Group work

How Does Group Work Contribute to Teaching and Learning in Primary Schools?Group work, known to others as collaborative or concerted acquisition, is defined as a â€Å"situation in which, two or more people learn or attempt to larn something together† [ Wikipedia Contributors, 2010 ] . This paper focuses on how on the job collaboratively impacts both instruction and acquisition in primary schools. It describes the background to the development of collaborative acquisition and high spots the techniques frequently employed. The rules to effectual group work are explained, with both advantages and disadvantages noted. Collaborative acquisition is a pedagogical scheme which utilizes a assortment of larning activities to heighten a pupil ‘s apprehension of a peculiar subject. This is an betterment to traditional acquisition theoretical accounts besides defined as non-interactive talks, where cognition is gained from direct talks or the reading of books and articles. Traditional larning bids really small interaction or engagement from the pupils, hence a batch or really small may be learnt depending on the person. Collaborative larning accordingly stands as a constructivist attack to acquisition, and is identified as arising from a constructivist epistemology, as pupils are asked to take part and lend to their ain acquisition and development. The thoughts of bookmans such as Burner, Kohlberg, Piaget and Vygotsky are used in the development of collaborative acquisition, which basically implies that both the pupil and the environment are actively dynamic entities in the acquisition procedure as the pupil tries to portray the lessons. This procedure requires that cognition be discovered and translated utilizing linguistic communication and other larning Plutos to which the pupils can actively associate. Lawrence Kohlberg researched the moral determinations made by kids. His probe is such that â€Å"he developed an interview procedure offering a figure of scenarios, each with a moral dilemma† for which he had pre-determined replies. He realized that six phases of moral development existed and that some people are unable to make most advanced degrees of ethical reading. He thereby concluded that ; â€Å"the development of moral concluding happens in a peculiar sequence, and that each measure of the manner is a precursor to the next† [ KidsDevelopment.co.uk, 2010 ] . Jean Piaget ‘s theory of Cognitive Development suggests that persons go through a series of phases on their manner to independent thought. Piaget provinces that â€Å"all cognition refering world consequences from actions or operations upon it, which makes it alter, uncovering its stable and variational properties† ( Piaget, 1980 p222 ) . Lev Vygotsky believed that socialisation increases cognition and frequently clip changes a kid ‘s ideas and behaviors. Vygotsky suggests that larning is achieved in three ways ; imitative, instructed and collaborative. Imitative larning involves the pupil merely copying what was taught and instructed acquisition involves the pupil following waies antecedently given. Vygotsky ‘s work was focussed on two of import thoughts. First being the Zone of Proximal Development ( ZPD ) ; this describes the degree of distinction between a job that a pupil can work out independently and a job in which a pupil will necessitate the aid of others. ZPD is frequently identified as an person ‘s degree of existent competence relation to their degree for possible development. The 2nd thought is known as staging and describes the facet of support given to pupils when it is desired. Group work allows pupils to work together in little squads, uniting people with changing backgrounds, experiences, proficient and rational competences, towards the attainment of a specific aim. Each member of the squad has the duty of larning the stuff for himself, while besides assisting other members to clearly understand the lesson therefore making an â€Å"atmosphere of achievement† ( Palmer, Peters and Streetman. 2008 ) . Students thereby derive both cognition and societal accomplishments. The usage of group treatments helps pupils to explicate constructs and thoughts by supplying immediate feedbacks. Students learn how to trouble-shoot hand in glove in order to happen the best solution to a job. â€Å"When pupils formulate their ain solutions in this mode, they are genuinely believing critically ( Davis, Mahler & A ; Noddings, 1990 ) . Swortzel expresses that there are two major theoretical attacks to group work â€Å"Motivational and Cognitive† ( Swortzel, 1997 ) . Group work is seen as motivational because pupils recognize that their success or failure in the attainment of the specified end is dependent on them being able to work together as a squad. They thereby encourage each other to acquire the assigned undertakings done decently and on clip, in so making â€Å"cooperative acquisition additions pupils ‘ motive to make academic work† ( Johnson, Johnson & A ; Holubec, 1986 ) . The cognitive attack suggests that through group work pupils go more critical with their thought. Students are stimulated to believe ‘outside the box ‘ , therefore geting increased degrees of perceptual experience, consciousness, and concluding and judgment abilities. Group treatments are really synergistic with each person showing their point of view. Within a diverse group, there will be doubtless changing sentiments accordingly foregrounding attacks to the same subject. A collaborative model must foremost be established before the execution of collaborative larning techniques. The instructor should research collaborative acquisition and observer other instructors who have already implement the usage of group work. The instructor should hold on a good apprehension of the advantages and disadvantages to group work and must develop a acute grasp for the technique of scaffolding. The instructor so needs to make up one's mind if collaborative acquisition is ideal for the topic being taught, the type of pupils and take into history schoolroom limitations, if any.Teachers implementing collaborative acquisition are expected to be competent in the undermentioned countries:* Stipulating instructional aims * Determining group size and assign pupils to groups * Determining Group Size and Assign Students to Group * Classroom agreement * Planning instructional stuffs to advance Interdependence * Assigning group functions * Assigning undertakings * Structuring positive mutuality and answerability * Explaining the standards for success * Stipulating desired behaviors Before implementing collaborative larning the instructor should explicate to the pupils their determination for the usage of group work and explicate the advantages and disadvantages. The finding of group sizes may change depending on the nature of the undertaking and the work load. Groups can be homogenous or heterogenous, grouping pupils with similar involvements and strengths or they may be wholly indiscriminately selected. Once groups are established they normally do non alter really frequently, so as to let pupils to develop a constructive working relationship with each other. It is of import that the furniture in the schoolroom be organized in a manner which allows the pupils to work as a unit, sooner confronting each other, whilst leting for their flexible motions. Teachers should take into history the bing resources needed for successful undertaking completion and guarantee that they are readily accessible by the groups. The instructions and stuffs a instructor chooses for a group should guarantee that each member of the group makes a meaningful part and that single assignments within the group will be equally distributed. Teachers should construction positive mutuality and answerability by regularly proving both the groups and the members of the group for apprehension of the capable affair. Members should be encouraged to be able to actively support the stance of the group and their ain. The standards for success of the group should be clearly communicated and measures put into topographic point to measure the group ‘s public presentation as a unit every bit good as the single public presentations of the members. Once the groups have been established, instructors need to supervise the behavior of the pupils and aid with demands while monitoring. In so making, instructors may help with the answering of inquiries and supply and jump point of position or sentiment. Teachers may besides supply feedback on the work completed or the advancement made. Should struggles originate within the groups, instructors should step in to guarantee that such struggles are rapidly resolved and explicate the deductions of unwanted behaviors. It is besides really of import that instructors provide approbation and, or motive where it is deserved. Students play the most of import function in the art of collaborative acquisition. Their functions include and are non limited to, working together, actively listening to each other, maintaining records of work and advancement, oppugning each other, presuming personal duty and finishing the assigned undertaking.An article written by Dillenbourg and Schneider provinces that there are a few mechanisms to collaborative acquisition:* Conflict or Disagreement, proposing that when equal to peer struggles originate, societal factors cause scholars to disregard the dissension and to some extent forces them to happen a executable solution to the job. One facet of this theory states that diverging point of views normally lead to academic additions, while the other provinces that â€Å"when struggles are non verbalized they do non foretell positive outcomes† ( Dillenbourg and Schneider, 1995 ) . This article draws two decisions relative to this mechanism one being that â€Å"slight misi nterpretations can be every bit efficient as a clear struggle between two agents who severally believe P and non P† and the 2nd being that â€Å"verbal interactions generated to work out struggle are related to larning outcomes† ( Dillenbourg and Schneider, 1995 ) . * Alternative Proposal besides referred to as the â€Å"confirmation biases† by Dillenbourg and Schneider ( 1995 ) . In so making pupils actively develop thoughts that support their suggestions and wholly disregard thoughts that do non. They frequently times can non abandon their thought or suggestion because another suggestion may non be forthcoming ; nevertheless other group members make alternate suggestions. * ( Self- ) account ; the Self-Explanation consequence, as it is in known in many cognitive scientific discipline literature, describes that in a state of affairs where one pupil is more cognition that the other, the latter will automatically larn from the signifier, and besides that the former will hold on a better apprehension of the subject being explained as he endeavours to interpret into to footings to with the latter pupil can actively associate. Having successfully explained the more knowing pupil would hold improved upon his accomplishments to interrelate and gained improved assurance. Had there been any uncertainnesss in the account, person even more knowing might be able to clear up. * Internalization ; the article explains this mechanism as one in which pupils explain or justify their suggestions to each other, the verbalisation of such impacts all involved and that the constructs communicated are integrated into the hearers concluding. â€Å"Thinking is viewed a treatment that 1 has with oneself and which develops on the footing of treatments we had with others† ( Dillenbourg and Schneider, 1995 ) . The article besides states that for this mechanism to be effectual a few conditions must be met, â€Å"One status is that topics can merely absorb constructs which are within their ‘zone of proximal development ‘ , i.e. within the vicinity of the current cognitive degree. Another status is that the less able equal is non left as a inactive hearer, but participates into the joint job work outing strategy† ( Dillenbourg and Schneider, 1995 ) * Appropriation, this is explained as one pupil detecting the thoughts or accounts of another and taking those thoughts or accounts and edifice on it to do their ain. Learning is double as the first pupil reinterprets his actions relative to that of the 2nd, and the 2nd pupil got a sound foundation on which to construct. * Shared Cognitive Load, this involves the distribution of undertakings which will come together to accomplish the overall aim of the group. When the work load is even shared between pupils, each pupil can work meticulously on the assigned undertaking, thereby extinguishing redundancies and bettering the efficiency of the group. * Mutual Regulation, by using any of or a combination of the mechanisms antecedently described, pupils frequently have to modulate the actions of each other to guarantee that the stipulated guidelines are adhered to for the attainment of their ends. * Social Grounding, described limpidly by Dillenbourg and Schneider as â€Å"the mechanism by which an person efforts to keep the belief that his spouse has understood what he meant, at least to an extent which is sufficient to transport out the undertaking at hand† ( Dillenbourg and Schneider, 1995 ) . This mechanism requires the talker to look into for apprehension, and where misunderstand is seeable to clear up, thereby constructing a portion apprehension of the job. George W. Gagnon. Jr. , and Michelle Collay developed another design for collaborative acquisition and in this theoretical account teachers develop a series of stairss that their instruction construction follows every bit listed below: * â€Å"They develop a state of affairs for the pupils to explain† ( Gagnon and Collay, 2004 ) * â€Å"They select a procedure for groupings of stuffs and students† ( Gagnon and Collay, 2004 ) * â€Å"They build a span between what pupils already cognize and what the instructors want them to learn† ( Gagnon and Collay,2004 ) * â€Å"They anticipate inquiries to inquire and reply without giving away an explanation† ( Gagnon and Collay, 2004 ) * â€Å"They encourage pupils to exhibit a record of their thought by sharing it with others† ( Gagnon and Collay, 2004 ) , and * â€Å"They solicit pupils ‘ contemplations about their learning† ( Gagnon and Collay, 2004 ) .A comparing of there collaborative techniques, is illustrated in Appendix 1.Johnson, Johnson, and Smith ( 1991 ) high spots three cardinal undertakings instructors should follow for the rating of the efficiency and effectivity after there group work is completed. First, instructors should supply a closing through summarisation. That is, to sum up the lessons of import points or to hold each group explain their work and the points they found of most significance. Second is to measure the pupils larning, by measuring how they have attained or failed to achieve the coveted result and supplying the feedback required, leting pupils to better on their ability to work as a group and therefore personal development. Third, instructors should do note of the techniques that worked and why they worked and if necessary adjust their lessons. A popular definition of constructivism is that â€Å"Constructivism is a theory of cognition which claims that cognition is non passively received but actively constructed by the scholar, and that the map of knowledge is adaptative, functioning to organize experience, instead than detect reality† ( online, 2010 ) Group work has academic, societal and physiological benefits to both pupils and instructors. Academic benefits include: the development of critical thought and the active engagement of pupils in the acquisition procedure. The societal benefits include: the development of societal larning systems for pupils and physiques diverseness apprehension among pupils and instructors. The physiological benefits include: increased self-esteem through peer-to-peer instructions and it reduces the anxiousness of pupils. Although collaborative larning seems to be dependent on the actions and willingness to larn, which should for many be a natural procedure, there are many disadvantages as there are advantages to is execution. A few of the obstructions faced are ; some pupils prefer to work competitively instead that collaboratively, instructors lack the ability to readily measure the work produced, instructors sometimes do non cognize how to mensurate the effectivity of their instructions in a collaborative scene, sometimes the assigned undertakings are non applicable to a pupils ends or abilities, and sometimes the undertakings are non â€Å"difficult plenty to dispute but non so hard as to stonewall a conversation.