text:
Contemporary Educational Psychology/Chapter 4: Student Diversity/Cultural Differences

Differences in Cultural Expectations and Styles
A culture is the system of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that constitute the distinctive way of life of a people. Although sometimes the term is also used to refer specifically to the artistic, intellectual and other “high-brow” aspects of life, I use it here more broadly to refer to everything that characterizes a way of life—baseball games as well as symphony concerts, and McDonald’s as well as expensive restaurants. In this broad sense culture is nearly synonymous with ethnicity, which refers to the common language, history, and future experienced by a group within society. Culture has elements that are obvious, like unique holidays or customs, but also features that are subtle or easy for outsiders to overlook, like beliefs about the nature of intelligence or about the proper way to tell a story. When a classroom draws students from many cultures or ethnic groups, therefore, the students bring to it considerable diversity. Teachers need to understand that diversity—understand how students’ habitual attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors differ from each other, and especially how they differ from the teacher’s.

But this kind of understanding can get complicated. To organize the topic, therefore, I will discuss among aspects of cultural diversity according to how directly that relate to language differences compared to differences in other social and psychological features of culture. The distinction is convenient, but it is also a bit arbitrary because, as you will see, the features of a culture overlap and influence each other.

Bilingualism: Language Differences in the Classroom
Although monolingual speakers often do not realize it, the majority of children around the world are bilingual, meaning that they understand and use two languages (Meyers-Scotton, 2005). Even in the United States, which is a relatively monolingual society, more than 47 million people speak a language other than English at home, and about 10 million of these people were children or youth in public schools (United States Department of Commerce, 2003). The large majority of bilingual students (75%) are Hispanic, but the rest represent more than a hundred different language groups from around the world. In larger communities throughout the United States, it is therefore common for a single classroom to contain students from several language backgrounds at once.

In classrooms as in other social settings, bilingualism exists in different forms and degrees. At one extreme are students who speak both English and another language fluently; at the other extreme are those who speak only limited versions of both languages. In between are students who speak their home (or heritage) language much better than English, as well as others who have partially lost their heritage language in the process of learning English (Tse, 2001). Commonly, too, a student may speak a language satisfactorily, but be challenged by reading or writing it—though even this pattern has individual exceptions. Whatever the case, each bilingual student poses unique challenges to teachers.

Balanced or Fluent Bilingualism
The student who speaks both languages fluently has a definite cognitive advantage. As you might suspect and as research has confirmed, a fully fluent bilingual student is in a better position than usual to express concepts or ideas in more than one way, and to be aware of doing so (Jimenez, et al. 1995; Francis, 2006). A question like “What if a dog were called a cat?” is less likely to confuse even a very young bilingual child. Nor will follow-up questions like “Could the ‘cat’ meow?” Such skill in reflecting on language is a form of metacognition, which I discussed in Chapter 2 and defined as using language as an object of thought. Metacognition can be helpful for a variety of academic purposes, such as writing stories and essays, or interpreting complex text materials.

Unbalanced Bilingualism
Unfortunately, the bilingualism of many students is “unbalanced” in the sense that they are either still learning English, or else they have lost some earlier ability to use their original, heritage language—or occasionally a bit of both. The first sort of student—sometimes called an English language learner (ELL) or limited English learner (LEL)--have received the greatest attention and concern from educators, since English is the dominant language of instruction and skill with it obviously helps prepare a student for life in American society. ELL students essentially present teachers with this dilemma: how to respect the original language and culture of the student while also helping the student to join more fully in the mainstream—i.e. English-speaking—culture? Programs to address this question have ranged from total immersion in English from a young age (the “sink or swim” approach) to phasing in English over a period of several years (sometimes called an additive approach to bilingual education). In general, evaluations of bilingual programs have favored the more additive approaches (Beykont, 2002). Both languages are developed and supported, and students ideally become able to use either language permanently, though often for different situations or purposes. A student may end up using English in the classroom or at work, for example, but continue using Spanish at home or with friends, even though he or she is perfectly capable of speaking English with them.

Language Loss
What about the other kind of imbalance, in which a student is acquiring English but losing ability with the student’s home or heritage language? This sort of bilingualism is quite common in the United States and other nations with immigrant populations. Imagine this situation. First-generation immigrants arrive, and they soon learn just enough English to manage their work and daily needs, but continue using their original language at home with family and friends from their former country. Their children, however, experience strong expectations and pressure to learn and use English, and this circumstance dilutes the children’s experience with the heritage language. By the time the children become adults, they are likely to speak and write English better than their heritage language, and may even be unable or unwilling to use the heritage language with their own children (the grandchildren of the original immigrants).

This situation might not at first seem like a problem for which we, as teachers, need to take responsibility, since the children immigrants, as students, are acquiring the dominant language of instruction. In fact, however, things are not that simple. Research finds that language loss limits students’ ability to learn English as well or as quickly as they otherwise can do. Having a large vocabulary in a first language, for example, has been shown to save time in learning vocabulary in a second language (Hansen, Umeda & McKinney, 2002). But students can only realize the savings if their first language is preserved. Preserving the first language is also important if a student has impaired skill in all languages and therefore needs intervention or help from a speech-language specialist. Research has found, in such cases, that the specialist can be more effective if the specialist speaks and uses the first language as well as English (Kohnert, et al., 2005). More generally, though also more indirectly, minimizing language loss helps all bilingual students’ education because preservation tends to enrich students’ and parents’ ability to communicate with each other. With two languages to work with, parents can stay “in the loop” better about their children’s educations and support the teacher’s work—for example, by assisting more effectively with homework (Ebert, 2005).

Note that in the early years of schooling, language loss can be minimized to some extent by the additive or parallel-track bilingual programs that I mentioned above. For a few years, though not forever, young students are encouraged to use both of their languages. In high school, in addition, some conventional foreign language classes—notably in Spanish—can be adjusted to include and support students who are already native speakers of the language alongside students who are learning it for the first time). But for heritage languages not normally offered as “foreign” languages in school, of course, this approach will not work. Such languages are especially at risk for being lost.

Cultural Differences in Language Use
Cultures and ethnic groups differ not only in languages, but also in how languages are used. Since some of the patterns differ from those typical of modern classrooms, they can create misunderstandings between teachers and students (Cazden, 2001; Rogers, et al., 2005). Consider these examples:

 * In some cultures, it is considered polite or even intelligent not to speak unless you have something truly important to say. “Chitchat,” or talk that simply affirms a personal tie between people, is considered immature or intrusive (Minami, 2002). In a classroom, this habit can make it easier for a child to learn not to interrupt others, but it can also make the child seem unfriendly.
 * Eye contact varies by culture. In many African American and Latin American communities, it is considered appropriate and respectful for a child not to look directly at an adult who is speaking to them (Torres-Guzman, 1998). In classrooms, however, teachers often expect a lot of eye contact (as in “I want all eyes on me!”) and may be tempted to construe lack of eye contact as a sign of indifference or disrespect.
 * Social distance varies by culture. In some cultures, it is common to stand relatively close when having a conversation; in others, it is more customary to stand relatively far apart (Beaulieu, 2004). Problems may happen a teacher and a student prefer different social distances. A student who expects a closer distance than does the teacher may seem overly familiar or intrusive, whereas one who expects a longer distance may seem overly formal or hesitant.
 * Wait time varies by culture. Wait time is the gap between the end of one person’s comment or question and the next person’s reply or answer. In some cultures wait time is relatively long—as long as three or four seconds (Tharp & Gallimore, 1989). In others it is a “negative” gap, meaning that it is acceptable, even expected, for a person to interrupt before the end of the previous comment. In classrooms the wait time is customarily about one second; after that, the teacher is likely to move on to another question or to another student. A student who habitually expects a wait time long than one second may seem hesitant, and not be given many chances to speak. A student who expects a “negative” wait time, on the other hand, may seem overeager or even rude.
 * In most non-Anglo cultures, questions are intended to gain information, and it is assumed that a person asking the question truly does not have the information requested (Rogoff, 2003). In most classrooms, however, teachers regularly ask test questions, which are questions to which the teacher already knows the answer and that simply assess whether a student knows the answer as well (Macbeth, 2003). The question “How much is 2 + 2?” for example, is a test question. If the student is not aware of this purpose, he or she may become confused, or think that the teacher is surprisingly ignorant! Worse yet, the student may feel that the teacher is trying deliberately to shame the student by revealing the student’s ignorance or incompetence to others.

Cultural Differences in Attitudes and Beliefs
In addition to differences in language and in practices related to language, cultural groups differ in a variety of other attitudes and beliefs. Complete descriptions of the details of the differences have filled entire books of encyclopedias (see, for example, Birx, 2005). For teachers, however, the most important ones center on beliefs about identity, or the sense of self or of “who you are.” A number of other cultural beliefs and practices can be understood as resulting from how members of a culture think about personal identity.

