implement performance standards and measures (e.g. , program completion and job placement) to assess gains in learning and in program performance. The Perkins Act of 1998 provided specific federal assistance for secondary and postsecondary vocational education (Skinner and Apling, 2005). The reauthorized 1998 Act also made modifications to performance standards and measures of the 1990 Act. A core set of performance indicators were included in the 1998 Act that resulted in sanctions if the level of performance was not reached or increased funding if performance exceeded the requirements. A key element of the 1998 Act was a greater focus on accountability with states required to â€Å"provide data for four core performance indicators focusing on: (1) student attainment; (2) credential attainment, (3) placement and retention, and (4) participation in and completion of non-traditional programs. † (CRS Report for Congress) Under its most recent amendment in 2006, the Carl D. Perkins Act became the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act. The 2006 amendment showed one of the most notable revisions to the act since it was established by replacing the term 7 ‘vocational education’ with ‘career and technical education. ’ This name change is especially significant in research on the influences student report in their decisions to take CTE classes because of the stigma associated with the world ‘vocational. ’ ‘Vocational’ education resonates with many as being representative of vocational education in the traditional sense and not academically focused or resulting in a college degree or high status occupations the way career and technical education can be perceived. Changing the name could help change the image of CTE towards a viable and legitimate option for secondary schooling. The 2006 revision also set in place a system of accountability to coincide with the No Child Left Behind Standards mandated for public education in the United States. Under this system of accountability, academic attainment and graduation rates of students enrolled in CTE at the secondary level will be measured. These new accountability measures create a greater need for research on how students perceive CTE in order to discover additional methods for recruiting new students and drawing greater attention from parents who steer their children towards a more college prep, academically focused course load. If students decisions not to take CTE classes rests in their view that to go to college and be a doctor they have to take advanced high school classes and CTE doesn’t look good on his transcript, administrators can use this information to create better recruitment methods. They can focus on educating students and parents on the goals of CTE and how these goals align with the traditional or advanced coursework. The subject areas most commonly associated with career and technical education are the following: Agriculture (careers related to food and fiber production and agribusiness); Business (accounting, business administration, management, information technology and  8 entrepreneurship); Family and Consumer Sciences (culinary arts, management and life skills); Health Occupations (nursing, dental, and medical technicians); Marketing (management, entrepreneurship, merchandising and retail); Technology (production, communication and transportation systems); and Trade and Industrial (skilled trades such as automotive technician, carpenter, computer numerical control technician). One difficulty in defining career and technical education coursework is the existence of district regulated definitions on what qualifies as a CTE course and how many courses a student needs to take to be classified as a CTE student. In the state of Missouri, there are 16 career clusters (See Appendix C, Table 1). â€Å"Career Clusters can give all students the academic preparation, guidance, careerrelated knowledge and flexibility to help them plan studies that are in line with their interests, abilities, and career goals. The Career Clusters framework offers a practical way for educators in all disciplines to create relevant contexts for their students learning. At the same time, it reinforces the schools fundamental objectives of academic accountability and improved achievement for all students. † (Source: Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Division of Career Education http://dese. mo. gov/divcareered/career_clusters. htm). In response to the need for a redesigned educational system in U.S. public schools to fit the needs of the 21st century, the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) compiled a report on their views of how the remodeled education system should look (Association for Career and Technical Education, 2006). The report proposes that Career and Technical Education should be modified to do the following: (1) Support students in the acquisition of rigorous core knowledge, skills, habits and attitudes needed for success in9 postsecondary education and the high-skilled   workplace, (2) Engage students in specific career-related learning experiences that equip them to make well-informed decisions about further education and training and employment opportunities, and (3) Prepare students who may choose to enter the workforce directly after high school with levels of skills and knowledge in a particular career area that will be valued in the marketplace (Association for Career and Technical Education, 2006). Career and Technical Education Research Research on CTE tends to fall most often in two areas: the likelihood of students dropping out of school and how to serve at risk students (Plank, 2001; Stern, et al. , 1988; Catterall, 1986), and longitudinal effects of CTE programs (Plank, 2001; Arum Shavit, 1995). In 1986, Catterall and Stern looked at the use of alternative high school programs in preventing students from dropping out. They utilized the California sub-sample of the 1980 and 1982 High School and Beyond surveys (involving nearly 3,000 sophomores and 3,000 seniors) and studied the impact alternative education programs had on labor market outcomes for students. The High School and Beyond Survey in 1980 asked students how many courses they had completed in each of four CTE areas: business, office, or sales; trade and industry; technical courses; or other vocational courses. In addition to finding mixed support for alternative programs to prevent drop outs, they also found positive results on employment and wages. Stern, et al (1988) conducted a study in California that yielded similar results. Their 10 research reported the results from the first two years of an effort in 10 high schools to replicate the California Peninsula Academies. The students in the Academy school were identified by school counselors as â€Å"low performance students† with a high risk of dropping out of school (Stern, et al. , 1988). They were then placed into the Peninsula Academy, which was a school within a school, for grades 10 through 12. These low performing students took most of their remaining classes together at the school including coursework in English, math, and science as well as a course in the particular Academys focus (Stern, et al. , p. 163, 1988). The â€Å"Academy† model combines the core academic curriculum with technical instruction in a particular occupational field. Local employers representing that field participate in various ways by donating equipment to the school and serving as mentors to the students. For example, Hewlett-Packard contributed computer expertise and hardware. The companies also provide summer jobs for some of the students at the Academy school. â€Å"Having a paid summer job which is related to the Academy’s instructional focus creates a powerful connection between school work and â€Å"real† work† (Stern, et al. , p. 163, 1988). Academy students generally