† Some groups may be comprised of ‘slow scholars ‘ who may be viewed as others as priceless, thereby advancing ‘superior ‘ behavior by the ‘fast scholars ‘ . Table 1, Appendix 2, illustrated assorted group constructions and the advantages and dis advantages to these groups. Nigel Hastings and Karen Chantrey-Wood from Nottingham Trent University explores the many schemes instructors utilize in group work activities, many of which are strongly endorsed by a commission known as the ‘Plowden Committee ‘ . â€Å"By disbursement clip with groups of kids, instructors could set their instruction to the demands of the persons of that group to a greater extent than when working with an full category of pupils as a whole. This besides ensures that all kids have a sensible sum of direct contact with their instructor regardless of the fact that they are working in groups† [ Hastings & A ; Wood, 2002 ] . This suggests that collaborative acquisition enhances the happening of individualised attending given to pupils, by presenting â€Å"one-on-one† interactions between pupils and equals and pupils and instructors. The article besides illustrates that schoolroom agreement is really of import in guaranting that collaborative acquisition is efficient and effectual. It shows that collaborative acquisition in widely accepted and really normally practiced across the Earth ; â€Å"In primary schoolrooms throughout the UK, it is standard pattern for kids to sit around sorted tabular arraies – normally with four to six kids in each group. Such agreements are besides common in primary schools in other English-speaking states, Australia and USA for illustration. Precisely because this constellation is so normal and so good established in our schools, it is unusual to inquire about its principle or to oppugn its appropriateness† [ Hastings & A ; Wood, 2002 ] . An abstract written from an experiment conducted by Gillies and Ashman, â€Å"One hundred and 92 Grade 6 kids participated in a survey which compared the effects on behavioral interactions and accomplishment of ( a ) co-op acquisition in which group members were trained to join forces to ease each other ‘s acquisition, and ( B ) co-op acquisition in which members were non trained but were simply told to assist each other. Graded random assignment of participants occurred so that each gender-balanced group consisted of one high- , two medium- , and one low-ability student†¦Ã¢â‚¬  ( Gillies & A ; Ashman, 1999 ) . The observations showed that the pupils who worked in the ‘Trained ‘ groups where more antiphonal and helpful to each other, giving accounts where necessary to help as they worked together. It showed that pupils in the ‘untrained ‘ groups were a batch less helpful towards or concerted with each other. From the consequences it was besides co ncluded that â€Å"the kids in the ‘trained ‘ groups exercised more autonomy with their acquisition and obtained higher acquisition results than ‘untrained ‘ peers† ( Gillies & A ; Ashman, 1999 ) . This survey is one of the many to certify to the success of group work. Despite some drawbacks Collaborative acquisition has legion benefits, as is explained, runing from academic to physiological and it execution in primary schools is rather a positive move. Students at the primary school degree are rather waxy and there is no better clip for them to develop the really valuable competencies that working in a group has to offer. At the primary school degree they are mature plenty to hold an apprehension of what group work requires. Many of the surveies conducted were centralized around childhood developments. Students who can successfully work in groups from the primary school degree are normally better equipped for when come ining higher degree larning establishments. They would hold learnt to comfortably associate with equals and grownups, such as instructors or other authorization figures, they would hold learnt the value of self-expression and self-explanation, actively listen and esteem the positions of others. These pupils realize that as persons w e have different backgrounds, experiences and traditions and as such may hold diverging attacks to the same job. These pupils will besides be better able to distinguish between the demand to work collaborative and the demand to work competitively and in so making will cognize when best to use the several attacks. This research has revealed that both the instructors and the pupils play a polar function in the success of collaborative acquisition. Teachers are non expected to merely delegate undertakings and sit back while the pupils work on their ain. Teachers must play an active function throughout the procedure. They must be after for the assignment with clearly structured undertakings that will advance collaborative interactions, promote mutuality and excite cognitive thought among pupils. Teacher must supervise the procedure supplying ongoing feedback and be readily able to decide struggles should they originate. Teachers should be able to actively scaffold their pupils, cognizing when their support is needed and that it should bit by bit be withdraw. Students in order to successfully accomplish their aims in groups must appreciate the benefits of group work. They must hold a clear apprehension of the coveted aim and the sub-task demand to successfully accomplish the aim. They must be able to actively and reflectively listen to each other and utilize creativeness and objectiveness to work positively together. In so making they will larn to further positive work attitudes with others, thereby bettering on their interpersonal accomplishments as they prepare for the work universe. Appendix 1 Three Constructivist Design Models [ 1 ] 1. The Learning Cycle 2. The Learning Step developed by George W. Gagnon. Jr. and Michelle Collay 3. The Information Construction ( ICON ) theoretical account created by Robert O. McClintock and John B. Black, and is really similar to Dillenbourg and Schneider.Appendix 2Table 1: Forms of Cooperative Groups [ 2 ]Name OF GROUP WHAT IS THIS? WORKS BEST FOR Benefits Drawback Pair-share 2 pupils with one job portion their thoughts or inquiries. Each individual speaks, listens, & A ; gives feedback. Content that requires treatment, contemplation, or account. Increased engagement clip, Helps those who are diffident Fewer positions and solutions Saber saw Each member of the little group researches one portion of the inquiry /content for a certain sum of clip. The members of the group come back together. Each member teaches his/her portion to the remainder of the group. Content with four or five parts to research. Students gain learning and research accomplishments Some pupils feel pressured by a clip bound Split-class treatment The category is split into half. Each side discusses /debates their cognition /beliefs, etc. Arguments or treatments Students may alter their sentiment or develop a different position Some pupils may talk less with such a big group. Random groups of 3 Class is split into groups of 3. The groups discuss the subject. Predicting what will go on, reacting to a state of affairs. Receive a assortment of feedback, group members are accountable Easy to go forth out or team up against a diffident pupil or one who has a different sentiment Ability/Interest/Friendship Group Students are divided into groups based on some quality that they all have in common. Making plays/skits or an activity in which pupils must work together outside of category. Students can work at a gait that best suits them, pupils are seldom world-weary and frequently motivated It is unrealistic to happen a wholly homogenous group, weaker or unpopular pupils may be excluded. Diverseness Groups Students are formed into groups where they come from a broad assortment of backgrounds, involvements, etc. Researching geographics, history, and diverse life styles. There are many chances to derive different positions Minorities may go anomic Multi-aged groups Students are divided into groups in which there are a mixture of ages Older pupils learning younger pupils ( i.e. scientific discipline experiments ) . Older students- there is less force per unit area to vie with equals, Younger pupils fell of import that an older individual is passing clip with them Older pupils may be a bad influence ; Older pupils may non cognize how to work with a younger kid or an â€Å" at hazard † pupil Peer-led Conferences Students prepare and take a treatment of stuff with parents, teachers, pupils, etc. A major undertaking in which pupils set up Stationss for several intelligences. Students get the chance to genuinely learn, pupils learn self assurance. Students whose parents are inactive in the school may be alienated from those whose parents participate ; some pupils may non be involved in interactions.Notes:These diagrams were obtained from: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/implementation_sub1.htmlThis tabular array was obtained from: hypertext transfer protocol: //projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php? title=Cooperative_Learning # Frequently_Asked_Questions_about_Cooperative_LearningMentions* B. , Mahler, C. A. & A ; Noddings, N. ( 1990 ) . Constructivist positions on the instruction and acquisition of mathematics. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education by National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. [ Online ] hypertext transfer protocol: //home.capecod.net/~tpanitz/tedsarticles/coopbenefits.htm. [ Accessed: March 20, 2010. ] * Concepts to Classroom. Three Constructivist Design Models. Disney Learning Partnership. Thirteened Online. 2004. hypertext transfer protocol: //www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/implementation_sub1.html. [ Accessed: March 21, 2010 ] * Davis, R. Palmer, G. , Peters, R. , & A ; Streetman, R. ( 2003 ) . Concerted acquisition. In M. Orey ( Ed. ) , Emerging positions on acquisition, instruction, and engineering. hypertext transfer protocol: //projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/ . [ Accessed: March 21, 2010 ] * Harel, I. & A ; Papert, S. ( 1991 ) . Constructionism. Norwood, NY: Ablex Publishing Corporation. * Johnson, D. W. , Johnson, R. T. , & A ; Holubec, E. J. ( 1986 ) . Circles of acquisition: Cooperation in the schoolroom. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company. * Kafai, Y & A ; Resnick, M. ( Eds. ) ( 1996 ) . Constructionism in pattern. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. * KidsDevelopment.co.uk. Jane Marshall. [ Online ] hypertext transfer protocol: //www.kidsdevelopment.co.uk/PiagetsCognitiveDevelopmentTheory [ Accessed: March 20, 2010 ] * KidsDevelopment.co.uk. Jane Marshall. [ Online ] hypertext transfer protocol: //www.kidsdevelopment.co.uk/VygotskySocioCulturalTheory [ Accessed: March 20, 2010 ] * KidsDevelopment.co.uk. Jane Marshall. [ Online ] hypertext transfer protocol: //www.kidsdevelopment.co.uk/KohlbergsMoralReasoningStages. [ Accessed: March 20, 2010 ]  · Nigel Hastings & A ; Karen Chantrey Wood. ( 2002 ) . Group Seating in Primary Schools: an untenable strategy1? Nottingham Trent University. Education-Line. Online. hypertext transfer protocol: //www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00002181.htm [ Accessed: March 21, 2010 ] * Orey, M. ( Ed. ) . ( 2001 ) . Emerging positions on acquisition, instruction, and engineering. Online. hypertext transfer protocol: //projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/ [ Accessed: March 21, 2010 ] * Retrieved from â€Å" hypertext transfer protocol: //projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php? title=Main_Page † * Panitz, T. ( 1996 ) . A definition of collaborative vs. concerted acquisition * Papert, S. ( 1993 ) . The Children ‘s machine: rethinking school in the age of the computing machine. New York: Basic Books. * Perkins, D. N. ( 1986 ) . Knowledge as design. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. * Pierre Dillenbourg and Daniel Schneider. Collaborative Learning & A ; the Internet. ICCAI 95 article. TECFA ( unit of Educational Technology ) , School of Psychology and Education Sciences. Feb 8, 1995. hypertext transfer protocol: //tecfa.unige.ch/tecfa/research/CMC/colla/iccai95_5.html # HEADING9. [ Accessed: March 20, 2010. ] * Robyn M. Gillies and Adrian F. Ashman ( 1999 ) . Teaching collaborative accomplishments to primary school kids in classroom-based work groups. Graduate School of Education, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. Online. hypertext transfer protocol: //www.sciencedirect.com/science? _ob=ArticleURL & A ; _udi=B6VFW-3VV41V4-1 & A ; _user=10 & A ; _coverDate=09 % 2F30 % 2F1996 & A ; _rdoc=1 & A ; _fmt=high & A ; _orig=search & A ; _sort=d & A ; _docanchor= & A ; view=c & A ; _searchStrId=1261791467 & A ; _rerunOrigin=google & A ; _acct=C000050221 & A ; _version=1 & A ; _urlVersion=0 & A ; _userid=10 & A ; md5=000d51b3bb0b63ad82d4d7cbe3fcd552 [ Accessed: March 21, 2010.  · Swortzel, K. ( 1997 ) . The effects of concerted larning methods on accomplishment, keeping, and attitudes of place economic sciences pupils in North Carolina. Journal of Vocational and Technical Education, [ online ] . hypertext transfer protocol: //scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JVTE/v13n2/Abu.html [ Accessed: March 20, 2010. ] * Thomas, H. W. , Mergendoller, J. R. and Michaleson, A. ( 1999 ) . Project-based acquisition: a enchiridion for center and high school instructors. Novato, CA: The Buck Institute for Education * hypertext transfer protocol: //www.nrs.dest.gov.au/glossary.htm. Online. [ Accessed: March 21, 2010. ] * The Vygotsky Internet Archive. Online. hypertext transfer protocol: //www.marxists.org/archive/vygotsky/ [ Accessed: March 21, 2010. ] * Vygotsky Resources: Review & A ; Analysis of Vygotsky ‘s Thought & A ; Language. Online. hypertext transfer protocol: //www.kolar.org/vygotsky/ [ Accessed: March 21, 2010. ] Retrieved from â€Å" hypertext transfer protocol: //projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php? title=Cooperative_Learning †