In white, middle-class American culture, the self is usually thought of as unique and independent—a unitary, living source of decisions, choices, and actions that stands (or should eventually stand) by itself (Greenfield, et al., 2003; Rogoff, 2003). This view of the self is well entrenched in schools, as for example when students are expected to take responsibility for their own successes or failures and when they are tested and evaluated individually rather than as a group or team. As teachers, furthermore, most of us subscribe to the idea that all students are unique, even if we cannot implement this idea fully in teaching because of the constraints of large classes. Whatever the circumstances, teachers tend to believe in an independent self. To a greater or lesser extent, however, the majority of non-white cultures and ethnic groups believe in something closer to an interdependent self, or a belief that it is your relationships and responsibilities, and not uniqueness and autonomy, that defines a person (Greenfield, 1994). In these cultures, the most worthy person is not the one is unusual or who stands out in a crowd. Such a person might actually be regarded as lonely or isolated. The worthy person is instead the one who gets along well with family and friends, and who meets obligations to them reliably and skillfully. At some level, of course, we all value interpersonal skill and to this extent think of ourselves as interdependent. The difference between individual and interdependent self is one of emphasis, with many non-white cultures emphasizing interdependence significantly more than white middle-class society in general and more than schools in particular.

There can be consequences of the difference in how the students respond to school. Here are some of the possibilities—though keep in mind that there are also differences among students as individuals, whatever their cultural background. I am talking about tendencies, not straightforward predictions.

 * Preference for activities that are cooperative rather than competitive: Many activities in school are competitive, even when teachers try to de-emphasize the competition. Once past the first year or two of school, students often become attentive to who receives the highest marks on an assignment, for example, or who is the best athlete at various sports or whose contributions to class discussion the most verbal recognition from the teacher (Johnson & Johnson, 1998). Suppose, in addition, that a teacher deliberately organizes important activities or assignments competitively (as in “Let’s see who finishes the math sheet first”). Classroom life can then become explicitly competitive, and the competitive atmosphere can interfere with cultivating supportive relationships among students or between students and the teacher (Cohen, 2004). For students who give priority to these relationships, competition can seem confusing at best and threatening at worst. What sort of sharing or help with answers, the student may ask, is truly legitimate? If the teacher answers this question more narrowly than does the student, then what the student views as cooperative sharing may be seen by the teacher as laziness, “freeloading”, or even cheating.
 * Avoidance of standing out publicly: Even when we, as teachers, avoid obvious forms of competition, we may still interact frequently with students one at a time while allowing or inviting many others to observe the conversation. An especially common pattern for such conversations is sometimes called the IRE cycle, an abbreviation for the teacher initiating, a student responding, and the teacher then evaluating the response (Mehan, 1979). What is sometimes taken for granted is how often IRE cycles are witnessed publicly, and how much the publicity can be stressful or embarrassing for students who do not value standing out in a group but who do value belonging to the group. The embarrassment can be especially acute if they feel unsure about whether they have correct knowledge or skill to display. To keep such students from “clamming up” completely, therefore, teachers should consider limiting IRE cycles to times when they are truly productive. IRE conversations may often work best when talking with a student privately, or when confirming knowledge that the student is likely to be able to display competently already, or when “choral” speaking (responding together in unison) is appropriate.
 * Interpersonal time versus clock time: In order to function all schools rely on fairly precise units of time as measured on clocks. Teachers typically allot a fixed number of minutes to one lesson or class, another fixed number of minutes for the next, another for recess or lunch time, and so on. In more ways than one, therefore, being on time becomes especially valued in schools, as it is in many parts of society. Punctuality is not always conducive, however, to strong personal relationships, which develop best when individuals do not end joint activities unilaterally or arbitrarily, but allow activities to “finish themselves,” so to speak—to finish naturally. If personal relationships are a broad, important priority for a student, therefore, it may take effort and practice by the student to learn the extent to which schools and teachers expect punctuality. Punctuality includes the obvious, like showing up for school when school is actually scheduled to begin. But it also includes subtleties, like starting and finishing tasks when the teacher tells students to do so, or answering a question promptly at the time it is asked rather than sometime later when discussion has already moved on.

(return to Chapter 4....)


text:
Talk:Contemporary Educational Psychology/Chapter 4: Student Diversity

Chapter 4 is complete in its basics, but as usual, the tables and figures are missing.

KelvinLeeSeifert 21:35, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Talk:XQuery/eXist demo server

The current version serialised to text/html by default, but later versions serialize to text/xml which is what the expected response indicates. The server will be upgraded to a later release shortly. In the meantime, the exist:serialize option is set to "method=xml media-type=text/xml indent=yes" on all scripts.

Chris

title: Talk:XQuery/eXist demo server


text:
Talk:XQuery

2019 refurbishment
There is a Github project to track issues with this book and collaborate amongst eXist db folk to bring this resource up-to-date

ChrisWallace

Chris's To do list (in no particular order)

 * 1) Date handling example
 * 2) Finish and Document the DVD hire case study
 * 3) better organization and indexing of these examples using tagging to increase findability
 * 4) Document the Periodic table application - needs re-thinking to get more generic but its a small example of using update (mostly done but for editing)
 * 5) implement and document the family history case - with timelines
 * 6) new section on design patterns

Other To do items

 * 1) Explain doc function as well as poorly implemented collection function
 * 2) Show examples of querying multiple documents using string manipulation -- doc($string)-- see: http://www.advocatehope.org/tech-tidbits/xquery
 * 3) Explain how to store an xquery on the server a) in the database, b) in the filesystem

Done list

 * 1) Content-Disposition to set the filename for saving ( done in the table to csv example)
 * 2) Better Ajax example - zipcode is a bit slow (done as an Emp search)
 * 3) Page scraping as RSS feed - done with the Yahoo weather ID decoder and feed

file suffix
I stored the initial scripts with our default xql suffix but I see xq is used in these examples so I guess that's the suffix to use.

serialization
Should the exist:serialise option always be set in the example? There's a problem of compatibility between eXist versions if we rely on the defaults since the media type has changed during 1.1.2dev. Also one example (output plain text) requires a different serialization option, so I think for constancy we should include it in all scripts. - maybe not - default is xml.=I think we should only set serialize on special cases. Yes, especially if the results are not well-formed XML files

indexing
Use form of Category XQuery|subcategory to structure a better index

Default eXist module declarations
Should all exist modules be declared even though they are declared by default in eXist?

yes - declaration makes their use explicit

Functions with Type Definitions
Should all function parameters have type definitions for arguments and return - yes

Use Source Element to wrap Source Code
We can now use the for source code (rather than pre). We really need an "xquery" pretty printer.

I will fix them as I go if that is OK --Dmccreary (talk) 23:25, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

Common XQuery format
Common layout format to be agreed and documented.

Use XQuery Comment
All examples should include documentation as comments

(: Explain the next line :)

I'd prefer a literate programming approach where the code examples and the executable code are derived from a common source. I personally find that heavy commenting interferes with reading the code - with generated pages you could switch the comments in or out as required. ChrisWallace (talk) 07:02, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

declare variable / let style
I have tended to use let rather than declare variable. I believe there is a performance issue favouring let, presumably because these are local to the FLWOR context rather than global, and I am not sure that the declaration of a long list of global variables is a good idea. However the former style seems to be prefered by some programmers and I'm not sure which is the best style for these examples. One guideline might be that declare variable should be restricted to variables which are global to a module of functions, so they warn of global variables. This meaning is lost if all variables are declared.

ChrisWallace (talk) 21:40, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Example Template
Should we move these to an example template for coding style?

Additional Ideas for XQuery
Look at XQuery as the query language for the Web (What I call the Theory of the Web as One Big Database: see http://www.advocatehope.org/tech-tidbits/theory-of-the-web-as-one-big-database ). Essentially based on ReST (or ReSTful Web services), XQuery becomes an integral part of how the web functions. Much like AJAX and JSON, there should be an acronym that encompasses the Web, XQuery, XPath and ReSTful Web Services to help convey a new way of thinking about the web. In this way, XQuery is viewed as a prerequisite for understanding how the Web works, rather than an esoteric standard which it is now often viewed.

Detailed basics
I think a lot could be elaborated on for basic cases like simple joining, grouping, sorting, and aggregating. Node positions can cause a lot of confusion, an explanation of document order, the unordered{} expression / declaration and use of the "at" keyword in a for loop may be of value.

Some more advanced topics could be the union, intersect, and except expressions.