compiled better grades and more course credits than students in comparison groups at the same high schools. At three sites in particular, Academy students consistently out-performed comparison groups in the first two years. The authors also found that results were replicated at other sites and helped prevent students from dropping out of school. Claus (1990) conducted an ethnographic analysis of the student experience in a single CTE program, looking to answer two questions: (1) why did the students in the program report satisfaction and improved attitudes in association with their CTE program and (2) how  11 was CTE related to increasing the opportunity of these primarily working to lower class, academically-alienated youth? The CTE experience tended to reinforce class-related inequalities. â€Å"The ethnographic fieldwork and analysis suggest that while the students found their CTE program enjoyable and rewarding, this response was often rooted in a classroom experience which limited their development and reinforced their tendency toward working to lower class work and lives after school† (Claus, 1990, p. 13). Arum and Shavit (1995) utilized the 1987 â€Å"High School and Beyond† data to study individuals’ early labor market outcomes after high school and their track placement while in high school. They found that â€Å"vocational secondary education is neither as pernicious nor as detrimental as some of its opponents have maintained. † (p. 199) They found that CTE inhibited students in their decisions to continue on to college or achieve success in high prestige occupations, but also found that CTE programs serve as â€Å"a safety net for those high school graduates who are unlikely to go on to college. † (p. 199) Plank’s 2001 report for the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education looked at the balance between CTE and academic course-taking during high school for members of a longitudinal study beginning in 1988 with their eighth grade year. The students in the study were broken down into four groups: purely academic concentrators, purely CTE concentrators, dual concentrators who took both academic and CTE course work, and a group of students who took neither the purely academic or CTE coursework. Plank found the following: (1) academic concentrators showed the highest 1992 achievement, followed by dual (academic and vocational) concentrators, then students who fulfilled neither concentration, and then CTE concentrators; (2) almost all students were either in 12 postsecondary education or working, or both, in 1994, with academic concentrators most likely to be in full-time school and CTE concentrators most likely to be in full-time employment. The study concluded that further research is needed to determine what characteristics of CTE or academic education increase the risk of dropping out, and what types of integration  of academic and vocational education are most successful. Gaunt and Palmer (2005) conducted a quantitative study that investigated students’ attitudes towards career and technical education (CTE), what influenced their views, and their course selection decisions. They utilized the data from a previous study in Michigan of over 450 high school seniors. The were interested in the career and technical education funding crisis that is occurring in the wake of No Child Left Behind. Gaunt and Palmer (2005) found the majority of students citing social relationships with their friends and parents as the prime influencers of their views of career and technical education. In addition, students offered responses on how course structure, the benefits offered from each program, and advertising of the CTE programs affected their views of CTE. These results provide support for further research on the subject of career and technical education that puts an emphasis on academic training alongside CTE instruction in career-related fields. What was interesting about Gaunt and Palmer’s (2005) data was that more than half of the students not enrolled in career and technical education courses saw the courses as helping students prepare for college immediately after high school in comparison to 81% of students enrolled in CTE courses who saw this same connection. More than 80 percent of both groups of students saw the ACC as preparation for work after high school and close to 80 percent of all students saw the ACC in Michigan as designed for students of all ability levels. 13 Utilizing a qualitative methods approach with open ended interviewing methods, my study gives the students a greater opportunity to express their views of CTE education and how they compare it with their purely academic coursework. Gaunt and Palmer’s (2005) research is a big step forward in literature on career and technical education and I hope the dialogue of the participants in my study help take research even more forward. Sources of Influence How students perceive career and technical education and the their high school coursetaking decisions can be attributed to a variety of factors. In this study one of my research questions examined what are these factors and how do they influence student choices. Previous research on the influences students experience while choosing their high school classes include parents and friends, current labor markets, and school social networks including teachers and counselors. The most detailed account of influences that impact a student’s decisions to pursue a CTE curriculum in high school is Rossetti’s 1991 study about the influenced students who chose not to enroll in a Vocational School in Ohio. While evaluating the external factors that contributed to students’ decisions to enroll in CTE classes, Rossetti found that friends were the most influential with fifty-three percent stating that they had consulted their friends. (Rossetti, 1987) The next most influential figures were mother/female guardian (49%); father/male guardian (44%); brother/sister (39%); counselor (35%); girl/boyfriend (32%); other relative (32%); teacher(s) (28%); and athletic coach(es) (21%). A report by Dunham and Frome (2003) took a closer look at the role teachers and  14 counselors can play in encouraging and influencing students in their high school course selections. Their results were similar to Rossettis (1991). Current labor markets can also affect a students’ decision to enroll in CTE coursework. A publication by the National Center for Educational Statistics reported â€Å"students may be more likely to concentrate in vocational areas that prepare them for occupations with increasing job opportunities† (p. 1). In the case of the current U. S. job market, this would mean that students who take advanced courses in math and science and focus their studies towards engineering careers could be doing so not for their interest in those subjects but because they recognize the labor market’s shift to careers in engineering fields. This would also mean that these same students would specifically withdraw from involvement in courses focusing on low demand careers. This study was completed in 1998 and concluded that the reason for the decline in CTE courses was due to the job market not requiring those skills. New forms of career and technical education need to emphasize academics and career training in electronics and computer fields because the job market has made a turn towards careers of a more technical nature. Social Class and Cultural Capital The theoretical framework of this study relies upon cultural capital theory. Cultural capital can be defined as â€Å"high status cultural signals used in cultural and social selection† (Lamont and Lareau, 1988). According to Bourdieu’s definition, cultural capital â€Å"consists mainly of linguistic and cultural competence and that relationship of familiarity with culture which can only be produced by family upbringing when it