Bolman and Deal

Nur Aiysha Ghazali ENGM 264 Paper #1-Bolman & Deal Bolman and Deal discuss about for frames; structural, human resource, political and symbolic. Each frame has its own characteristics, where and how the situation is applied in organization. A leader or authority of companies sometimes would apply these frames in their organization in order to tackle their employees. However, I will only discuss about 3 frames that most gave the impact to me when I read this book. The first frame that is valuable is human resources. The human resource frame talks about how organizations and people do to and for one another.Family is the suitable metaphor for organization to describe the situation. The example given in the book was about three Nucor Corp electricians who flew and drove to Arkansas and spent 24 hours to fix the failed electric grid. This example shows that they do not need their boss to tell them to go and fix it. As soon as they heard the bad news, they promptly caught a flight and arr ived there even though it was already past midnight. That action deserves some compliments-; if it happened to me, I would rather have a good sleep first and then we will see tomorrow how we are going to deal with that.The weird thing is, on what basis they made such a sacrifice for their company? This is how the human resource frame applies. Their company invests in their employees’ workforce in order to maintain their success. The Nucor Corp pays big bonuses to their employees based on their output and company’s success, thus to catch a flight to Arkansas is just a piece of cake, considering the big gain they would get. Pareto Principle stated that 80% of the profit is made by 20% of the effective employees of an organization.What Nucor Corp did was to make the 20% effective employees stay to work for them and they will only stay if the work they did worth the money they will get. However, not all companies behave just like Nucor does. â€Å"The Company Men† m ovie is a good example of how opposite they are from Nucor. The GTX authority chose to spend the money on new building and new executive offices instead of their employees. They fired their employees, including Bobby (Ben Affleck) who has quite a position in the company. Business still is all that matters to them, not charity. The human resource frame was not applied in this movie.The human resource frame in a company applies when the authority shows appreciation towards their employee, not just giving them paycheck, but keeping their job also shows gratitude from the company. The fired employees only have one of these skills: business, administration or secretariat. Just imagine how they could survive in the real world competition and what’s worse their age usually makes it harder to apply for jobs where thousands of fresh graduates can do the same thing. Watching this movie, I have realized that my decision to take Engineering Management as a minor is a good decision.I may graduate with Mechanical Engineering degree, but who knows there might be conflict later in my life, and the minor would actually help me get a job again. If the company that I work with does not apply human resource frame, just like the GTX, it is not a bad idea to have few different skills to survive in this concrete jungle. If I get fired in my forties, by then it should be okay to start doing consulting job, as I have gained many experiences from my previous work before. Backup plan is essential to avoid being a jobless.If someday I have the chance to have my own company, I would try my best to apply human resource in the management, such as scholarship for the employees’ children in order to improve the mutual relationship between the authority and employees. The second frame is political frame. The political frame sees an organization as a jungle — an arena of enduring differences, scarce resources, power negotiations and conflict. For example, theory in Cyert an d March book stated that small firms operate with the guide of the  entrepreneur, but larger corporation has bigger responsibilities, hence they operate in another way.These larger firms are coalitions of individuals or groups, which may include managers, stockholders, workers, suppliers and so on. It is crucial to realize that the political frame does not attribute politics to individual selfishness or incompetence. But it attributes it to the fundamental organizational properties of interdependence, enduring differences and scarcity. Bolman and Deal claimed that US space shuttles: Columbia and Challenger were brought down by politics.A day before the launch, NASA and the Morton Thiokol Corporation, the contractor for the shuttle’s solid- fuel rocket motor made emergency conference and Thiokol engineers requested to superiors and NASA to delay the launch. However, Thiokol’s monopoly was under attack, and the corporation’s executives were not confident to risk their billion-dollar contract by cancelling shuttle flight operations long enough just to correct insignificant flaws in the booster joint design. NASA’s schedule also was falling behind, and they needed money from the Congress if the shuttle was delayed again.Hence, to avoid all the consequences, they still launched the shuttle and it exploded right a few minutes after the take-off. The example that I can see is when we watched the downfall of Enron interview video, where one of the possible reasons of the bankruptcy point to former president, George Bush. The Enron scandal, which has laid waste to thousands of employees' life savings and revealed questionable ties to the Bush White House and members of Congress, spotlights a conflict of interest in government and shouts the need for campaign finance reform.While Congress battles over campaign finance reform, the political parties are actually raising more soft money contributions than ever before. Soft money allows unlimit ed contributions to political parties from corporations, labor unions and rich individuals to national, state and local political parties. As we can see here is that the political frame applies where some bargaining must have been done between Enron and political party in order to obtain power, if the accusation is true though. If not, the greedy Enron executives must have formed coalition and made some high-risk deals and manipulation to achieve their goals.On the surface, the downfall of Enroll in one night is due to the motives and greed attitudes behind decisions made by the executives. The company failed to report its financial affairs fully, followed by financial restatements disclosing billions of dollars of omitted liabilities and losses, leading to its collapse. It was the first time in history where a huge company like Enron can go down just in a blink of eyes, which people could have never imagined that could happen. Furthermore, strategic leaders can form coalitions with others, network informally, and negotiate and bargain to achieve agreement on certain plans of action.Someday, if I will be a leader in an oil and gas company, even with a structure of advisors and officers, a budget and other resources, I may not be able to achieve as much success as I wish, despite having the legal power. Others are able to utilize other forms of power, including public opinion and political influence to achieve what they might want, which could be contrary to what I desire. For example, if I decide to build new factory to expand the company, the public would go mad saying how it would create air and noise pollution in their residences.But, the thing is the land does not belong to the public. If the coalition can be made between the land owners and the authorities, then the project is possible despite the conflict arises from the public. Conflict would always arise if it is about political frame. If the conflict does not disturb the main goal of the coalition, th en just let it be. The third concept is about symbolic frame. Stories and fairy tales are one of the organization symbols, for example how the leader of the company worked hard during his youth to be who he is today.Stories carry values and serve as powerful modes of communication and instruction. Furthermore, the stories got passed down from one generation to next one, and that distinguishes the company from other companies. There can be various stories though, where it can be about the employees’ loyalty or other values related to the company. Bolman and Deal uses the example of ex-chancellor of Vanderbilt University, which John Wyatt told a very simple story that gave emphasis to the sacred side of teaching, one of the university’s core values, in an unusually dramatic way.Also from what I have observed, Prof Jordan uses a lot of his own experience to tell stories in class. One of the stories that he told in our class last year was about one of his friend’s f riend, who was a billionaire, got bankrupt and he was already old that time, what was worse, his wife left him. He quoted â€Å"There are three things you do not want to happen to you at the same time; old, broke and alone. † I still remember it until now because it happens to society nowadays and it is indeed very true. His stories are not comforting, but the reality really hits you big time if they are based on true stories.Just like what he did, effective organizations are full of good stories, and good stories stuck in your brain forever. Another real life example I found in a movie is where it often happens in a divorced family. The mother would usually talk about how the jobless father always gets drunk every night to the children, and eventually that leads to their divorce. The main point is not about how she bad-mouths her ex-husband, but it is more likely she is giving advice to his son to not be like that, or for the girl to not choose guys like that when she grows up.I can see the symbolic assumption in here; what is most important is not what happens but what it means. This will be useful in my future because even though you have died, good stories about you stay. For instance, if I invent some technology to help people, the stories about how workaholic I was to serve the community, or how modest I was would go around for ages. Just imagine how many people would be inspired by those stories and more updated and advanced technology would be continued by these people. The stories would be continued generation to generation, and that is one of the ways for long-term company development.The real life example for the statements would be the late Steve Jobs. As discussed above, all these frames are important in every aspects of life. Everyone would have to deal with these things since we all need to work in an organization after graduating. We have to know the skills to reframe the organizations where it fits in order to be an effective leader or manager. I think most successful companies applied these frames in their management to develop their company. It may seem insignificant, but Enron had its lesson, so it is not possible to happen to other organization.

The Arab Socialist Regimes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Arab Socialist Regimes - Essay Example The socialist regimes in the Arab countries of the Middle East had a number of characteristics that makes them different from the current systems in the countries. These features were mainly evident in Syria, Egypt and Iraq. Some of the features included central planning in which control and planning of economic activities and other government activities. The government took the initiative of setting up the production goals, wage limit and costs of goods and services. It also ensured total control of all the public assets and resources. This was contrary to the current system in which the countries such as Egypt, Afghanistan and Iraq are approaching planning through the laissez-faire system where they do not directly control the economy. The regimes ensured a welfare state approach in the distribution of public resources. In Iraq, people were guaranteed universal healthcare, education and provision of support funds to the old members of the society. This is still applied in those cou ntries since welfare is not the same thing as socialism. The socialist regimes aimed at achieving self-sufficiency in the production process, initiating public investment so as to raise the capacity level and finally promoting import substituting form of industrialization.This is different from the current Arab regimes that are advocating for capitalism in which people are motivated to produce their own wealth. The locals who include farmers and low-scale workers have lost the socialized form of life in education, medicine and agriculture.

The Importance of Outside Classroom Activities in Promoting Oral Essay

The Importance of Outside Classroom Activities in Promoting Oral Fluency in an EFL Context - Essay Example Consequently, creating opportunities outside the classroom for students to speak English is an effective strategy in compensating for students’ limited use of the L2. Research studies have shown that external classroom activities have equal significance in enabling students learn English as a second language. In addition, it has been asserted that such activities provide a non-educational environment from which a student may feel free and comfortable to acquire new language skills. This study investigates the significance of outside classroom activities in promoting students’ oral proficiency. In addition, it reports on students’ perceptions of such activities. Fifteen participants from the American University of Kuwait took part in this study. Open-ended interviews were done to find out what the participants thought of these activities, and what they gained from them. Interview results show that students found outside classroom activities very effective in improving not only their oral fluency skills, but their confidence and critical thinking skills as well. The implications of this research study are for language practitioners and language programs in the EFL context to be aware of the benefits of incorporating outside classroom activities in language teaching. Approximations indicate that in the beginning of the 21st century, around 400-500 million English speakers existed [1]. Obviously, by now the number has dramatically increased. The reason for that is many countries have picked up English as the primary foreign language as the world continues to connect more and more. In these countries, it is estimated that there is 20-30% of the population that speaks English. Thus, the author notes that around 1.5 to 2 billion English speakers exist worldwide. The numbers are inclusive of native language speakers who use English as their first language, and non-native English speakers who use English as their secondary language. While studying English in

Critical thinking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Critical thinking - Essay Example In our case, the child is so young to face such kind of situation where one of his hands is injured and he has to go for radiographic tests. The radiographer needs to make the child feel relaxed and stress-free in order to do radiography. Some of the nonverbal ways which radiographer can use to provide comfort o the child include putting a hand on the back of the child while explaining him the procedure of tests, giving smiles to the child, using hands in order to explain the procedure more effectively, and maintaining eye contact during communication. Use of kinesics and paralanguage can be very helpful for the radiographer to make the child feel comfortable with the procedure. Sending of nonverbal signals plays a very expressive, meaningful, and effective role in communication (Ehrlich & Daly, 2008). Therefore, use of nonverbal communication along with verbal communication can be very effective for the radiographer to make Adam feel comfortable and ready for the test. There can be a number of urgent situations, which may require a doctor or a medical professional rapidly retrieve information from the patient’s chart. â€Å"A Patient Chart is opened using the Patient Selection process, or by selecting a patients name from the Calendar or the Patient Tracker† (Anonymous, n.d.). Doctors need to provide proper treatment to the patients based on accurate analysis of the medical history of the patients. Without sufficient information or proper analysis of information, a doctor cannot provide required treatment to a patient (Ehrlich & Daly, 2008). In these urgent situations, a doctor really needs to retrieve information from the patient’s chart as soon as possible in order to avoid the occurrence of any kind of risk to the health of the