Release 1.3dev issues
err:XPTY0004 in function 'fr:expand'. Type error: expected type: xs:string; got: xdt:untypedAtomic [at line 79, column 27] In call to function:	fr:map-to-schema(element) [27:10]
 * RDF/xml2rdf failing with

Comments
I'm surprised to see the reference to the GMane mapping for the XQuery Talk mailing list, without mentioning the authoritative source for it: http://x-query.com/mailman/listinfo/talk (and http://markmail.org/search/list:com.x-query.talk for the archives). I guess that should be changed (link to the mailing list, then add "it is available on GMane too").

title: Talk:XQuery


text:
Talk:XQuery/Adder

The second version of the adder doesn't really work since the invocation is not with posted data.

title: Talk:XQuery/Adder


text:
Talk:XQuery/Manipulating URIs

Interesting, but I wonder if it should be included in the collection of simple examples? Its a big jump from adder to this

title: Talk:XQuery/Manipulating URIs


text:
Talk:XQuery/Limiting Result Sets

Have you any sample data to use with this example?

I've created a couple of scripts to paginate through project titles but I need some generally avaliable data here

scripts are reports/ search.xq: parameters search pagedSearch.xq parameters search, start, records using Javascript enabled buttons pagedSearch2.xq using a hidden input field (making the state of the search more apparant) and avoiding the need for Javascript

title: Talk:XQuery/Limiting Result Sets


text:
User:Delano~enwikibooks

You said something about not agreeing with the IAL. I don't either, unless you look at the languages as tools instead of primary communication. Does looking at it that way make it better to you? Phil.andy.graves 23:13, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User:Delano~enwikibooks


text:
Talk:XQuery/Filtering Words

In the discussion you mention an improvement to contains but I wouldn't have used that in the first place here - simpler is   if ($stopwords/word = $word)

In general the stoplist would be in the database and then indexing would speed the search.

I've written another version where the input is entered in a text box (stoplist_1.xq)

Also the links to the CSS didnt work - these could be added to the server.

ChrisWallace 06:04, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

title: Talk:XQuery/Filtering Words


text:
User:Jtobi003

This is my article topic that I will begin researching soon. Please check back! :)

title: User:Jtobi003


text:
User talk:Jtobi003

This is my article I will begin doing research on soon. Please check back :) !

title: User talk:Jtobi003


text:
Talk:Calculus/Integration

I'm thinking that maybe line integrals and integrals that concern the summing of a function in an area or volume ( ie, distinct from integrals that calculate an area or volume ) should be included under applications?

to illustrate, say a metal plate ( of arbitrary length and width, with its lower left corner on 0,0 ) is electrostatically charged with a distribution governed by P= x^2 + Y^2. An area integral ( of the sort I am proposing be included ) could be used to sum the total charge present on the plate.

If agreement is reached I would be happy to write a brief explanation for the text.

 * Line integrals should not be introduced until the multivariable part of the book. It involves parametric representation and that comes after integration techniques so it should not go here.  And, they are already introduced in that portion of the book in a section that is way too long. NumberTheorist (talk) 03:26, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

Order of topics
I changed the order of topics from to I think the new order motivates the discussion of indefinite integrals better. We start out with a practical problem, finding the area under a given function. Then we introduce the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, which tells us that we can use antiderivatives to easily compute definite integrals. This gives us a reason to want to study how to find antiderivatives. The remaining topics in the Integration section deal with how to find increasingly complex antiderivatives. --Greenbreen (discuss • contribs) 17:20, 3 June 2011 (UTC)
 * 1) Indefinite integral
 * 2) Definite integral
 * 3) Fundamental Theorem of Calculus
 * 1) Definite integral
 * 2) Fundamental Theorem of Calculus
 * 3) Indefinite integral

title: Talk:Calculus/Integration


text:
User talk:GSpen02

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Mattb112885 (talk to me) 00:41, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:GSpen02


text:
User talk:Tboyce

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Mattb112885 (talk to me) 00:41, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Tboyce


text:
User talk:Murphyangus

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Mattb112885 (talk to me) 00:42, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Please make sure you sign your messages on talk pages. To do this, add four tildes (~) to the end of your messages like this: ~. This will automatically add a signature with a time and date stamp. (like this-->) – Mike.lifeguard  | talk 14:48, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

I added a definition to Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics.Murphyangus 03:51, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

I added a part on species gradient but the title of this chapter does not correspond. If this does not work let me know. I went back to chapter 3 to see why my journal reference is showing in the paragraph. I can't find anything different than the last time I tried to site a website or journal. I will keep working on this.Murphyangus 05:44, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Murphyangus


text:
User talk:Slevadney

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Mattb112885 (talk to me) 00:42, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Slevadney


text:
User talk:Cfritzinger

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Mattb112885 (talk to me) 00:43, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Cfritzinger


text:
User talk:JDrynan

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Mattb112885 (talk to me) 00:44, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

John, nice addition of the coral reef information. --PaulWLepp 11:27, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:JDrynan


text:
User talk:Kevinw1

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Mattb112885 (talk to me) 00:44, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Kevinw1


text:
User talk:ChrisWallace

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Mattb112885 (talk to me) 00:46, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Technical Book Development
Hi Chris - this is re the online resources section of the book. I pruned some of these out then had to go do something else before I got a chance to give my rationale.

The problem with this sort of page is that the links need maintaining. The ones to personal websites are particularly an issue. A few days ago I look maybe a third to a half of this links off a similar page as they mostly gave 404s or similar. Such areas a blogs will be particularly challenging to ensure they are up to date. Maybe look at dmoz/google or whatever type pointers? Equally I have removed the "commercial links" one as that really is an open invite for spammers to wander along a place links.

I hope at least some of this does make sense to you. The book is good - that page worries me looking longer term? Cheers -- Herby talk thyme 11:48, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Hi Herb

I'm using this as a resource for a workshop I'm running this weekend. The idea of the workshop has broadened to explore the ways in which software people update their skills so this resource list is just a check list (with examples for the field I'm currently learning - the semantic web). I would be grateful if you would let it run till my workshop is over, then we can see if any useful material comes out to work into a more generally useful book. I'm sorry if you think perhaps this is not a legitimate use of wikibooks - I deid ask on the technical discussion board and got no answer so I went ahead.

ChrisWallace (talk) 13:36, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

 * Fair enough - I certainly won't edit it for now. However bear in mind that Wikibooks is intended to provide "stand alone" content for readers as so external links to any real content are not good practice.  Equally specific links pages really are very inappropriate usually - there are far easier ways for people to find things via search engines & they are very hard to maintain & ensure they are up to date.  Thanks -- Herby  talk thyme 10:23, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Obsolete page XQuery/HelloWorld/Serialisation ?
This page seems to be no longer used. Can you confirm here that it can be deleted? Thanks Recent Runes (talk) 16:54, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

Yes looks like a mistake to me. User:ChrisWallace

title: User talk:ChrisWallace


text:
User talk:Turk~enwikibooks

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Mattb112885 (talk to me) 00:47, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

images
Jared, a couple of notes about images. 1) images need a caption explaining their relevance to the topic at hand.  2)  Can you make the image smaller. The size can be modified. Look at the code (under edit this page) for other images to see how to do this. If you have problems let me know. Thanks. --PaulWLepp 16:55, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Turk. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Turk~enwikibooks that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:48, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 05:36, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Turk~enwikibooks


text:
User talk:Varun dt

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Mattb112885 (talk to me) 00:47, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Varun dt


text:
User talk:Yoram~enwikibooks

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Mattb112885 (talk to me) 00:47, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Yoram. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Yoram~enwikibooks that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:54, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 05:40, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Yoram~enwikibooks


text:
User talk:Colin Watson

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Mattb112885 (talk to me) 00:47, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Colin Watson


text:
User talk:Khanderoo~enwikibooks

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Mattb112885 (talk to me) 00:48, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Khanderoo. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Khanderoo~enwikibooks that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:23, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 05:09, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Khanderoo~enwikibooks


text:
User talk:Rednyne

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Mattb112885 (talk to me) 00:48, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Rednyne


text:
User talk:Vsharma

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Mattb112885 (talk to me) 00:49, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Vsharma


text:
User talk:Cde grey

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Mattb112885 (talk to me) 00:49, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Cde grey


text:
Corset/Popular culture

Corsets in popular culture

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

In movies and television series
 * Moulin Rouge! — several costumes feature corsets as characteristic of the era.
 * w:Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl — Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) almost suffocates from wearing a tight corset.
 * Star Trek: Voyager — Catsuits Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) worn throughout her term contained built in corsets.
 * Underworld — Selene (Kate Beckinsale) wears a black leather corset over matching latex Catsuit.
 * Van Helsing - Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale) wears an ornate underbust corset as part of her costume.

In music videos
 * Don't! — Shania Twain is wearing the corset in the hotel scene.
 * Lady Marmalade — Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mýa and Pink are shown corsetted.

Link

 * staylace: films

title: Corset/Popular culture


text:
How To Build A Teardrop Trailer/Trailer Bed

The Trailer Bed
The next step after the trailer frame is assembled is to make a trailer bed.

At this point you need to make some decisions about how you are going to attach the walls to the trailer. You need to make a choice because it will affect the width of the wooden bed you are about to make.