transmits the dominant culture† 15 (Bourdieu, 1977). Cultural capital, according to Bourdieu, includes things such as going to museums, appreciating art and listening to classical music. â€Å"[Bourdieu] argues that individuals in privileged social locations are advantaged in ways that are not a result of the intrinsic merit of their cultural experiences. Rather, cultural training in the home is awarded unequal value in dominant institutions because of the close compatibility between the standards of child rearing in privileged homes and the (arbitrary) standards proposed by these institutions. † (Lareau, p. 276) In a dominant institution like education, the role of cultural capital translates to the practices of the school staff, teachers, organizational processes and authoritative relationships set in place as a method of exclusion for those who are unfamiliar with the institutional practices. In the U. S., children from high cultural capital backgrounds, according to cultural capital theory, have been taught directly or indirectly the value of raising one’s hand to be called on, working independently on homework assignments, and possessing a sense of entitlement to resources and extra help from teachers and other figures of authority (Lareau, 2000). It is argued that â€Å"children from higher social locations enter schools already familiar with these social arrangements† (Lareau, 1987, p. 288) and therefore succeed at a higher level than those not familiar with these practices. Being more familiar with the skills and knowledge valued by the dominant culture, students of the dominant culture are better able to adapt their skills to new settings to help negotiate their way to higher, more prestigious education and jobs. This creates a higher economic class position and allows their children to be exposed to the same culture, which is congruent with cultural reproduction theory (Aschaffenburg and Maas, 1997). 16 Bourdieu used the term â€Å"cultural reproduction† to describe the way society stratifies members of the population by reproducing the values, lif.

My Experience With The Internet And Education English Language Essay

My Experience With The Internet And Education English Language Essay The Internet. What it has done for me educational and scholastically is nothing short of a miracle. With the recent events of the past three years I couldnt have possibly even imagined that I could get a college education and a degree in accounting without the use of the Internet. I am old enough to remember life before the World Wide Web. I remember hearing that term in the early days; the World Wide Web. I couldnt even comprehend what they were talking about. The web; whats that? Computers in our homes; that cant be possible? Or could it? It was possible and it did come to pass. And the world has been forever changed because of it. My story begins as I approach the age of forty-nine and make a monumental decision to return to school. I thought to myself, You must be crazy. But with the unrest and dissatisfaction with my then current work situation, school made sense. But still, with the thought of working full time, and I mean full time, it was a daunting task that I had set before me. The fact that I worked in a manufacturing environment, worked rotating shifts, weekends, and put in somewhere between fifty to sixty hours per week, made attending school through normal channels very unrealistic. The thoughts dancing in my head to go back to school started in that summer of 2007. I was very unhappy with my job and with my bosses and had contemplated several times to just walk out the door. It was my wife who gave me some good advice and said, If you are so unhappy, quit complaining and whining about your situation and do something about it. She was absolutely correct. So on Saturday August 18, 2007 on the last da y of fall registration at Illinois Central College in Peoria, Illinois my wife said, Lets go and off we went. We arrived at the registration office at 1:45 p.m. with only fifteen minutes before the office closed. A wonderful lady helped me get registered within those last fifteen minutes of registration and my journey was about to begin. I signed up for three classes that fall, two were Internet classes and one was a correspondence course. One must realize that I had had no college experience in my life and to start out with just Internet classes was a little unnerving. So armed with a newfound determination and a very supportive wife, my journey into the unknown realm of Internet education began. My first foray into an online class was a real eye opener. My first class was an English composition class. I hadnt written a formal paper in thirty years and here I was required to write an essay using MLA to cite my references. What the heck was MLA? So, to the Internet I went and did a Google search of MLA, and I was off and running and I havent stopped yet. The Internet has proven to be such an invaluable resource for doing school work, especially when it comes to writing papers. The amount of time and effort saved by doing online research is just incomprehensible. Two things come to mind when I think about that first semester of school is that it could have never been accomplished without the Internet; the time to actually take the courses and the time to devote to research for writing assignments. Neither could have been accomplished without the Internet. Working fifty plus hours a week like I did didnt leave much time to devote to going to college, but with the advent of onlin e classes it has become a reality for me. The convenience associated with taking online courses is just fantastic. For example, when I worked afternoon turn, I would get home around eleven oclock p.m., go to my home office space and do school work on the computer until about two or three in the morning. A benefit if the Internet to me is the flexibility it gives in not only time but environment. For example my wife and I were actually able to go on a short vacation and I could still maintain contact with my school load. I took a laptop with us and through the use of Wi-Fi; I was able to connect no matter where we were at and still do my homework, take quizzes and maintain pace with my course and not fall behind. It was great and I could really relax when I got done with the school work. Again the Internet is a great benefit and tool and one that I do not take for granted or lightly. I was always under the misconception that I could not return to college and earn a degree as long as I worked a full time job. Boy was I wrong about that. With the advent of the Internet everything has changed. There are no more time constraints, no more geographical restraints, no more anything. It is all at your fingertips anytime of the day or night. This was not the first time that I had contemplated going back to school. In the late nineteen-eighties I was facing long layoffs and the very real possibility of losing my job. I considered going back to school at that time to pursue a degree but with a wife and a young baby and the fact that my wife did not work, I couldnt afford not to work and go to school full time. I did consider going to school part time but with all the family obligations and what not, I talked myself out of doing it then because I couldnt see the light at the end of the tunnel. I just couldnt see the end only the present long road to get there. That was the second biggest mistake of my life. The first one being not going to college right out of high school. After working in the steel industry for thirty years I am finally paying for my decision to abstain from going to college right after high school, in lieu of a good paycheck. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Back in 1988 there were no Internet classes to take, so the only option was to go to school in person and that takes time. Time I didnt have or time I didnt want to devote to this end. Ah, to be young and stupid. One of the many challenges that I faced was in my second semester when I took my first accounting core class online. That was not a pleasant experience. I was definitely getting a C in the class with one test to go. The professor made things even harder for me when he changed the rules in the middle of the semester. When we started the class the online tests allowed you to go back and work problems if you skipped them. But for some reason, unbeknownst to me, he decided to make it so if you passed a question you couldnt go back. So if you were stuck on a problem then you had a decision to make. Either you moved on and missed the question or you stayed on the current problem and in my opinion, waste valuable time that you would need to complete the test. I decided for the last exam to just take my time and work the problems one at a time consecutively and I would finish what I could get finished and my grade would be what it would be. Well, I didnt finish the exam but what I did finish must have been good enough to push my grade to a B for the semester. I never did find out what I scored on that final exam and I really dont know how I got that grade, but I was thankful all the same. It was after this class that I decided no more online accounting classes for me. This would be my one departure from taking as many online classes as possible. There are so many advantages of taking online classes for me, but mainly that I can attend a class at anytime, from anywhere. I can attend classes no matter what work schedule I am working and I can even attend when traveling, whether it be for business or pleasure, I can access my classes from anywhere in the United States that has Internet access. Being that the course material is available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, gives me the opportunity to re-read lectures, discussions, explanations and comments. Another nice benefit is that being behind a computer screen can give me anonymity and provides a less intimidating atmosphere then I would encounter in the actual classroom. Taking Internet classes gives me time to formulate my thoughts making me able to think about my replies as to when, how, and what to say. I can post my comments when I am ready. This is a real benefit becomes sometimes when you are in a classroom situation and the conversation is moving and other people are interacting, sometimes you cant get your point of view out until the discussion has passed you by and by that time it is too late to comment. This online environment has also made it so I can talk more openly with my teachers and other students. I have noticed that I am a little bit more assertive in an online class than I am in real life. I used to think that was a bad thing but I believe it has been helpful as it is encouraging me to speak up and to voice my opinion when presented the opportunity. I believe in the long run this will be a benefit to me in the working business world where I will need to speak up when needed. Another great benefit about Internet based education is that you can access the colleges library from the comfort of your home at any time of the day or night. You can research articles, eBook content, and check the availability of normal book material which you can reserve and pick up at your convenience. This has been a great time saver for me, which as someone who works full time, this has been a true lifesaver, giving time back to me that I so desperately need. Another benefit to taking online courses is what I call the low cost association. By that I mean not necessarily dollars and cents, but other tangible things, such as no expenses outlaid for gas and wear and tear on my automobile. And again, the time it gives back to my life. This fact alone is unfathomable because time is just about the most important commodity a person can have. The ability to earn a degree online began in 1989 with the University of Phoenix offering classes to help students earn bachelors and masters degrees (3). Online education has expanded throughout the past decade as evidenced by studies done by Babson Survey Research Group, the Sloan Consortium, and the College Board. According to their statistics, online enrollment was at over 3.9 million students during the fall semester of 2007. That correlates to more than twenty percent of all college students enrolled in postsecondary education are now taking online classes (8). And the trend is continuing with research numbers showing that by the end of 2002 over eighty-four percent of all four-year accredited colleges and universities were offering online education classes (2). Today it is even possible to earn a degree without ever stepping a foot on a college campus. John Campbell remarked in a discussion thread reply about the dangers that can be associated with taking classes from a virtual college, which is a college with no physical campus (1). He pointed to a very good article about the possibility of being scammed in the pursuit of an online degree. In the article it relayed the sad story of a womans online degree being worthless. This points out the very important fact to research the possible online college candidate and make sure that the degree indeed comes from an accredited university. The article referenced what is labeled degree mills, which hand out diplomas that arent even worth the paper they are printed on (4). Johns comment was about the importance of taking college classes from an accredited college and not a virtual college. A point well taken, but there are in fact, several good virtual colleges today with Jones International Univers ity being the first accredited college in1996 to exist fully online (6). Mr. Campbell also brought up a good point with this question, Are online educations taken seriously in the business world? With the advent of just about every college in the nation offering Intent classes the answer is yes. The business world places great faith in online degrees, but also adds that more respectability is accomplished when going through an already established and accredited college as say a Duke University (4). Mickey Killman brought up the question about the advantages and disadvantages of obtaining a degree through online sources (7). A major advantage of pursuing online degrees or taking a mostly Internet curriculum is that youre showing potential future employers that you have initiative, ambition, and drive to do what it takes to get the job done. You are demonstrating that you will be a self motivated and reliable employee. Continuing this thought, recent research shows that employers today are much more enthusiastic about people that pursue Internet degrees than they were in years past (5). In fact, sources such as Careerbuider.com say many employers stand up and take notice of people who can demonstrate the ability and the desire to seek online degrees (8). And to reiterate this thought even more and how the business world has changed its opinion of online education listen to how Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, responded to this question, Would you hire someone with an online business degree? To count out a candidate based on an online degree may be shortsighted, he responded. People working all day and studying online all night have the kind of grrrr most companies could use.(9) I think that pretty much says it all with regards to the importance of Internet education. Ive often thought during my journey when I looked down the dark tunnel of education and saw a light, I wondered is that the light at the end of the tunnel or is it the headlight of an oncoming train coming to run me over. With only summer session and this fall semester to go, I am convinced now it is the light at the end of the tunnel. Hallelujah!