Improving Performance through Learning,coaching and development Essay

Improving Performance through Learning,coaching and development - Essay Example As a response to the need for better, bigger, quicker and cost effective communication, call centres are continually introducing improved infrastructures and more advanced technologies. This has resulted to an environment where the call length is measured in seconds, and overt and covert monitoring systems that make certain compliance of employees to precise operating procedures (Holdsworth & Cartwright, 2003, p. 131). Such a setting is what Endeavour communication firm in the UK is trying to adopt. The paper will discuss the firm’s transformation from a phone based call centre to a multichannel service offering centre. This requires coming up with a comprehensive training and development framework. The paper will highlight the basic skills and competencies that will form the basis of the new programme, where the training managers and their team have an assignment of designing and delivering a 4-week training and intervention, which will make sure all the front line staff are fully competent with the new systems and procedures before the launch of the new multi-channel call centre. It will further outline a proposal for training intervention, a description of how the programme would be implemented to meet the specific requirements, and lastly, discuss how reinforcement of the initiative would be done and evaluation of the programme to make sure that the learning outcomes have been realised. Identification of training and development needs Endeavour is an outsourcing provider operating customer contact centres both in the UK and abroad. It has three contact centres, two in the UK and one situated in India. Approximately half of the UK’s front line staffs are situated in one modern call centre. The firm does its recruitment and selection from the local labour pool. Consequently, the firm strives to embark on a major challenge of altering the business model from that of a predominantly phone based call centre to a multichannel service offering. As a consequence, the core drivers of a training and development program for an outsourcing firm like Endeavour include: shifts in customer tastes and preferences, new and challenging business opportunities, technology advancements, and management planning (Garavan, Hogan, & O’Donnell, 2003, p.21-23). The firm required to train and develop its employees because clients have numerous channels for communication. Therefore, it was crucial for the contact centre to provide them with a wide range of options to match their requirements, with the major aim being to enhance customer satisfaction. The range of channels consisted of the following: phone, web chat, fax, email, social media, internet, call queuing, and call back. Consequently, the front-line staffs of Endeavour needed to be trained on key board entry skills, call handling and product knowledge to be fully competent in these areas. Since the firm was launching a new product, this signifies that it was targeting a new market. T his new market consisted of customers who were fond of using the phone, email, social media, and internet among many others. This would result to issues coming up such as mismatch of skills. Therefore, this need for additional training and development was as result of taking up new business opportunities. The refurbishment of the on-site classrooms and training resources led to the installation of special technology system that

Mobile health applications Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Mobile health applications - Dissertation Example Because of its potential, policymakers should better comprehend how information technology is spreading across suppliers, whether act to spur more adoption is required, and thus, what steps may be engaged. This has been included to increase understanding of the current state in the health care industry (Kinkade & Verclas, 2008, p. 31). Information & communications technology have been widely used in many Western countries to improve many aspects of healthcare, such as expert diagnostic systems, online patient records, digital medical information systems to name just a few. Many of these technologies are expensive and involve specialist hardware and services, making them generally used in the developed world. Universal ownership of a much less expensive, generally available device, the mobile phone, has provoked a lot of new ideas about the potential for this technology in developing countries (Kinkade & Verclas, 2008, p. 31). The use of mobile phones has grown at a high rate over the past few years. As such, it has been an essential tool for current human lifestyles. Society has embraced mobile technology into many of its daily activities including banking, health and even in the management of their daily activities. Mobile health has developed through mobile technology promoting what is called m health or m-health in the healthcare sector (Hoyt & Yoshihashi, 2009, p. 20). The world is constantly moving due to technological advancements. The widespread application of information technology led to the mobility of people, which is not only limited to the physical movement and displacement, but it covers virtual activity. Technology bridges the geographic gaps of individuals across the world to maintain and improve communication. Communication has been the centre of the world’s evolution because experts continue to develop systems that would make interaction easy and accessible. IT has been widely used in the field of business due to its proven benefits in enhancing customer satisfaction. Similarly, medical institutions aim to improve patient care through the use of mobile phones. With the extensive use of mobile technology, patient and doctors have established a relationship; hence, it enhances health care quality (Hoyt & Yoshihashi, 2009, p. 20). Mobile health is the new method of interacting with patients. M-Health is defined as a â€Å"service or application that involves voice or data communication for health purposes between a central point and remote locations† (Freng, et al., 2011, p.5). Mobile health Mobile technology is vital in this research since it has the potential to transform healthcare in developing countries, mostly in the area of health consciousness schemes and training health care workers. Mobile phones are inexpensive to the inhabitants at large, making them more obtainable than computers. They are also cost effectual than hospital beds. Mobile phone applications in healthcare are a relatively new field an d some of the literature is very keen about the possibilities that this opens up. Audie et al (2011, p. 34) have suggested that M-Health apps are â€Å"the killer application for cyber-infrastructure for health in the 21st century† –just as the invention of electric light was in the C19th. They go on to say that the enormous growth of electronic and medical health records and bioinformatics together with

Religion and Military Mission Planning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Religion and Military Mission Planning - Essay Example â€Å"A mission-planning system may accommodate either deliberate (scheduled) or ad hoc (unscheduled) planning and may operate in either a benign or hostile environment† (Seares). Military missions are planned when there is a need to control certain factors that are influential upon a certain community/communities in the state or the state as a whole. Most of the times, military missions are planned for the confiscation of property or land when another party, force or country has unjustifiably occupied it. Religion is often neglected in the planning of military missions because there is no religious concern. Another reason why religion has been conventionally neglected in the planning of military missions is the fact that a vast majority of the military missions were unexpected. The military missions had to be planned in a great hurry with very limited resources. In addition to that, religion has been neglected in the planning process because there is no interlink between the two. Religion lays a code of ethics, whereas there is no consideration of ethics in war. War means bloodshed. In the past, war was inevitable for many countries when there were some that wanted to conquer others. The question was of basic survival, not of religion. So religion was neglected in the planning process. Although religion should be considered in every walk of life, yet there is little, if any, guidance provided by any religion regarding the planning process of a military mission. Some religions do emphasize upon a need to fight for the right, even if you have to get martyred for that, but there is little if any, guidance regarding how individuals should go about it. Planning requires strategic thinking and thoughtful decision making. It has no concern with religion, except for certain situations i.e. how do militants offer prayers in the

World War II Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

World War II - Essay Example Various films have portrayed the subject of World War II in various formats. The world war films have been made with varying themes like war crimes, nuclear holocaust, refugee problems, technology innovations etc. But I have found ‘The Great Escape’ as one of the most interesting films made on WWII. It was made in 1963 and directed by John Sturges. The film is exemplary in its portrayal of human mind that is capable of giving man the inner strength to creatively evolve strategies to defeat enemies in their own ground. The film is all about prisoners of war of Allied forces who are captured by German army. It is a true story which tells how group of POWs tried to escape to freedom from captivity in jail which was supposed to be escape free! The film has treated the serious issue of war from a human angle which is unique. It has sensitively depicted the frustrations of inmates, the inhuman conditions of captivity and optimism of the prisoners who continue to seek new ways to make their way. The major strength of the movie was that prisoners from Allied force coming from different nationality were united in their common cause. They worked together and used their wit and cunning to divert the attention of security so that at least one of them can become free.

Special Education Attitude, Legislation and Litigation Essay

Special Education Attitude, Legislation and Litigation - Essay Example With good teachers and proper infrastructure the branch of Special Education is gradually becoming as important as any other stream. The education department of the United States of America has formulated policies that equally prioritize education for students with disabilities. To this purpose Individual’s with Disabilities Education Act has been developed and passed to ensure maximum benefit on the part of the disabled children in receiving standard education. IDEA has brought a refreshing transformation not only in the action plan but in changing people’s perspective towards the talent and potential of disabled children. Schools and other educational organizations have started giving noticeable importance in dispensing proper and quality education to the student with disabilities. IDEA has been made taken into consideration the different sectors of education including teacher education and training in special education focusing on the needs of the students with disabilities. In keeping with the No Child Left behind Policy (NCLB) new laws have been sanctioned and the old ones revised to bring perceptible changes in education for students with disabilities. The laws cater to the educational growth and development of disabled children. The branch of Special education has been re-emphasized so as to revolutionize it in terms of standard and quality. Specific laws have been promulgated to screen and identify students with disabilities within a general classroom so as to give them special attention within the classroom or develop a problem related special educational ambience for the child depending on the needs of the child. Emphasis is being given on developing a proper and need-oriented infrastructure supported by adequate funds for early intervention services (EIS, 2006). It has come to the notice of educational thinkers and administrators that the new law under IDEA reinvents IEP or the