Just a brief aside: Keeping with the main theme of building a simple trailer we are going to be using 3/4 inch thick plywood sidewalls. Another factor is that the Harbor Freight trailer frame is actually 48.25 inches wide.

A few options
Two of these are common and the last one is what the author did.

1. Sidewalls sit on top of the trailer frame
If you decide to use this method then the Sidewalls sit directly on top of the trailer frame with the outside of the wall flush with the side rails. This means that the wall thickness infringes on available interior width. So for the 48.25" (122,56 cm) wide trailer, you have only 46.25 inches (117,48 cm) of interior width. On the plus side, you have the sidewalls fully vertically supported by the trailer frame.

2. Sidewalls are bolted to the side of the trailer frame
In this configuration, the sidewalls are attached to the side of the trailer frame's side rails. This provides a full 48.25 inch interior width. On the downside, it will reduce the interior height by 4 inches and the sidewalls are only supported by the bolts through to the trailer and the glue attached to the trailer bed. Also you'll have to create reliefs in the sidewalls for all the bolt heads on the side rail and have the wooden frame of the bed compensate for the .25 inch gap you'll have.

3. Sidewalls are half sitting on the trailer frame
The problem with option 1 is that you can't use the existing holes in the trailer frame to bolt down the bed because the bed will be too narrow. The problem with option 2 is the lack of sidewall support and creating reliefs for side rail bolt heads.

Therefore the author opted for making the bed 47.25 inches wide. This allows 0.5 inches of sidewall support and is wide enough to finesse bolts through the bed into the existing holes in the trailer frame.

Constructing the Bed
After the decision is made, the task is fairly simple. Cut a 4x8 5/8" thick sheet of plywood to the correct width and build a 2x2 pine frame to support it. The 2x2s that go across for support should be placed to align with the trailer cross members. You can place extra cross member near the front half where your weight will be when inside the trailer. Use "Polyurethane Glue" to glue it all together.

Next you'll need to buy a gallon of Black Roof Coating (roofing tar) and coat the entire underside to protect the wood from the elements. Do not coat the sides as you will be gluing them. After it's dry you can flip it over onto the trailer, line and center it up and drill holes down into the existing trailer frame holes. And finally bolt it down. Have washers on hand to space out any gaps between the cross members and the bed.

You should feel pretty good at this point. You've completed the boring work on the trailer. Next comes the fun part - putting up the side walls.

>>Next:Walls and Doors


text:
Guitar/Guitar Maintenance and Storage

Properly maintaining a valuable guitar keeps it valuable. Guitars can take a lot of abuse, especially if you play live shows and tour, and even if it pretty much "sounds the same," lack of maintenance may suddenly render the instrument unplayable. You don't need to carefully examine a guitar every day, but occasional check ups keep it good-sounding and ready to play.

=Storage=

The easiest way to take care of your guitar is to store it properly. The more expensive the guitar, the better your storage should be. It is generally accepted that the air humidity should be neither too high nor too low, thus somewhere in the 45-55% range, and the temperature of the area should be about 65-75 °F (18-24 °C). These two factors are the biggest threat to an instrument, because changes in moisture and temperature can cause permanent warping of the neck and other critical parts. For guitars made out of solid wood, it is advised to use a humidifier to prevent cracks and damage from weather change.

On the other hand, guitars made out of multi-layered(plywood) wood, typically in budget guitars, can withstand relatively more humidity and temperature changes. Keeping the guitar in a case away from direct sunlight can help with increasing the life of the guitar.

Storing Environment
The surest way to keep your guitar in good shape is to remember this simple rule: Do not expose the guitar to any climate condition that you would not want to be exposed to. If you keep this in mind, your instrument will likely last years and years.

Avoid large or rapid changes in humidity. Like your body, the guitar gets used to the climate it is in, and suddenly changing it causes stress. Humidity is the most dangerous thing that attacks an instrument, because when wood gets wet, the cell walls become softer and it is more easily bent. Often, the strings themselves are enough to bend the neck. Also, if the humidity stays way too low, then the wood will crack and the structure will weaken.

Temperature on its own is less damaging to the guitar. Wood is generally tolerant to changes in temperature, and for the most part it expands and contracts together. Extreme temperatures or rapid temperature changes, however, can cause serious damage, especially when combined with extreme humidity. Changes in temperature also affect strings, especially nylon strings. A significant change in temperature typically detunes the strings. Other areas to watch for temperature related damage are any glued joins, like where the neck meets the body, or the fretboard attaches to the neck.

Never expose your instrument to extreme temperatures for a long time. For instance, leaving your guitar in a car in the summer all day, or leaving it outside overnight are sure ways to completely destroy your instrument. Also keep the guitar out of direct sunlight as much as possible, because it makes the wood more brittle and can change the color of the instrument.

Keeping your instrument strung and in tune is another good way to make sure that you don't harm your instrument. Strings put tension on the neck. Excessive tension may make the neck bow if the guitar isn't kept in tune.

Methods of Storage
First, a simple tip: If one is playing the guitar and wishes to put it briefly aside to look for songs or notes or the like, then the best repository is the couch, the bed, or the floor (with carpet or with the guitar bag as a cushion). The basic rule reads: What lies down, cannot fall down. A guitar gets most of its scrapes because one leans it against a wall, or against a table edge, and then it is knocked over from the slightest contact or draft of air. If one had put it down, this would not have happened.

Wall Hooks
These are most often seen on the walls of guitar stores that must display dozens of instruments in a small amount of wall space. These are good, because they keep the guitar out of the way but openly displayed. These are just a U-shaped piece of metal, covered in rubber or soft plastic.

The piece screws to the wall, and the headstock rests snugly between the two pieces of metal. In regards to plasterboard walls be sure to drill into the timber studs. The weight of the guitar poses no risk to the neck or headstock. When you select a spot to hang a guitar, avoid outside walls. These are subject to more temperature change, which can risk damage to the instrument.

Guitar Stands
For the most part, guitar stands look similar to a wall hook, except instead of all the weight being on the headstock, most is on the bottom of the body and the neck is mostly supported to keep the guitar standing straight.

Each type of guitar has a specialized type of stand. For example, an Ovation guitar, which has a rounded plastic back, requires a differently shaped stand than a Fender Stratocaster or a regular acoustic guitar. Regardless of what type of stand you get, you should always make sure that it holds your guitar firmly. Some stands also have a locking device, which adds an extra level of security.

One problem you might encounter (although it is rare) is that the lacquer used on your guitar has a reaction with the rubber used to coat the stand. When you buy a new stand, you should examine the guitar every few days and look for discolorations or weak spots. As is often the case, serious guitar damage is easiest to stop before it starts.

Cases

There are two main kinds of guitar case, gig bags and hard cases. Gig bags are a favorable kind of keeping, because they give a good amount of protection, and they are also light to carry. Some often have backpack style shoulder straps. Gig bags do not protect against temperature changes very well. Hard cases, in contrast, provide excellent protection against temperature, humidity and physical damage. Hard cases are also essential for taking a guitar on an air plane, or for long journeys.

Compared to other methods of storing, cases are by far the most secure, and this is especially true of hard cases. If the guitar is secured properly in the case (almost) nothing can happen to it under standard conditions.

The biggest (and perhaps only) disadvantage of a case is that you cannot openly display your instrument the way you can on a wall hook or stand. Price is also a disadvantage, because although gig bags can be bought relatively cheaply, hard cases are expensive. Still, a cheap bag for an expensive guitar is a poor investment.

When you buy a case, you absolutely have to make sure that the guitar fits in the case. Gig bags are a little more forgiving, but you will not get a guitar to fit properly in a hard case that is too small. When you pick up the case, give it a little bit of a shake, and you should not feel or hear the guitar moving around very much.

Cabinets
Storing a guitar in a glass-front cabinet shows it off, and can help keep it at the proper humidity while being quickly accessible. The cost and required floor space may not be practical for most guitarists. One alternative is Musik Tent™, an Instrument Humidor that is portable and lightweight that uniformly humidifies, stores and displays guitars in wet and dry environments.

=Maintenance=

Body
The body often takes the most abuse, simply because it is the biggest target. To help keep a fine instrument in good condition, wipe it down with a soft cloth after playing. Don't use water-based furniture sprays. You can buy specially treated cloths and sprays for guitars at almost any music store. Dirt, sweat, and often small nicks and scrapes can just be cleaned up with a cloth, little bit of warm water. Murphy's Oil Soap can be used to clean the whole guitar. Wipe the strings with a clean cloth. Some guitarists advocate wiping the strings with warm water, but be sure to protect the fingerboard from moisture. Consider wiping your guitar strings off every time you play. Oils and dirt left on your strings make them asymmetrical—as opposed to evenly cylindrical vibrating bodies. They may even wear out a bit faster. A soft, natural fiber or "microfiber" cloth works the best and is safest for the finish. Clean the frets as you do the rest of the guitar. If necessary, carefully use 0.001 steel wool to get grime off the fingerboard next to the frets. You can also gently go over the frets to take off any minor nicks.