Causes Of The Cold War Essay -- essays research papers

Causes of the Cold War   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Cold War occurred during a time of rebuilding for Europe. It characterized international relations and dominated the foreign policies of Europe. It affected all of Europe and determined lasting alliances. The Cold War was caused by the social climate and tension in Europe at the end of World War II and by the increasing power struggles between the Soviet Union. Economic separation between the Soviets and the west also heightened tensions, along with the threat of nuclear war.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   One main conflict between the Soviet Union was the vast ideological differences. One of the main tenets of communism is that capitalism is inherently bad and posed a threat to the working class. The communists view all capitalist nations as possible enemies. According to them, capitalism will eventually destroy itself and it is their duty to help it along. They refuse cooperation between themselves and capitalist nations ideologically. These extensive differences in beliefs widened the gap between the Soviet Union and the west. Another cause of the Cold War was the Soviet Unions control over Eastern Europe and the forming of economic alliances in reaction. At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union began transforming the newly freed countries and engulfed them one by one until all of Eastern Europe was part of the Soviet Union. The United States became alarmed with the growing of communism in Europe and set up...

Structure of Language

he Structure of Language Language is a system of symbols and rules that is used for meaningful communication. A system of communication has to meet certain criteria in order to be considered a language: A language uses symbols, which are sounds, gestures, or written characters that represent objects, actions, events, and ideas. Symbols enable people to refer to objects that are in another place or events that occurred at a different time. A language is meaningful and therefore can be understood by other users of that language.A language is generative, which means that the symbols of a language can be combined to produce an infinite number of messages. A language has rules that govern how symbols can be arranged. These rules allow people to understand messages in that language even if they have never encountered those messages before. The Building Blocks of Language Language is organized hierarchically, from phonemes to morphemes to phrases and sentences that communicate meaning. Phon emes Phonemes are the smallest distinguishable units in a language.In the English language, many consonants, such as t, p, and m, correspond to single phonemes, while other consonants, such as c and g, can correspond to more than one phoneme. Vowels typically correspond to more than one phoneme. For example, o corresponds to different phonemes depending on whether it is pronounced as in bone or woman. Some phonemes correspond to combinations of consonants, such as ch, sh, and th. Morphemes Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units in a language. In the English language, only a few single letters, such as I and a, are morphemes. Morphemes are usually whole words or meaningful parts of words, such as refixes, suffixes, and word stems. Example: The word â€Å"disliked† has three morphemes: â€Å"dis,† â€Å"lik,† and â€Å"ed. † Syntax Syntax is a system of rules that governs how words can be meaningfully arranged to form phrases and sentences. Example: On e rule of syntax is that an article such as â€Å"the† must come before a noun, not after: â€Å"Read the book,† not â€Å"Read book the. † Language Development in Children Children develop language in a set sequence of stages, although sometimes particular skills develop at slightly different ages: Three-month-old infants can distinguish between the phonemes from any language.At around six months, infants begin babbling, or producing sounds that resemble many different languages. As time goes on, these sounds begin to resemble more closely the words of the languages the infant hears. At about thirteen months, children begin to produce simple single words. By about twenty-four months, children begin to combine two or three words to make short sentences. At this stage, their speech is usually telegraphic. Telegraphic speech, like telegrams, contains no articles or prepositions. By about age three years, children can usually use tenses and plurals.Children’ s language abilities continue to grow throughout the school-age years. They become able to recognize ambiguity and sarcasm in language and to use metaphors and puns. These abilities arise from metalinguistic awareness, or the capacity to think about how language is used. Ambiguous Language Language may sometimes be used correctly but still have an unclear meaning or multiple meanings. In these cases, language is ambiguous—it can be understood in several ways. Avoid biting dogs is an example of an ambiguous sentence. A person might interpret it as Keep out of the way of biting dogs or Don’t bite dogs.Theories of Language Acquisition The nature vs. nurture debate extends to the topic of language acquisition. Today, most researchers acknowledge that both nature and nurture play a role in language acquisition. However, some researchers emphasize the influences of learning on language acquisition, while others emphasize the biological influences. Receptive Language before E xpressive Language Children’s ability to understand language develops faster than their ability to speak it. Receptive language is the ability to understand language, and expressive language is the ability to use language to communicate.If a mother tells her fifteen-month-old child to put the toy back in the toy chest, he may follow her instructions even though he can’t repeat them himself. Environmental Influences on Language Acquisition A major proponent of the idea that language depends largely on environment was the behaviorist B. F. Skinner (see pages 145 and 276 for more information on Skinner). He believed that language is acquired through principles of conditioning, including association, imitation, and reinforcement. According to this view, children learn words by associating sounds with objects, actions, and events.They also learn words and syntax by imitating others. Adults enable children to learn words and syntax by reinforcing correct speech. Critics of t his idea argue that a behaviorist explanation is inadequate. They maintain several arguments: Learning cannot account for the rapid rate at which children acquire language. There can be an infinite number of sentences in a language. All these sentences cannot be learned by imitation. Children make errors, such as overregularizing verbs. For example, a child may say Billy hitted me, incorrectly adding the usual past tense suffix -ed to hit.Errors like these can’t result from imitation, since adults generally use correct verb forms. Children acquire language skills even