The Good, Bad and Ugly of Fracking Essay Example for Free

The Good, Bad and Ugly of Fracking Essay There is a gold rush going on right now. Man is breaking the earth, looking for natural gas. It’s a mad scene, with hucksters on every side of the issue. There is a lot going on underground and that process is called Fracking. The word alone can stir up controversy. The process of extracting natural gas through hydraulic fracturing or â€Å"fracking,† might summon in someone’s imagination an environment and damaged communities. Natural gas hides from sight it is invisible. Perhaps envisioned a prettier picture—one that involves clean-burning fuel, job growth and affordable energy. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) states that fracking â€Å"is the process of injecting large volumes of water, sand and chemicals into the ground at high pressure to break up shale formation allowing more efficient recovery of oil and gas† (Walter). This practice has grown rapidly over the course of the last decade thanks to improved technologies, but it also has fostered debates concerning its environmental, health and safety impact along the way. The process of hydraulic fracturing – shooting water, sand, and chemicals at high pressure into underground wells to release natural gas – is a divisive issue. Some say it dumps chemicals into ground water supplies; others argue it causes earthquakes, and still others think it can revolutionize America’s energy industry. Environmentalists argue that fracking contaminates ground and surface water – a charge the gas companies deny. Here’s the problem: the fracking process begins with a well drilled deep underground. Horizontal passages are then drilled outward from the bottom of the well. Water, sand and chemicals are pumped at high pressure through the water is insignificant, and it has never been proven that those chemicals rise ground water supplies. On the other hand, environmentalists say the downward drilling process, if done poorly, releases chemicals into both ground and surface water. Both arguments are strong, which is why no one can agree whether fracking is a good or bad thing. The science is not settled; arguments are hurled back and forth by both gas companies and environmentalists. On the earthquake issue, seismologists say it is possible fracking can cause small earthquakes. The British Geological Survey researched the Blackpool earthquakes, and the conclusion was reasonable. However, they did come back and say, â€Å"the chances of getting a very large earthquake are insignificant† (Walter). Meanwhile, a contaminated water supply is a hotly-debated issue: there have been cases where fracking has polluted water supplies as a result of poor oversight and procedures, but it does seem that if done correctly, fracking is not nearly as environmentally disruptive as traditional oil and gas extraction. One thing that is settled are the benefits homegrown natural gas adds to the US energy industry. As chemist and author rich Trzupek wrote recently: â€Å"America has become, in the eyes of energy professions, the Saudi Arabia of natural gas thanks to shale gas. The doe estimates that shale gas reserves alone are 750 trillion cubic feet. (McGraw). Combines with other domestic sources of natural gas, the United States has enough natural gas to last for over a century, and the numbers continue to climb. In areas where shale gas drilling is happening, the good times are rolling. Not only are people making money from the energy sales, jobs are created down the line, from the companies who support drilling operations down to the service industries that provide workers with food and shelter† (McGraw). According to Carlton Carroll, American Petroleum Institute (API) the oil and natural gas industry’s number one priority is safety. It is very important to maintain a perfect safety record but even one incident is way too many. In a December 2012 press release, API called the extraction from natural gas from shale â€Å"the most important domestic energy development in the last fifty years†¦poised to reshape American manufacturing. † And Chevron’s web site touts the practice for â€Å"providing the United States with reliable, affordable, cleaner and responsibly produced energy† (Walter). Developing these natural gas resources can help enhance the country’s energy security, strengthen local and state economies, and fuel job growth. Many Americans, oppose any kind of pollution. However, here are reasons to support fracking: 1. It can lead to our nation becoming energy independent 2. It will provide an enormous boost to our state and local economies 3. It has already driven down natural gas prices to the point where utilities are replacing dirty coal-fired power plants with cleaner natural gas-burning plans and increasingly vehicles are burning natural gas instead of dirtier gasoline 4. It will provide many well-paying jobs to geologists, well drillers, office workers, truck drivers, construction workers, and many more. So what is the snag—and how serious is it? Communities where fracking has taken place, notably in Ohio and Pennsylvania, protest the noise and scarring of the landscaping during the initial explorations. Restoration and compensation can better those concerns. The most significant fear is that the wastewater with chemicals from the fracking process, called, flowback, can contaminate the aquifers and drinking water. State regulators in Alaska, Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Oklahoma, Pennslvania, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming have stated that there have been no verified or documented cases of groundwater contamination as a result of hydraulic fracking (Zuckerman). The process uses about 99 percent water and sand, the rest being a solution of a few chemicals (Zuckerman). Most drilling experts have asserted that it is highly improbable that fracking liquids will contaminate drinking water. Fortunately, no cases exist in which the fracking process itself has caused drilling liquids to contaminate drinking water. The issue then is whether the flowback hazard can remain at acceptable levels. The real risk of water contamination comes from these flowback fluids leaking into streams or seeping down into groundwater after reaching the surface. This can be caused by leaky wellheads, holding tanks or blowouts. Wellheads are made sufficiently safe to prevent this eventuality; holding tanks can be made secure; and blowouts, while problematic, are like all accidents caused by human error. The energy industry has long stressed that fracking and water contamination has never been definitibely linked.