If you have a stained or lacquered body, you can treat it with a little bit of furniture polish. However, if you have a guitar with an untreated body, be extremely careful with polish. For these types, it is better to find some sort of cleaning oil or wax, since they help prevent hair-line cracks from developing. After cleaning, the body must be absolutely dry, because if the wood gets over-moistened, the tone of the guitar will begin to degrade.

Neck and Fretboard
The neck is probably the most important part of the guitar, especially if you want to play it for a long time. Unless the guitar is stored for extended periods of time, the tension of the strings will always be pulling against the neck and stretching it away from the body. If stored for a long period of time, strings should be loosened, to reduce the tension on the neck. If the guitar gets moist, this neck warping happens even faster. Sometimes warping can be fixed by adjusting the truss rod, but this only prolongs the death of the instrument, and can't really fix the problem.

You can also oil or wax the fretboard, but you should first determine whether the fretboard is stained or painted, and use the appropriate protection. Always remember that using too much cleaner is always worse than using no cleaner at all, and always rub it in slowly.

Another drastic way to repair a warped neck on acoustic guitars is take all the strings off, and place a small glass of water into the body. Then, keep the body in place and put a small amount of weight (1 or 2 pounds) on the neck and let it bend back into the proper shape. When it has been corrected, remove the water, keep the weight on and let the guitar dry. Hopefully the neck will remain in the correct position, however it will be much more prone to warping from that point on. Since this procedure is somewhat accident prone, some manufacturers offer special instrument air moisturizers, which you can put in a case, or on a specific area of the neck. These generally allow for a higher rate of success.

The fretboard is usually made from untreated wood, and it should be cleaned regularly, before dirt begins to build up. Usually a good time to do this is when you change your strings, which should be every month or two. You need to clean the wood between the frets, and the simplest way is using a clean damp cloth or some very fine steel wool. Use some water with a little bit of detergent to make cleaning easier. If you use steel wool, you can also clean up the edges of worn frets, which is important because smooth frets improve the life of your strings. If the frets are really worn down, they can be replaced, but this is generally not a good project to undertake yourself.

It is very important that the neck is not wet after cleaning, because water damages the structure of the neck. Your cleaning cloth should be damp, not soaking wet. After cleaning, you can also apply a coat of furniture polish to seal the wood.

Strings
A set of strings wear down slowly, if you maintain them properly. Since regular playing does some amount of damage to the strings, it's a good idea to change regularly. Full sets of strings should be replaced at the same time. If you only replace one string, the others are likely to break soon, the strings will have different tones, and the opened pack of strings will begin to corrode. When changing a set of strings, some guitarists recommend replacing them one at a time, rather than removing all strings at once, to maintain tension on the neck (i.e., remove and replace the first string, then the second, then the third, etc.).

If you do not clean your strings, they may become dull, and even begin to rust. Dirty strings also damage the frets themselves, because the grime and rust makes the strings more coarse. There are many types of string cleaners. Pharmacies sell boxes of individually wrapped alcohol-saturated pads. These are excellent for occasionally deep-cleaning strings, but protect the fingerboard.

If you clean your strings infrequently, you can just as easily use glass cleaner to release the sweat from the strings. It's easiest to soak a cloth in window cleaner, and then slip the cloth behind, and clean the whole length of each string individually. You can tell when a string is cleaned when you rub the string and the cloth is still clean. Also, you shouldn't let the cleaner remain on the strings, because residue might damage the string too. As always, protect the fingerboard from moisture. When finished, wipe the strings with a dry cloth.

Tuning Mechanisms
Tuning mechanisms are usually chromed, gold-plated, anodized, or burnished steel. Since steel rusts, especially when it contacts sweat, these pieces should be cleaned periodically. Properly oiled mechanisms work smoothly and help keep the strings in tune.

To prevent rust, clean and oil parts regularly. You can use commercial machine oils from any hardware store, but baby oil or petroleum jelly works too. Too little lubricant is better than too much—adding more is easier than removing excess. Two drops is often enough. Avoid making contact with the wood parts of the guitar because the oil could stain or discolor. Electrical components (switches, sockets, potentiometers, etc.) can also go bad if the oil gets in them.

Many tuning machines have a screw in the knob that controls how easily they turn. The knobs should be snug, with no free play, but they should not be so tight that they are difficult to turn. Care should be taken not to over-tighten, as this may break plastic tuner buttons or may strip the screw thread and require repair or replacement.

title: Guitar/Guitar Maintenance and Storage


text:
User:TheSpinningBrain~enwikibooks

This page is unintentionally left blank.

title: User:TheSpinningBrain~enwikibooks


text:
Category:Book:XQuery

fr:Catégorie:XQuery (livre)

title: Category:Book:XQuery


text:
Outsourcing/Solution Taxonomy

A taxonomy is a classification of things, as well as to the principles underlying such a classification. This is a taxonomy for the classification of the elements that make-up an outsourcing solution. The taxonomic scheme will be used to correlate with the skills and competencies required to develop and deliver the solutions. The taxonomy will have a hierarchical structure with the top level consisting of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Infrastructure and Technology Outsouricng (ITO) and Transactional Outsourcing (TO).

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
Front-office BPO: This includes customer-facing processes, such as customer service, sales, and marketing.

Back-office BPO: This includes non-customer-facing processes, such as accounting, finance, and human resources.

Front office
Customer relationship management (CRM)

 * Customer service, sales and marketing

Technical support / Help desk

Back Office

 * Accounting
 * Bookkeeping
 * Payroll processing
 * Tax preparation
 * Finance
 * Financial reporting
 * Accounts payable and receivable
 * Treasury management
 * Human resources
 * Recruiting
 * Onboarding
 * Payroll processing

Professional Employment Organization

PEO  is an outsourcing firm that provides services to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Typically, the PEO offering may include human resource consulting, safety and risk mitigation services, payroll processing, employer payroll tax filing, workers' compensation insurance, health benefits, employers' practice and liability insurance, 401k, regulatory compliance assistance, workforce management technology, and training and development.

Knowledge Process Outsourcing

KPO services include all kinds of research and information gathering. intellectual property research for patent applications; equity research, business and market research, legal and medical services; training, consultancy, and research and development in fields such as pharmaceuticals and biotechnology; and animation and design, etc.

Infastructure and Technology Outsourcing
Infrastructure and technology outsourcing (ITO) is the process of transferring the responsibility for managing and delivering an organization's IT infrastructure and technology services to a third-party provider. Information technology (IT)

 * Data center management
 * Application development
 * Network administration
 * Security management
 * Cloud computing
 * Business continuity planning

title: Outsourcing/Solution Taxonomy


text: User:Fasten/Mentoring Handbook/quote

title: User:Fasten/Mentoring Handbook/quote


text:
Apache Ant/Passing Parameters to XSLT

Motivation
You want to call a transform with a set of parameters. You want to be able to set these parameters from a build file.

Build File Target
 Running conditional XSLT test

Input null.xml
XSLT must have an input, but this example does not use it.

XSLT
        Test of Passing Three Parameters (boolean, string, integer) Test of Passing Three Parameters (boolean, string, integer) The following parameters have been set by the Apache Ant build file.
Parameter1: <xsl:value-of select="$Parameter1"/>

Parameter2: <xsl:value-of select="$Parameter2"/>

Parameter3: <xsl:value-of select="$Parameter3"/>

 </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet>

title: Apache Ant/Passing Parameters to XSLT


text:
Contemporary Educational Psychology/Chapter 5: Students with Special Educational Needs/Learning disabilities

Learning Disabilities
A learning disability (or LD) is a specific impairment of academic learning that interferes with a specific aspect of schoolwork and that reduces a student’s academic performance significantly. An LD shows itself as a major discrepancy between a student’s ability and some feature of achievement: the student may be delayed in reading, writing, listening, speaking, or doing mathematics, but not in all of these at once. A learning problem is not considered a learning disability if it stems from physical, sensory, or motor handicaps, or from generalized intellectual impairment (or mental retardation). It is also not an LD if the learning problem really reflects the challenges of learning English as a second language. Genuine LDs are the learning problems left over after these other possibilities are accounted for or excluded. Typically a student with an LD has not been helped by teachers’ ordinary efforts to assist the student when he or she falls behind academically—though what counts as an “ordinary effort,” of course, differs among teachers, schools, and students. Most importantly, though, an LD relates to a fairly specific area of academic learning. A student may be able to read and compute well enough, for example, but not be able to write.

LDs are by far the most common form of special educational need, accounting for half of all students with special needs in the United States and anywhere from 5 to 20 percent of all students, depending on how the numbers are estimated (United States Department of Education, 2005; Ysseldyke & Bielinski, 2002). Students with LDs are so common, in fact, that most teachers regularly encounter at least one per class in any given school year, regardless of the grade level they teach.