though adults do not consistently correct their syntax. Neural Networks Some cognitive neuroscientists have created neural networks, or computer models, that can acquire some aspects of language. These neural networks are not preprogrammed with any rules. Instead, they are exposed to many examples of a language. Using these examples, the neural networks have been able to learn the language’s statistical s tructure and accurately make the past tense forms of verbs.The developers of these networks speculate that children may acquire language in a similar way, through exposure to multiple examples. Biological Influences on Language Acquisition The main proponent of the view that biological influences bring about language development is the well-known linguist Noam Chomsky. Chomsky argues that human brains have a language acquisition device (LAD), an innate mechanism or process that allows children to develop language skills. According to this view, all children are born with a universal grammar, which makes them receptive to the common features of all languages.Because of this hard-wired background in grammar, children easily pick up a language when they are exposed to its particular grammar. Evidence for an innate human capacity to acquire language skills comes from the following observations: The stages of language development occur at about the same ages in most children, even though different children experience very different environments. Children’s language development follows a similar pattern across cultures. Children generally acquire language skills quickly and effortlessly. Deaf children who have not been exposed to a language may make up their own language.These new languages resemble each other in sentence structure, even when they are created in different cultures. Biology and Environment Some researchers have proposed theories that emphasize the importance of both nature and nurture in language acquisition. These theorists believe that humans do have an innate capacity for acquiring the rules of language. However, they believe that children develop language skills through interaction with others rather than acquire the knowledge automatically. Language, Culture, and Thought Researchers have differing views about the extent to which language and culture influence the way people think.In the 1950s, Benjamin Lee Whorf proposed the linguistic re lativity hypothesis. He said language determines the way people think. For example, Whorf said that Eskimo people and English-speaking people think about snow differently because the Eskimo language has many more words for snow than the English language does. Most subsequent research has not supported Whorf’s hypothesis. Researchers do acknowledge, however, that language can influence thought in subtle ways. For example, the use of sexist terminology may influence how people think about women.Two ways that people commonly use language to influence thinking are semantic slanting and name calling. Semantic Slanting Semantic slanting is a way of making statements so that they will evoke specific emotional responses. Example: Military personnel use the term â€Å"preemptive counterattack† rather than â€Å"invasion,† since â€Å"invasion† is likely to produce more negative feelings in people. Name Calling Name calling is a strategy of labeling people in order to influence their thinking. In anticipatory name calling, it is implied that if someone thinks in a particular way, he or she will receive an unfavorable label.Example: On the day a student buys a new desk, he might say, â€Å"Only a slob would pile junk on a desk like this. † This might help ensure that his roommate keeps it free of junk. Bilingualism Although people sometimes assume that bilingualism impairs children’s language development, there is no evidence to support this assumption. Bilingual children develop language at the same rate as children who speak only one language. In general, people who begin learning a new language in childhood master it more quickly and thoroughly than do people who learn a language in adulthood. Language and Nonhuman PrimatesSome researchers have tried to teach apes to use language. Because of the structure of their vocal organs, apes can’t say words, but they can communicate using signs or computers. Using these means, a pes can make requests, respond to questions, and follow instructions. The Case of Washoe the Chimpanzee Researchers at Central Washington University taught a chimpanzee named Washoe to use American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate. She could sign not only single words but also meaningful combinations of words. She could follow instructions and respond to questions given in ASL.Later, Washoe’s foster child, Loulis, learned signs just by watching Washoe and other chimps that had been trained to use language. Some research even suggested that language-trained chimps may use signs spontaneously to communicate with each other or to talk to themselves, although this behavior is not thoroughly documented. Skepticism about Ape Language Critics of the idea that apes can learn and use language have maintained several arguments: Apes, unlike people, can be trained to learn only a limited number of words and only with difficulty.Apes use signs or computers to get a reward, in the same way that other animals can be taught tricks. But learning tricks is not equivalent to learning language. Apes don’t use syntax. For example, they don’t recognize the difference between Me eat apple and Apple eat me. Trainers may be reading meanings into signs apes make and unintentionally providing cues that help them to respond correctly to questions. Clearly, communication in nonhuman animals differs drastically from language in humans. The spontaneity, uniqueness, and reflective content of human language remains unmatched. Nonprimates Can CommunicateResearchers have taught nonprimate animals, such as parrots, to communicate meaningfully. Parrots that participated in language acquisition studies learned to identify dozens of objects, distinguish colors, and make simple requests in English. One famous example is Alex the African gray parrot, owned by Irene Pepperberg from the University of Arizona. Alex can â€Å"speak† hundreds of words, but what makes him mor e unique is that he appears to do more than just vocalize. Though Pepperberg does not claim that Alex uses â€Å"language,† she does believe that when Alex talks, he is expressing his thoughts, not just mimicking.The Structure of Cognition Cognition, or thinking, involves mental activities such as understanding, problem solving, and decision making. Cognition also makes creativity possible. The Building Blocks of Cognition When humans think, they manipulate mental representations of objects, actions, events, and ideas. Humans commonly use mental representations such as concepts, prototypes, and cognitive schemas. Concepts A concept is a mental category that groups similar objects, events, qualities, or actions. Concepts summarize information, enabling humans to think quickly.Example: The concept â€Å"fish† includes specific creatures, such as an eel, a goldfish, a shark, and a flying fish. Prototypes A prototype is a typical example of a concept. Humans use prototypes to decide whether a particular instance of something belongs to a concept. Example: Goldfish and eels are both fish, but most people will agree that a goldfish is a fish more quickly than they will agree that an eel is a fish. A goldfish fits the â€Å"fish† prototype better than an eel does. Cognitive Schemas Cognitive schemas are mental models of different aspects of the world. They contain knowledge, beliefs, assumptions, associations, and expectations.Example: People may have a schema about New York that includes information they’ve learned about New York in school, their memories of New York, things people have told them about New York, information from movies and books about New York, what they assume to be true about New York, and so on. Theories of Cognitive Development Cognitive development refers to the change in children’s patterns of thinking as they grow older. Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory The scientist best known for research on cognitive dev elopment is Jean Piaget (see pages 72–75), who proposed that children’s thinking goes through a set eries of four major stages. Piaget believed that children’s cognitive skills unfold naturally as they mature and explore their environment. Lev Vygotsky’s Theory of Sociocultural Influences Psychologist Lev Vygotsky believed that children’s sociocultural environment plays an important role in how they develop cognitively. In Vygotsky’s view, the acquisition of language is a crucial part of cognitive development. After children acquire language, they don’t just go through a set series of stages. Rather, their cognitive development depends on interactions with adults, cultural norms, and their environmental circumstances.Private Speech Vygotsky pointed out that children use language to control their own behavior. After children acquire language skills and learn the rules of their culture, they start to engage in private speech. They first talk to themselves out loud, and then, as they grow older, silently, giving themselves instructions about how to behave. Current Research on Cognitive Development Current research indicates that children have complex cognitive abilities at much younger ages than Piaget suggested. As early as four months of age, infants appear to understand basic laws of physics.For example, a four-month-old infant can recognize that solid objects cannot pass through other solid objects and that objects roll down slopes instead of rolling up. At five months of age, infants can recognize the correct answers to addition and subtraction problems involving small numbers. These observations have led some researchers to speculate that humans are born with some basic cognitive abilities. Critics argue that researchers who find these results are overinterpreting the behavior of the infants they study. Quick Review The Structure of LanguageLanguage is a system of symbols and rules used for meaningful communi cation. A language uses symbols and syntax and is meaningful and generative. Language is organized hierarchically from phonemes to morphemes to phrases and sentences. Children develop language in a set sequence of stages. Theories of Language Acquisition Behaviorist B. F. Skinner strongly supported the idea that language depends largely on environment. Skinner believed that people acquire language through principles of conditioning. Critics argue the inadequacy of behaviorist explanations.Some cognitive neuroscientists have created neural networks that can acquire some aspects of language by encountering many examples of language. They think children may acquire language in the same way. Noam Chomsky is the main proponent of the importance of biological influences on language development. Chomsky proposed that human brains have a language acquisition device that allows children to acquire language easily. Some researchers believe that language is both biologically and environmentall y determined. The linguistic relativity hypothesis states that language determines the way people think.Today, researchers believe language influences, rather than determines, thought. Two ways that people use language to influence thinking are semantic slanting and name calling. People master a new language better if they begin learning it in childhood. Nonhuman animals can learn some aspects of language. Language and Nonhuman Primates Some researchers have tried to teach apes to use language. Apes can communicate, but researchers are divided on whether this communication can really be considered â€Å"learning language. † The Structure of CognitionCognition involves activities such as understanding, problem solving, decision making, and being creative. People use mental representations such as concepts, prototypes, and cognitive schemas when they think. Theories of Cognitive Development Jean Piaget believed that children’s cognitive skills unfold naturally as they ma ture and explore their environment. Lev Vygotsky believed that children’s sociocultural environment plays an important role in cognitive development. Some researchers have shown that humans are born with some basic cognitive abilities. Problem-SolvingProblem-solving is the active effort people make to achieve a goal that is not easily attained. Three common types of problems involve inducing structure, arranging, and transformation. Some approaches to problem-solving are trial and error, deductive and inductive reasoning, use of algorithms and heuristics, dialectical reasoning, creation of subgoals, use of similar problems, and changes in the way the problems are represented. Researchers have identified many obstacles to effective problem-solving, such as focus on irrelevant information, functional fixedness, mental set, and assumptions about unnecessary constraints.Decision-Making Decision-making involves weighing alternatives and choosing among them. Additive strategies and elimination strategies are ways of making decisions about preferences. Using expected value, subjective utility, the availability heuristic, and the representativeness heuristic are all ways of making risky decisions. Using the representativeness heuristic can make people susceptible to biases, such as the tendency to ignore base rates and the gambler’s fallacy. Using the availability heuristic can make people susceptible to overestimating the improbable or underestimating the probable.In an effort to minimize risk, people also make decision-making errors, such as the overconfidence effect, the confirmation bias, and belief perseverance. Creativity Creativity is the ability to generate novel, useful ideas. Creativity is characterized by divergent, rather than convergent, thinking. Some characteristics of creative people are expertise, nonconformity, curiosity, persistence, and intrinsic motivation. People can best realize their creative potential if they are in environmental circumstances that promote creativity.