Methods to Assess Groundwater Potential by Spring Locations

Methods to Assess Groundwater Potential by Spring Locations Abstract Regarding the ever increasing issue of water scarcity in different countries, the current study plans to apply support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), and genetic algorithm optimized random forest (RFGA) methods to assess groundwater potential by spring locations. To this end, 14 effective variables including DEM-derived, river-based, fault-based, land use, and lithology factors were provided. Of 842 spring locations found, 70% (589) were implemented for model training, and the rest of them were used to evaluate the models. The mentioned models were run and groundwater potential maps (GPMs) were produced. At last, receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve was plotted to evaluate the efficiency of the methods. The results of the current study denoted that RFGA, and RF methods had better efficacy than different kernels of SVM model. Area under curve (AUC) of ROC value for RF and RFGA was estimated as 84.6, and 85.6%, respectively. AUC of ROC was computed as SVM- linear ( 78.6%), SVM-polynomial (76.8%), SVM-sigmoid (77.1%), and SVM- radial based function (77%). Furthermore, the results represented higher importance of altitude, TWI, and slope angle in groundwater potential. The methodology produced in the current study could be transferred to other places with water scarcity issues for groundwater potential assessment and management. Key words: Geographic information system, Ardebil, Iran, Support vector machine, Random forest, Genetic algorithm Introduction Water scarcity is regarded as one of the most substantial soicio-environmental challenges in different countries. The demand on groundwater is increasing, and the overexploitation of this valuable resource is threatening future generations (Todd and Mays 2005; Rekha and Thomas 2007); Thus, its management is believed to be vital. A better water resources management plan would be possible when there is enough knowledge about the resources (i.e. high potential and susceptible zones). In recent years, researchers have made use of a variety of models to map groundwater potential such as frequency ratio (FR), weight of evidence (WofE), logistic regression (LR), index of entropy, evidential belief function (Oh et al. 2011; Ozdemir 2011a, b; Pourtaghi and Pourghasemi 2014; Davoodi Moghaddam et al. 2015; Naghibi and Pourghasemi 2015; Naghibi et al. 2015). Also, some researchers used machine learning methods including boosted regression tree (BRT), classification and regression (CART), general linear model (GLM), and RF algorithms in this field of study (Naghibi and Pourghasemi 2015; Rahmati et al. 2016). Lee et al (2012) employed artificial neural network (ANN) to assess groundwater productivity. Their results showed satisfactory performance of ANN. Recently [M1]Naghibi et al. (2017) used four recently developed data mining models including AdaBoost, Bagging generalized additive model, and naÃÆ' ¯ve bayes for groundwater potential mapping. They have also introduced a novel ensemble method from combination of the mentioned models and FR. In addition, Magaji et al. (2016) used geographic information system and evidential belief function model to produce groundwater recharge potential zones map. Theodossiou (2004) investigated how climate change influences the sustainability of groundwater in watershed-scale in Greece. Furthermore, Thivya et al. (2016) conducted a study to identify recharge mechanisms of groundwater in hard rock aquifers implementing stable isotopes. Support vector machine (SVM) algorithm has been employed in different fields of study such as flood susceptibility assessment (Tehrany et al. 2014; Tehrany et al. 2015), and landslide susceptibility investigation (Brenning 2005; Kavzogluetal 2014; Tien Bui et al. 2012; Yao et al. 2008; Yilmaz 2010; Tien Bui et al. 2015; Chen et al. 2017) with suitable efficacy. Genetic algorithm is one of the most advanced and pervasive developed heuristic search techniques in artificial intelligence and its application has been done in many fields of study including urban planning, ecological, climatic modelling, and remote sensing studies (Hasegava et al. 2013; Termansen et al. 2006; Chang et al. 2006; Chen et al. 2009). In the current study, we aim to investigate the performance of a novel method for optimization of random forest and its results are compared with RF and SVM models in groundwater potential mapping. Based on the literature review, application of different kernels of SVM and RFGA in groundwater potential mapping are two main novelties of this study. Also, the importance of different effective factors in groundwater potential is discussed. The results of the current study could determine high potential and susceptible groundwater potential zones and be used by water resource managers. Material and Methods Figure 1 shows the methods and the flowchart implemented in the current study. Study Area: The study area lies from 48 ° 18à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ² 26à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ³ to 48 ° 53à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ² 16à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ³ eastern longitudes and from 37 ° 41à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ² 23à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ³ to 37 ° 09à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ² 26à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ³ northern latitudes in Ardebil Province, Iran (Fig. 2). It covers an area of 1,524 km2. The elevation in the study area ranges from 840 to 3,320 m above sea level with an average of 1,930 m. The mean annual precipitation of Khalkhal region is measured as 345 mm. The mean annual temperature of Khalkhal region is 12 degrees Centigrade. In the respect of land use, 89.69% of Khalkhal region is covered by rangeland, and other land use classes are forest, agriculture, orchard, and residential areas. In the respect of lithology, Khalkhal region comprises of 14 lithological categories. Eav class (andesitic volcanic) covers most of the study area. Khalkhal region is located in Ardebil province of Iran which includes 14 hydrological watersheds. The se watersheds are located in three main parts including central part, Khoresh Rostam, and Shahrood areas. In this area people exploit water resources by wells (42%), springs (47%), and qanats (11%); therefore, it can be seen that a high percent of the water requirement is obtained by springs. Data preparation Spring characteristics The springs location map was prepared for the study area using national reports (Iranian Department of Water Resources Management) and extensive field surveys in 1:50,000 scale. From 842 springs identified in the study area, 70% (589 springs) were considered for training purpose, and 30% (253 springs) were used as validation dataset (Fig. 2). Approximately ninety percent of the springs are permanent and ten percent of them are seasonal. Discharge of the springs in Khalkhal region alters between 0.1 and 100 liters per second having an average of 1 liter per second. It can be seen that there are different kinds of spring in the study area such as contrast, drainage, and fracture springs with 5.34%, 29.81%, 58.08%, and 6.77% of the springs, respectively. The average pH of the springs is measured as 6.68. The average electric conductivity (EC) of the springs is measured as 470 . Groundwater effective factors In this study, based on the literature review (Ozdemir 2011a, b; Oh et al. 2011; Naghibi et al. 2017), fourteen groundwater effective factors such as altitude, slope angle, slope aspect, plan curvature, profile curvature, slope length (LS), SPI, TWI, distance from rivers, river density, distance from faults, fault density, land use, and lithology were provided and mapped. The digital elevation model (DEM) of the Khalkhal region was created using the 1:50,000-scale topographic maps in 20 m resolution. Groundwater effective-factors such as altitude, slope angle, and slope aspect were prepared using DEM in ArcGIS 9.3 and represented in Fig. 3a-c. Plan curvature describes the divergence and convergence of flow and discriminates among basins (Fig. 3d). Profile curvature shows the rate at which the slope gradient alters in the direction of maximum slope (Catani et al. 2013) (Fig. 3e). Slope length is the combination of the slope length and slope steepness that shows soil loss potential from the combined slope features (Fig. 3f). SPI is a measure of the erosive power of flowing water based on the assumption that discharge is relative to specific catchment area (Moore et al. 1991) (Fig. 3g). The TWI affects accumulation and movement of surface runoff over the land surface (Elmahdy and Mostafa Mohamed 2014) (Fig. 3h). Distance from rivers and river density were created using topographical map of Khalkhal region (Fig. 3i, j). Also, distance from fault and fault density layers were produced using geological map (Fig. 3k, l). The land use map was created using Landsat images (Fig 3m). There are five land use classes in the study area such as agriculture, forest, orchard, rangeland, and residential area. Most of the study area is covered by the rangeland land use class. The lithology map was acquired using a 1:100,000-scale geological map and the lithological units were grouped into fourteen classes (GSI 1997, Fig. 3n, Table 1). Support vector machines (SVM) SVM is known as a supervised machine learning technique that is performed based on the (SRM: structural risk minimization) principle and statistical learning theory (Tien Bui et al. 2012). SVM transforms original input space into a higher-dimensional feature space to find an optimum separating hyper plane. Marjanovic ´ et al (2011) affirmed that separating hyper-plane is built in the original space of n coordinates between the points of two distinct classes. If the point is situated over the hyper-plane it will be classified as positive 1, if not, it will be classified as negative 1. Penalty (C) controls the trade-off between margin and training errors, which assists to prevent the models over-fitting (Marjanovic ´ et al. 2011). The kernel width (É ¤) controls the degree of nonlinearity of the model (Tien Bui et al. 2012). Parameter (d) is the polynomial degree in the PL kernel function and (r) is the bias term in the kernel function for two kernels of SVM including PL and SIG kernels (Tehrany et al. 2014). In the current study, the 10-fold cross-validation was used to select the optimal kernel parameters of SVM (Pradhan 2013; Zhuang and Dai 2006). Random forest (RF) model Random forests (RFs) are very flexible and powerful ensemble classifiers based on decision trees which were firstly developed by Breiman (2001). RF constructs multiple trees based on random bootstrapped samples of the training dataset (Breiman 2001). The algorithm runs random binary trees that implement a subset of the observations over bootstrapping approach, of the initial dataset a random choice of the training data is selected and implement to create the model, the data which is not included are described as out of bag (OOB) (Catani et al. 2013). The RF predicts the importance of a variables by looking at how much the error of prediction increases when out of bag data for that variable is permuted while all others are left fixed (Liaw and Wiener 2002; Catani et al. 2013). Random forests need two parameters to be tuned including the number of trees (ntree), and the number of variables (mtry). Genetic algorithm (GA) model A genetic algorithm (GA) is a search