Defining Learning Disabilities Clearly
With so many students defined as having learning disabilities, it is not surprising that the term itself becomes ambiguous in the truest sense of “having many meanings.” Specific features of LDs vary considerably. Any of the following students, for example, qualify as having a learning disability, assuming that they have no other disease, condition, or circumstance to account for their behavior:
 * Albert, an eighth-grader, has trouble solving word problems that he reads, but can solve them easily if he hears them orally.
 * Bill, also in eighth grade, has the reverse problem: he can solve word problems only when he can read them, not when he hears them.
 * Carole, a fifth-grader, constantly makes errors when she reads textual material aloud, either leaving out words, adding words, or substituting her own words for the printed text.
 * Emily, in seventh grade, has terrible handwriting; her letters vary in size and wobble all over the page, much like a first- or second-grader.
 * Denny reads very slowly, even though he is in fourth grade. His comprehension suffers as a result, because he sometimes forgets what he read at the beginning of a sentence by the time he reaches the end.
 * Garnet’s spelling would have to be called “inventive,” even though he has practiced conventionally correct spelling more than other students. Garnet is in sixth grade.
 * Harmin, a night-grader, has particular trouble decoding individual words and letters if they are unfamiliar; he reads conceal as “concol” and alternate as “alfoonite.”
 * Irma, a tenth-grader, adds multiple-digit numbers as if they were single-digit numbers stuck together: 42 + 59 equals 911 rather than 101, though 23 + 54 correctly equals 77.

With so many expressions of LDs, it is not surprising that educators sometimes disagree about their nature and about the kind of help students need as a consequence. Such controversy may be inevitable because LDs by definition are learning problems with no obvious origin. There is good news, however, from this state of affairs, in that it opens the way to try a variety of solutions for helping students with learning disabilities.

Assisting Students with Learning Disabilities
There are various ways to assist students with learning disabilities, depending not only on the nature of the disability, of course, but also on the concepts or theory of learning guiding you. Take Irma, the girl mentioned above who adds two-digit numbers as if they were one-digit numbers. Stated more formally, Irma adds two-digit numbers without carrying digits forward from the ones column to the tens column, or from the tens to the hundreds column. Figure 5-2 shows the effect that her strategy has on one of her homework papers. What is going on here and how could a teacher help Irma?

Behaviorism: Reinforcement for Wrong Strategies
One possible approach comes from the behaviorist theory discussed in Chapter 2. Irma may persist with the single-digit strategy because it has been reinforced a lot in the past. Maybe she was rewarded so much for adding single-digit numbers (3+5, 7+8, etc.) correctly that she generalized this skill to two-digit problems—in fact overgeneralized it. This explanation is plausible because she would still get many two-digit problems right, as you can confirm by looking at Figure 5-2. In behaviorist terms, her incorrect strategy would still be reinforced, but now only on a “partial schedule of reinforcement.” As I pointed out in Chapter 2, partial schedules are especially slow to extinguish, so Irma persist seemingly indefinitely with treating two-digit problems as if they were single-digit problems.

From the point of view of behaviorism, changing Irma’s behavior is tricky since the desired behavior (borrowing correctly) rarely happens and therefore cannot be reinforced very often. It might therefore help for the teacher to reward behaviors that compete directly with Irma’s inappropriate strategy. The teacher might reduce credit for simply finding the correct answer, for example, and increase credit for a student showing her work—including the work of carrying digits forward correctly. Or the teacher might make a point of discussing Irma’s math work with Irma frequently, so as to create more occasions when she can praise Irma for working problems correctly.

Metacognition and Responding Reflectively
Part of Irma’s problem may be that she is thoughtless about doing her math: the minute she sees numbers on a worksheet, she stuffs them into the first arithmetic procedure that comes to mind. Her learning style, that is, seems too impulsive and not reflective enough, in sense discussed in Chapter 4. Her style also suggests a failure of metacognition (remember that idea from Chapter 3?), which is her self-monitoring of her own thinking and its effectiveness. As a solution, the teacher could encourage Irma to think out loud when she completes two-digit problems—literally get her to “talk her way through” each problem. If participating in these conversations was sometimes impractical, the teacher might also arrange for a skilled classmate to take her place some of the time. Cooperation between Irma and the classmate might help the classmate as well, or even improve overall social relationships in the classroom.

Constructivism, Mentoring, and the Zone of Proximal Development
Perhaps Irma has in fact learned how to carry digits forward, but not learned the procedure well enough to use it reliably on her own; so she constantly falls back on the earlier, better-learned strategy of single-digit addition. In that case her problem can be seen in the constructivist terms, like those that I discussed in Chapter 2. In essence, Irma has lacked appropriate mentoring from someone more expert than herself, someone who can create a “zone of proximal development” in which she can display and consolidate her skills more successfully. She still needs mentoring or “assisted coaching” more than independent practice. The teacher can arrange some of this in much the way she encourages to be more reflective, either by working with Irma herself or by arranging for a classmate or even a parent volunteer to do so. In this case, however, whoever serves as mentor should not only listen, but also actively offer Irma help. The help has to be just enough to insure that Irma completes two-digit problems correctly—neither more nor less. Too much help may prevent Irma from taking responsibility for learning the new strategy, but too little may cause her to take the responsibility prematurely.

(back to Chapter 5...)


text:
Contemporary Educational Psychology/Chapter 5: Students with Special Educational Needs/ADHD

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (or ADHD) is a problem with sustaining attention and controlling impulses. As students, almost all of us have these problems at one time or another, but a student with ADHD shows them much more frequently than usual, and often at home as well as at school. In the classroom, the student with ADHD may fidget and squirm a lot, or have trouble remaining seated, or continually get distracted and off task, or have trouble waiting for a turn, or blurt out answers and comments. The student may shift continually from one activity to another, or have trouble playing quietly, or talk excessively without listening to others. Or the student may misplace things and seem generally disorganized, or be inclined to try risky activities without enough thought to the consequences. Although the list of problem behaviors is obviously quite extensive, keep in mind that the student won’t do all of these things. It is just that over time, the student with ADHD is likely to several of them chronically or repeatedly, and in more than one setting (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). In the classroom, of course, the behaviors may annoy classmates and frustrate teachers.

Differences in Perceptions: ADHD versus High Activity
It’s important to note that classrooms are places that make heavy demands on not showing ADHD-like behaviors: students are often supposed to sit for long periods, avoid interrupting others, finish tasks after beginning them, and keep their minds (and materials) organized. Ironically, therefore, classroom life may sometimes aggravate ADHD without the teacher intending for it to do so. A student with only a mild or occasional tendency to be restless, for example, may fit in well outdoors playing soccer, but feel unusually restless indoor during class. It also should not be surprising that teachers sometimes mistake a student who is merely rather active for a student with ADHD, since any tendency to be physically active may contribute to problems with classroom management. The tendency to “overdiagnose” is more likely for boys than for girls, presumably because gender role expectations cause teachers to be especially alert to high activity in boys. Overdiagnosis is also especially likely for students who are culturally or linguistically non-Anglo (Chamberlain, 2005), presumably because cultural and language differences may sometimes lead teachers to misinterpret students’ behavior. To avoid misapplying making such mistakes, it is important to keep in mind that in true ADHD, restlessness, activity, and distractibility are widespread and sustained. A student who shows such problems at school but never at home, for example, may not have ADHD; he may simply not be getting along with his teacher or classmates.

Causes of ADHD
Most psychologists and medical specialists agree that true ADHD, as opposed to “mere” intermittent distractibility or high activity, reflects a problem in how the nervous system functions, but they do not know the exact nature or causes of the problem (Rutter, 2004, 2005). Research shows that ADHD tends to run in families, with children—especially boys—of parents who had ADHD somewhat more likely than usual to experience the condition themselves. The association does not necessarily mean, though, that ADHD is inborn or genetic. Why? Because it is possible that parents who formerly had ADHD may raise their children more strictly in an effort to prevent their own condition in their children; yet their strictness, ironically, may trigger a bit more tendency, rather than less, toward the restless distractibility characteristic of ADHD. On the other hand (or is it “on the third hand”?), the parents’ strictness may also be a result, as well as a cause of, a child’s restlessness. The bottom line for teachers: sorting out causes from effects is confusing, if not impossible, and in any case may not help much to determine actual teaching strategies to help the students learn more effectively.