Childhood is Not a Fixed Universal Experience Essay

Childhood is seen as a social construct by sociologists, and it is definitely not a fixed universal experience. This is due to many reasons but overall it is easy to see that not all children get to experience the same childhood and each experiences this stage of life for a different length of time. Childhood differs in many ways, in different countries, from the way they act, and the way they are treated. One way in which we can see that childhood is not a fixed universal exerence is the obvious differences between a childhood in rural countries and one in non-rural countries. For example, in rural countries, children have more responsibility. Sociologists found that in countries such as Bolivia once children are around the age of five years old they start to have work responsibilities both within the home, and the community. Another way in which we can see that childhood is not universal is through the presence of child poverty. Over 1/3 of the world’s children suffer from absolute poverty, and over 1/3 of all children in the world have to live in a dwelling with more than five people in each room, and this the stage of life that should be considered childhood ends up having none of the elements that society would link to that word. Even so, this all is difficult to argue because childhood is a social construct, meanng that it has no set definition and thus chages over time. Phillipe Aries (1962) argues that ‘childhood’ as we understand it today is a new invention. For example, in the Pre-industrial times, children were seen as little adults, and they took part in the same work and play activities as the adults. They were seen as a unit of production and thus they had less lesiure time. Even so, that stage of their life was consdered as being childhood, showing us that the definition has morphed over time. Nowadays the interpretation of this would be very different. Overall, there are two different approaches to childhood. These are the Conventional approach and the Alternative approach.

Pricing Strategies of Hyundai

1 March 2006 Immediate Release Hyundai Launches Family Pricing Strategy and Standardises Parts Prices The cost of owning and servicing a Hyundai has never been cheaper for Kiwi motorists from this week. Hyundai Automotive New Zealand has announced a revolutionary new parts policy that will see genuine part prices across Hyundai’s model range standardised, and in many cases becoming considerably cheaper. Known as the Family Pricing Strategy, the policy sees the price of regular maintenance genuine Hyundai parts standardised across models, and is the first step toward standardised service costs. Surveys by Hyundai revealed the company already had competitively priced genuine parts, having similar prices to the aftermarket competitors and in many cases beating them. Hyundai New Zealand Aftermarket Manager Peter Tolley said getting the company’s spare parts aligned across the model range was the first part of the company’s strategy to keep ownership costs as low as possible for all Hyundai vehicles. It would also ensure customers have the reassurance of genuine Hyundai parts which come with a 12 month, 20,000km warranty. The â€Å"grey†parts market is a worldwide problem for the motor industry because many parts are substandard and unsafe. To combat this Hyundai Motor Company has been keen to get involved in this local initiative. â€Å"Working closely with Hyundai Motor Company and its suppliers has meant that we are able to offer some substantial reductions in pricing to benefit the New Zealand consumer,† stated Mr Tolley. â€Å"We expected customers to benefit from some substantial parts savings, particularly on the larger vehicles such as Terracan, Santa Fe and the new Grandeur† said Mr Tolley. You will see genuine components like front brake pads drop from anything up to $253 each down to $85 under the Family Pricing Strategy. Simple components like oil filters on our petrol engines will drop from up to $38 down to $15. 75. These savings are genuine, long term and will lead into very competitive servicing costs for our customers. † Mr Tolley said Hyundai was going to g reater lengths than any other vehicle manufacturer with this new pricing strategy. Low ownership costs with Hyundai were already almost a given, due to the extremely high level of quality and reliability in new Hyundai vehicles, said Peter Tolley. Surveys such as the prestigious JD Power Vehicle Quality survey rated the Hyundai Sonata as one of the world’s top three reliable cars in 2005. The US based Total Quality Index survey confirmed the Hyundai Tucson as the world’s highest quality small SUV for 2005. The results come from polling a massive 40,000 buyers of models throughout the USA. With results like this backed up by competitive parts pricing, New Zealanders can be sure they will see Hyundai as an extremely good value, high quality, low cost vehicle for many years to come. † â€Å"Putting it simply, we are confident that over a complete ownership cycle, no car will show a better â€Å"complete cost of ownership† than a Hyundai. † This has already been shown to be the case with Hyundai’s Getz, which in 2005, won the Be st Small Car Award in the annual Australia’s Best Cars awards scoring the top ‘well above average’ ranking for among other things, Pricing, Running & Repair Costs and Warranty.