heuristic which mimics the natural selection process in the field of artificial intelligence. GA beings with a population of presented random solutions in some structure series. Then, a number of operators are repeatedly implemented, until convergence is obtained. As a matter of fact, the optimization strategy in GA could be described as a global optimization procedure with the benefit of not being dependent on the initial value to gain the convergence. Crossover and mutation are implemented to produce newer and better chromosomes populations (Yetilmezsoy and Demirel 2008). Random forest optimization methods In this study, we used two different methods for RF parameter optimization including caret package and genetic algorithm. Both of the models were applied in the R software. At first, we presented a hybrid RFGA model to predict groundwater potential which was firstly introduced by Hasegawa et al (2013) in the field of commute mode choice analysis. A simple method is trial and error, but there are many mixtures of parameters, and it needs much iteration to evaluate the options. Another method for optimization of these parameters is to use caret package. So, we proposed a practical method for optimizing the parameters of RF by meta- heuristic optimization using GAs. The rgenoud package of the R program (R Core Team 2012); Mebane and Sekhon (2011) were used to implement the optimizing process of RF parameters ntree and mtry. Input parameters of the RFGA model are subject to the GA-based parameter optimization process. Only that pair of parameters that minimizes the OOB error rate in this step is used as input to the RFGA model. For running RFGA, maximum number of generations was considered as 100, the population size was 300 and the domain of allowable valu es for each parameter of the function being optimized (mtry values between 1 and 14, ntree values between 1 and 2000). The run time of this process till the calculation is complete was approximately 2 h 20 min. Validation of groundwater potential maps (GPM) In the current study, receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve was used to determine the performance of the GPMs produced using the implemented models. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) shows the quality of a forecast system by representing the ability of the system to predict correctly the occurrence or nonà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ occurrence of specific events (Negnevitsky 2002). The area under the curve of ROC ranges from 0 to 1. The qualitative relationship between AUC and prediction accuracy could be classified as excellent (0.9-1), very good (0.8-0.9), good (0.7-0.8), average (0.6-0.7), and poor (0.5-0.6). Based on the reviewer comment, and in order to consider the discharge values of the springs, two weights were assigned to the springs to take their discharge into account in the evaluation process. For conducting this idea, median was calculated for discharge values of the springs. Then, weight 2 was assigned to the springs with greater discharge than the median value, while othe r springs were assigned to a weight of 1. Finally, for calculating ROC values, values of the springs with weight 2 were considered twice in the analysis, while other springs were considered once. This procedure enhances the influence of the springs with higher discharges in the evaluation process. Results Support vector machine In the current study, four kernels of the SVM model were optimized by cross-validation and GPMs were plotted in ArcGIS 9.3. Based on the results, the best SVM with LN kernel had a cost value of 0.001. The results of PL kernel showed that gamma=0.5, cost= 0.1, and degree= 2 had the best performance. In the case of SVM-SIG, best performance was gained by gamma= 1, and c= 0.01. The results of SVM-RBF showed that gamma= 0.5, c= 10 had the best performance. The resultant GPMs produced using different kernels of the SVM are represented in Fig. 5 and Table 2. According to the results, low, moderate, high, and very high classes in GPM produced by SVM-LN occupy 15.88, 36.05, 33.75, and 14.32% of the study area, respectively. Low, moderate, high, and very high classes in SVM-PL cover 3.38, 22.12, 47.52, and 26.98% of the study area, respectively. In the case of SVM-SIG, 22.87, 32.98, 30.50, and 13.64% of the study area were designated to the low, moderate, high, and very high classes, respectively. The results of SVM-RBF showed that low, moderate, high, and very high classes cover 22.01, 45.85, 22.39, and 9.74% of the study area, respectively. Random forest (RF), and genetic algorithm optimized random forest (RFGA) As mentioned in the methods section, two methods were used to optimize RF model including caret and genetic algorithm. Final model by RF-caret had ntree= 1600, and mtry= 2, while final model by RFGA had ntree= 1744, and mtry= 2. The results showed that out of bag error for RFGA (0.316) was lower than its value for RF-caret (0.35%). Also, the results of the ROC analysis showed better performance of RFGA than RF-caret by area under the curve of ROC values of 86.5, and 85.6, respectively. Considering the better performance of the RFGA model, its results about the importance of effective factors and final GPM were represented and the results of RF-caret were ignored. Figure 4 represents the mean decrease accuracy, and mean decrease Gini obtained by RFGA. According to the mean decrease accuracy, altitude had the highest importance, followed by TWI, slope angle, and aspect, while the profile curvature, and plan curvature had lowest importance. On the other hand, results of the mean decrease Gini depicted that land use, and lithology were the least important factors in groundwater potential mapping. The GPM produced using RFGA is represented in Fig. 5. According to the results, low, moderate, high, and very high classes in GPM produced by RFGA occupy 27.2, 32.4, 25.5, and 14.8% of the study area, respectively. Validation of the GPMs The ROC was calculated for all GPMs with springs validation dataset. The results of AUC-ROC are represented in Fig. 6. AUC-ROC for GPMs produced by the implemented methods in the current study ranges from 76.9 to 85.5%. AUC-ROC values for RF and RFGA were estimated as 84.6, and 85.5%, respectively. AUC-ROC values were estimated for SVM- LN, SVM-PL, SVM-SIG, and SVM- RBF as 79.3, 77, 77.7, and 76.9%, respectively. Discussion In this section, the results are discussed by three parts including (i) the performance of the models, (ii) the importance of the effective factors, and (iii) the precision of the GPMs. The performance of the models: The results showed that RFGA represented better performance than RF-caret. One of the advantages of GA is the capability to solve any optimization problem based on chromosome approach; another important characteristic of GA is its capability to handle multiple solution search spaces and solve the problem in such an environment (Tabassum and Mathew 2014). These advantages may have caused RFGAs better performance in the current study. Also, it can be seen that both RFs (i.e. RF-caret and RFGA) had better performance than different kernels of SVM model. The results of different SVM kernels showed that SVM-LN had the best performance, followed by SVM-SIG, SVM-RBF, and SVM-PL; However, their performance was similar. Based on the results, it is evident that SVM could be used as an efficient machine learning model in groundwater potential mapping. One of the drawbacks of the SVM relates to the needed time for the analysis. In addition, several criteria should be tested in order to find the optimum values for the modeling process (Tehrany et al. 2015). However, the efficiency of the SVM could be increased by making ensemble models. In a research, Tehrany et al (2015) used an ensemble weights of evidence and SVM model in flood mapping. Their results proved the efficiency and strength of the ensemble method over the individual methods. There are several potential reasons for error in the datasets implemented for groundwat er modeling, including measurement errors, limitations in field data collection, sampling bias, etc. The mentioned errors could affect the overall accuracy of the SVM models (Moisen et al. 2006). The importance of effective factors in groundwater potential mapping The importance of effective factors was determined using RFGA as the best model in the current study. Based on the results, in total, altitude, TWI, slope angle, and slope aspect were the most effective factors on groundwater potential. On the other hand, plan curvature, profile curvature, land use, and lithology were the least effective factors on groundwater potential. A growing body of literature investigates the importance of different effective factors in groundwater potential mapping (Naghibi and Pourghasemi 2015; Rahmati et al. 2016). The results of Naghibi and Pourghasemi (2015) showed that altitude, distance from faults, SPI, and fault density had the highest importance in groundwater potential mapping. In another research, Rahmati et al (2016) depicted that altitude, drainage density, lithology, and land use were the most influence factors on groundwater potential. Comparing the results of the current study and the results of the two mentioned researches shows that the impo rtance of effective factors in groundwater potential mapping is dependent on the indicator, methods, and hydrological, geological, and climatic conditions of the target area. The precision of the GPMs: With this assumption that a better model is the one which determines the high and very high classes more precisely, a model with lower percent of high and very high classes area could be more helpful in water resources planning and management. A more precise GPM could help water resources managers to make better and more accurate decisions about areas for exploitation and even water conservation techniques. According to the results, SVM-RBF, and RFGA models had the lowest percent of the high and very high classes with 32.1, and 40.3% of the study area, respectively. Conclusion In general, the water crisis in the 21th century is much more related to management and planning than to a real crisis of scarcity and drought stress. Lack of knowledge of water resources and inappropriate water resources management plans and strategies have made water crisis worse in arid and semi- arid regions. Therefore, the first step in appropriate planning of water resources is to know and gain knowledge of these vital resources. Groundwater is one of the most important water resource supplies, especially in arid and semi- arid countries with extreme lack of water, growing population, and successive droughts. Considering the mentioned problems and issues, in the current study, we evaluated the performance of different kernels of SVM model and two strategies for optimization of RF (i.e. caret and GA). The results of the current study showed that RFGA had the best performance, followed by SVM-LN, SVM-SIG, SVM-RBF, and SVM-PL. The RFGA was successfully implemented in the current s tudy. Also, different kernels of the SVM were used for producing GPMs with acceptable performances. However, their result was not as well as RFs performance. Furthermore, it can be seen that altitude, TWI, slope angle, and slope aspect were the most effective factors in groundwater potential assessment. The methodology produced in the current study could be transferred and tested in other areas for producing GPMs. As a final conclusion, GPMs could significantly help water resources managers and planners for better understanding of water resources conditions, exploitation, and conservation plans.