Teaching Students with ADHD
Research also shows that ADHD can be reduced for many students if they take certain medications, of which the most common is methylphenidate, commonly known by the name Ritalin (Wilens, 2005; Olfson, 2003). This drug and others like it act by stimulating the nervous system, which reduces symptoms by helping a student pay better attention to the choices he or she makes and to the impact of actions on others. Unfortunately the medications do not work on all students with ADHD, especially after they reach adolescence, and in any case has certain practical problems. Drugs cost money, for one thing, which is a problem for a family without much money to begin with, or for a family lacking medical insurance that pays for medications—a particularly common situation in the United States. For another thing, drugs must be taken regularly in order to be effective, including on weekends. Keeping a regular schedule can be difficult if parents’ own schedules are irregular or simply differ from the child’s, for example because of night shifts at work or because parents are separated and share custody of the child.

In any case, since teachers are not doctors and medications are not under teachers’ control, it may be more important simply to provide an environment where a student with ADHD can organize choices and actions easily and successfully. Clear rules and procedures, for example, can reduce the “noise” or chaotic quality in the child’s classroom life significantly. The rules and procedures can be generated jointly with the child; they do not have to be imposed arbitrarily, as if the student were incapable of thinking about them reasonably. Sometimes a classmate can be enlisted to model slower, more reflective styles of working, but in ways that do not imply undue criticism of the student with ADHD. The more reflective student can complete a set of math problems, for example, while explaining what he or she is thinking about while doing the work. Sometimes the teacher can help by making lists of tasks or of steps in long tasks. And it can help to divide focused work into small, short sessions rather than grouping it into single, longer sessions. Whatever the strategies that you use, they should be consistent, predictable, and generated by the student as much as possible. By having these qualities, the strategies can strengthen the student’s self-direction and ability to screen out the distractions of classroom life. The goal for teachers, in essence, is to build the student’s metacognitive capacity, while at the same time, of course, treating the student with respect.

(back to Chapter 5...)


text:
User talk:96.4.63.20

Please stop adding nonsense to Wikibooks. It is considered vandalism. If you would like to experiment, use the sandbox. Thank you. Urbane  (Talk)   (Contributions)  14:39, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:96.4.63.20


text:
Contemporary Educational Psychology/Chapter 5: Students with Special Educational Needs/Intellectual Disabilities

Intellectual Disabilities
An intellectual disability is a significant limitation in a student’s cognitive functioning and daily adaptive behaviors (Schalock & Luckasson, 2004; American Association on Mental Retardation, 2002). The student may have limited language or impaired speech and may not perform well academically. Compared to students with learning disabilities discussed earlier, students with intellectual disabilities have impairments to learning that are broader and more significant. They score poorly on standardized tests of intelligence. Everyday tasks that most people take granted, like getting dressed or eating a meal, may be possible, but they may also take more time and effort than usual. Health and safety can sometimes be a concern (for example, knowing whether it is safe to cross a street). For older individuals, finding and keeping a job may require help from supportive others. The exact combination of challenges varies from one person to another, but it always (by definition) involves limitations in both intellectual and daily functioning.

As a teacher, you may hear more than one term for describing students with intellectual disabilities. If the disability is mild, teachers sometimes refer to a student with the disability simply as a slow learner, particularly if the student has no formal, special supports for the disability, such as a teaching assistant hired specifically to assist the student. If the disability is more marked, then the student is more likely to be referred to either as having an intellectual disability or as having mental retardation. In this chapter I primarily use the term intellectual disability, because it has fewer negative connotations while still describing one key educational aspect of the disability, cognitive impairment. Keep in mind, however, that actual intellectual disabilities are always more than cognitive: they also involve challenges about adapting to everyday living.

Levels of Support for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities
Intellectual disabilities happen in different degrees or amounts, though most often are relatively mild. Traditionally the intensity or “amount” of the disability was defined by scores on a standardized test of scholastic aptitude (or “IQ test”), with lower scores indicating more severe disability. (More about these tests in Chapter 10.) Because of the insensitivity of such tests to individuals’ daily social functioning, however, current trends are toward defining intensities by the amount of support needed by the individual. Table 5-1 summarizes the most commonly used scheme for this purpose, one created by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAMR, 2002). Levels of support range from intermittent (just occasional or “as needed” for specific activities) to pervasive (continuous in all realms of living). As a classroom teacher, the intellectual disabilities that you are most likely to see are the ones requiring the least support in your classroom. A student requiring only intermittent support may require special help with some learning activities or classroom routines, but not others; he or she might need help with reading or putting on winter clothes, for example, but primarily on occasions when there is pressure to do these things relatively quickly. Students requiring somewhat more support are likely to spend somewhat less time in your classroom and more time receiving special help from other professionals, such as a special education teacher, speech and language specialist, or an assistant to these professionals. These circumstances have distinct implications for ways of teaching these students.

Teaching Students with Intellectual Disabilities
There are many specific techniques that can help in teaching students with mild or moderate intellectual disabilities, but most can be summarized into three more general strategies. The first is to give more time and practice than usual; the second is to embed activities into the context of daily life or functioning where possible; and the third is to include the child both in social and in academic activities, rather than just one or the other. Let’s look briefly at each of these ideas.

Giving More Time and Practice Than Usual
If a student has only a mild intellectual disability, he or she can probably learn important fundamentals of the academic curriculum—basic arithmetic, for example, and basic reading. Because of the disability, though, the student may need more time or practice than most other students. He or she may be able to read many words by sight (day, night, morning, afternoon, etc.), but need longer than other students to recognize and say them. Or the student may know that 2 + 3 = 5, but need help applying this math fact to real objects; you (or a helper) might need to show the student that two pencils plus three pencils make five pencils.

Giving extra help takes time and perseverance, and can try the patience of the student (and of you, too). To deal with this problem, it may help to reward the student frequently for effort and successes with well-timed praise, especially if it is focused on specific, actual achievements; “You added that one correctly,” may be more helpful than “You’re a hard worker,” even if both comments are true. Giving appropriate praise is in turn easier if you set reasonable, “do-able” goals by breaking skills or tasks into steps that the student is likely to learn without becoming overly discouraged. At the same time, it is important not to insult the student with goals or activities that are too easy or by using curriculum materials clearly intended for children who are much younger. Setting expectations too low actually deprives a student with an intellectual disability of rightful opportunities to learn—a serious ethical and professional mistake (Bogdan, 2006). In many curriculum areas, fortunately, there already exist materials that are simplified, yet also appropriate for older students (Snell, et al., 2005). Special education teacher-specialists can often help in finding them and in devising effective ways of using them.

Adaptive and Functional Skills
Students with intellectual disabilities present especially clear examples of a university dilemma of teaching: since there is not enough time to teach everything, how do we choose what to teach? One basis for selecting activities is to relate learning goals to students’ everyday lives and activities, just as you would with all students. This strategy addresses the other defining feature of mental retardation, the student’s difficulties with adapting to and functioning in everyday living. In teaching addition and subtraction, for example, you can create examples about the purchasing of common familiar objects (e.g., food) and about the need to make or receive change for the purchases. Similar considerations apply to learning new reading or oral language vocabulary. Instead of simply learning words in a “basal reading” series (or reading textbook), try encouraging the student to learn words that are especially useful to the student’s own life. Often the student, not you yourself, is the best person to decide what these words actually are.

An adaptive, functional approach can help in nonacademic areas as well. In learning to read or “tell time” on a clock, for example, try focusing initially on telling the times important to the student, such as when he or she gets up in the morning or when schools starts. As you add additional times that are personally meaningful to the student, he or she works gradually toward full knowledge of how to read the hands on a clock. Even if the full knowledge proves slow to develop, however, the student will at least have learned the most useful clock knowledge first.

Include the Student Deliberately in Group Activities
The key word here is inclusion: the student should participate in and contribute to the life of the class as much as possible. This means that wherever possible, the student attends special events (assemblies, field days) with the class; that if the class plays a group game, then the student with the disability is part of the game; that if classmates do an assignment as a group, then if at all possible the student is assigned to one of the groups. The changes resulting from these inclusions are real, but can be positive for everyone. On the one hand, they foster acceptance and helpfulness toward the child with the disability; classmates learn that school is partly about providing opportunities for everyone, and not just about evaluating or comparing individuals’ skills. On the other hand, the changes caused by inclusion stimulate the student with the disability to learn as much as possible from classmates, socially and academically. Among other benefits, group activities can give the student chances to practice how to “belonging” skills—how to greet classmates appropriately, or when and how to ask the teacher a question. These are skills, I might add, that are beneficial for everyone to learn, disabled or not. (I discuss group work more thoroughly in Chapter 8,“Instructional Strategies.”)

(back to Chapter 5...)

Kliewer, C., Biklen, D., Kasa-Hendrickson, C. (2006). Who may be literate? Disability and resistance to the cultural denial of competence. American Educational Research Journal, 43, 163-192. ==References==


text:
Contemporary Educational Psychology/Chapter 5: Students with Special Educational Needs/Behavioral Disorders

Behavioral Disorders
Behavioral disorders are a diverse group of conditions in which a student chronically performs highly inappropriate behaviors. A student with this condition might seek attention, for example, by acting out disruptively in class. Other students with the condition might behave aggressively, be distractible and overly active, seem anxious or withdrawn, or seem disconnected from everyday reality. As with learning disabilities, the sheer range of signs and symptoms defies concise description. But the problem behaviors do have several general features in common (Kauffman, 2005; Hallahan & Kauffman, 2006): The variety among behavioral disorders means that estimates of their frequency also tend to vary among states, cities, and provinces. It also means that in some cases, a student with a behavioral disorder may be classified as having a different condition, such as ADHD or a learning disability. In other cases, a behavioral problem shown in one school setting may seem serious enough to be labeled as a behavioral disorder, even though a similar problem occurring in another school may be perceived as serious, but not serious enough to deserve the label. In any case, available statistics suggest that only about 1-2 percent of students, or perhaps less, have true behavioral disorders—a figure that is only about one half or one third of the frequency for intellectual disabilities (Kauffman, 2005). Because of the potentially disruptive effects of behavioral disorders, however, students with this condition are of special concern to teachers. Just one student who is highly aggressive or disruptive can interfere with the functioning of an entire class, and challenge even the best teacher’s management skills and patience.
 * they tend to be extreme
 * they persist for extended periods of time
 * they tend to be socially unacceptable (e.g. unwanted sexual advances or vandalism against school property)
 * they affect school work
 * they have no other obvious explanation (e.g. a health problem or temporary disruption in the family)

Strategies for Teaching Students with Behavioral Disorders
The most common challenges of teaching students with behavioral disorders have to do with classroom management—a topic discussed more thoroughly in Chapter 7, "Classroom Management and the Learning Environment". Three important ideas discussed there, however, also deserve special emphasis here: # identifying circumstances that trigger inappropriate behaviors, # teaching of interpersonal skills explicitly, and # disciplining a student fairly.

Identifying Circumstances That Trigger Inappropriate Behaviors
Dealing with a disruption is more effective if you can identify the specific circumstances or event that triggers it, rather than focusing on the personality of the student doing the disrupting. A wide variety of factors can trigger inappropriate behavior (Heineman, Dunlap, & Kincaid, 2005): By identifying the specific variables often associated with disruptive behaviors, it is easier to devise ways to prevent the behaviors, either by avoiding the triggers if this is possible, or by teaching the student alternative, but quite specific, ways of responding to the triggering circumstance.
 * physiological effects—including illness, fatigue, hunger, or side-effects from medications;
 * physical features of the classroom—such as the classroom being too warm or too cold, the chairs being exceptionally uncomfortable for sitting, or seating patterns that interfere with hearing or seeing;
 * instructional choices or strategies that frustrate learning—including restricting students’ choices unduly, giving instructions that are unclear, choosing activities that are too difficult or too long, or preventing students from asking questions when they need help

Teaching Interpersonal Skills Explicitly
Because of their history and behavior, some students with behavior disorders have had little opportunity to learn appropriate social skills. Simple courtesies (like remembering to say please or thanks) may not be totally unknown, but may unpracticed and seem unimportant to the student, as might body language (like eye contact or sitting up to listen to a teacher rather than slouching and looking away). These skills can be taught in ways that do not make them part of punishment, make them seem “preachy,” or put a student to shame in front of classmates. Depending on the age or grade-level of the class, one way is by reading or assigning books and stories in which the characters model good social skills. Another is through games that require courteous language to succeed; one that I recall from my own school days, for example, was called “Mother, May I?” (Sullivan & Strang, 2002). Still another is through programs that link an older student or adult from the community as a partner to the student at risk for behavior problems; a prominent example of such a program in the United States is Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America, which arranges for older individuals to act as mentors for younger boys or girls (Tierney, Grossman, & Resch, 1995; Newburn & Shiner, 2006).

In addition, strategies based on behaviorist theory have proved effective for many students, especially if the student needs opportunities simply to practice social skills that he has learned only recently and may still feel awkward or self-conscious in using (Algozzine & Ysseldyke, 2006). Several behaviorist techniques were discussed in Chapter 2, including the use of positive reinforcement, extinction, generalization, and the like. In addition to these, teachers can arrange for contingency contracts, which are agreements between the teacher and a student about exactly what work the student will do, how it will be rewarded, and what the consequences will be if the agreement is not fulfilled (Wilkinson, 2003). An advantage of all such behaviorist techniques is their precision and clarity: there is little room for misunderstanding about just what your expectations are as the teacher. The precision and clarity in turn makes it less tempting or necessary for you, as teacher, to become angry about infractions of rules or a student’s failure to fulfill contracts or agreements, since the consequences tend already to be relatively obvious and clear. “Keeping your cool” can be especially helpful when dealing with behavior that is by nature annoying or disrupting.

Fairness in Disciplining
Many strategies for helping a student with a behavior disorder may be spelled out in the student’s individual educational plan, such as discussed earlier in this chapter. The plan can (and indeed is supposed to) serve as a guide in devising daily activities and approaches with the student. Keep in mind, however, that since an IEP is akin to a legal agreement among a teacher, other professionals, a student and the student’s parents, departures from it should be made only cautiously and carefully, if ever. Although such departures may seem unlikely, a student with a behavior disorder may sometimes be exasperating enough to make it tempting to use stronger or more sweeping punishments than usual (for example, isolating a student for extended times). In case you are tempted in this direction, remember that every IEP also guarantees the student and the student’s parents due process before an IEP can be changed. In practice this means consulting with everyone involved in the case—especially parents, other specialists, and the student himself—and reaching agreement before adopting new strategies that differ significantly from the past.

Instead of “increasing the volume” of punishments, a better approach is to keep careful records of the student’s behavior and of your own responses to it, documenting the reasonableness of your rules or responses to any major disruptions. By having the records, collaboration with parents and other professionals can be more productive and fair-minded, and increase others’ confidence in your judgments about what the student needs in order to fit in more comfortably with the class. In the long term, more effective collaboration leads both to better support and to more learning for the student (as well as to better support for you as teacher!).

(back to Chapter 5...)


text:
Computer Systems Engineering

This is a book about Computer Systems Engineering. A frequent occurrence in the design of computer systems is the challenge of building a system containing hardware and software components, possibly as part of a larger system. The development of computer systems themselves falls within this scope as does the development of a vast array of devices such as digital cameras, hand-held computers, location aware systems, robots and other types of embedded systems, and even such applications as web sites on spacecraft.

In all of these cases decisions have to be made about how to design the system to have the maximum impact and effect. Decisions have to be made about alternative approaches, trade-offs need to be addressed, and decisions on all the many facets of design must be justified through technical and economic insight and judgment. Systems engineering is the discipline within which these matters are addressed in a carefully considered fashion.

The IEEE Computer Society (IEEE-CS) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the two principle computer related professional associations, include a computer systems engineering requirement in their model computer engineering body of knowledge described in Computer Curriculum 2001. This book addresses that requirement; the Table of Contents closely follows the coverage of material in the computer systems engineering body of knowledge. It is intended primarily as a textbook for students in computer science and computer engineering, but it may also serve as a useful reference for professionals as they design and build computer based systems.

The text assumes that students have a background including integral and differential calculus, basic probability, and are familiar with basic computer architecture. A third-year student in computer science or computer engineering would typically have this background and this book would be appropriate for a computer systems engineering course at that level.

System Models and Analysis

 * /Reliability models/
 * /Markov models/
 * /Queueing system models/
 * /Life cycle cost models/

Requirements Analysis and Elicitation

 * /Identification of need, feasibility and economic considerations/
 * /Determining requirements/
 * /Human factors, issues, standards/
 * /Non-functional requirements/

Specification

 * /Functional and non-functional specifications/
 * /Quality, completeness, consistency, simplicity, verifiability, basis for design/
 * /Specification in the event of failure/
 * /Degraded modes of operation/
 * /Safety/

System Architectural Design

 * /Subdivision into subsystems/
 * /Elements of a high quality design/
 * /System-level design strategies/
 * /Approaches to architectural design/
 * /Design for performance, reliability, manufacturability, maintainability, etc./
 * /Failure modes/
 * /Common cause failures/

Implementation

 * /Choosing technologies/
 * /Rapid application development/
 * /Role of standards/

Testing

 * /Types of testing/
 * /Test plans/
 * /Regression testing/

Maintenance

 * /Types of maintenance/
 * /Maintenance measurement/
 * /Configuration management/

Project Management

 * /Resource allocation/
 * /Allocation of decision making responsibility/
 * /Project planning, Gantt charts/
 * /Management metrics/

Hardware and Software Co-design

 * /Application areas where coordinated development is important/
 * /Demands of hard real-time features/
 * /Hardware and software co-design and trade-offs/

Appendices

 * /Probability/
 * /Poisson Processes/

Resources and Further Reading

 * Microprocessor Design
 * Embedded Systems
 * Assembly Language

title: Computer Systems Engineering