Comparison of unusual administration methods of morphine

Comparison of unusual administration methods of morphine Morphine is a widely used analgesic. Its clinical use and the high dependency factor (morphine and heroin have proven to be the most addictive opiates) brought up the need to investigate the classic routes of administration (oral, rectal, iv, sc) and compare them with some not so well established routes (nebulised, intrathecal, transdermal, sublingual etc). Introduction Morphine is a strong opioid derived from the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum1. It is used for the management of moderate and severe pain. It acts directly to central nervous system exhibiting a quick time of action. Along with pain relief, it causes the sense of well being (euphoria). It can also produce a series of other central and peripheral effects such as sedation, cough suppression, nausea, constipation and might cause histamine release2. It is used during surgeries for anaesthesia and as a pain reliever after the operation. It is a drug of choice for terminal care and it is really useful for pain management in cancer patients3. Morphine is available at several formulations and different drug administration routes. The selection of the appropriate administration route is dependent on the extent of pain control required. For instance, parenteral morphine is used for acute severe pain, while oral morphine is used for the treatment of temporary pain. The location of the pain will also determine if it is necessary to apply topical preparations or not. Table 1 Pharmacokinetic Properties of three opioid analgesics Pharmacokinetic Parameters Half life Volume of Distribution Clearance Morphine (iv) 2-3 hours   3-5 litre/kg 15 -20ml/min/kg Fentanyl (iv) 3.5-3.8 hours 5-6 litre/kg 21-29ml/min/kg Diamorphine(iv) 2-3 minutes 25litre/kg Use morphine values Source: Clarkes analysis of drugs and poisons4 Moreover, pharmacokinetic parameters such as bioavailability, half life and clearance and other characteristics of the drug (table 1) like side effects, ADRs and interactions must be taken into account before choosing the appropriate drug route. Patients preference (or fear) for a specific drug route and other psychosocial factors might also affect the choice of the formulation and patients compliance and finally medicines effectiveness. Discussion Oral route Regarding oral route, morphine comes as a solution and as immediate or controlled (systained) release tablets and capsules(fig 2). Fig 2. Oral formulations of morphine Oral Suspension Morphine solutions come in different strengths. Oral solutions can be prescribed by writing the formula Morphine HCl 5mg and Chloroform water to 5ml but the proportion can be altered. Morphine Sulphate solutions (Oramorph) are available at 10mg/5ml and as concentrated solutions of 100mg/5ml3. Other excipients include: ethanol (96%- morphine is slightly soluble in ethanol), corn syrup, sucrose, methyl parahydroxybenzoate (E218), propyl parahydroxybenzoate (E216) and purified water. Due to the high content of alcohol this drug is not recommended to alcohol misusers. Normal adult dose is 10-20mg every four hours although when prescribed in palliative care dosage varies higher or lower according to the severity of the pain and kidney function respectively3. As this formulation is not readily absorbed from GI tract, in order to produce same effects as iv dose a 50%-100% increase in dose must be considered. Overdose risk is high and can cause hypotension, respiratory depression and in some cases death. Naloxone which is an opiate antagonist is the first line treatment in case of overdosing5. Tablets and Capsules Solid dosage forms contain morphine in form of salt e.g Morphine Sulphate and Morphine hydrochlorate. Theses salts in the body will be available as morphine bases. Tablets are available in two preparations immediate release and modified release. The short acting tablets come in 10mg, 20mg and 50mg3. They are given every 2-4 hours to control and stabilise breakthrough pain. These tablets are a way of determining the amount of morphine needed to manage pain. Once the quantity of morphine is established the patient can take slow-release tablets and capsules. These formulations contain enough morphine to control pain for 12 or 24 hours. The starting dose varies and from 10-20mg every 12hours if the patient has not taken any other painkiller previously, to 20-30 mg every 12 hours in cases of replacement weak analgesics3. Note only the dose can increase whereas the frequency must remain the same i.e. every 12 hours. It can take up to 48 hours for the morphine to reach the required plasma levels meaning that it is important to be taken regularly otherwise they lose their effectiveness5. If the patience experience pain between doses an additional dose must be given and the GP should decide if it is necessary to increase the daily dose. Oral morphine is a well established drug delivery method however; problems such as the first pass metabolism, the slow onset and the risk of overdose have raised questions on whether other novel administration routes can be used. Intravenous This route is used only in hospitals and in managing emergency pain symptoms. The bolus administration provides almost instant onset with a short effect. Iv morphine is used when sc route is not tolerated. A popular application of this method is in Patient Controlled analgesia (PCA) where the opioid is delivered using a Hospiral infusion device. The patient can control the morphine intake and establish an acceptable level of analgesia6. Morphine is available in 50 and 100ml vials with strength 1mg/ml3. It is used post operatively especially after transplants surgeries and in the management of chronic pain of malignancy. Although this method is useful for the management of severe pain there are many drawbacks. First of all, most of the pumps are bulky and invasive. Their installation is complicated as they require mains attachment and the patient has limited mobility .There is a high risk of overdose therefore supervision is needed. Side effects such as hypotension and respiratory dep ression might develop while convulsions due to high dosage are likely to occur. fig3. PCA infusion device vs syringe driver Subcutaneous Subcutaneous method is an excellent alternative to oral administration method. It is safe and effective method which is widely used both in palliative care and severe pain management. It is used for patients that present conditions such as gastrointestinal disturbances including indigestion, palindromic motility and obstruction5. A prime characteristic of the sc method is the syringe driver. The driver employs simple syringes and bears a flow rate setting option usually ml/hr which enables accurate dosing over a specific period of time. Unlike PCA infusion devices, it is battery powered, so patients mobility is not an issue (fig 3). The risk of overdose is lower compared to iv route as there is a constant stable administration schedule6. There is no need for continuous strict supervision as the driver is easy to use. Often, the subcutaneous route can cause some skin site problems. Irritation might appear especially when there are high concentrations of morphine or when it is combined with other drugs which are not fully compatible3. This problem can be treated either by diluting the dose or by choosing alternative more compatible drugs. Also some patients might experience needle allergic reactions and action must be taken e.g introduce an alternative Teflon cannula. Patients might feel discomfort, especially those who lack of subcutaneous tissue16. Sometimes, possible leakage of subcutaneous site might be observed. Finally, the sc method is not recommended for palliative care patients with acute vascular conditions. Rectal This drug administration route is quite popular and is used for short term management of acute pain. Also in terminal cancer patients modified release morphine sulphate is administered via this route6. Although the absorption rate varies for each individual, it is estimated that around 300-330 mg of morphine are absorbed rectally every four hours, indicating a sufficient analgesic effect. Studies have shown that for the patients who have never taken morphine, rectal morphine is more effective than the oral administered one5. Rectal morphine is available in the form of suppositories at different strengths (10, 15, 20 and 30 mg) 3. Prescribers must specify both the strength and the morphine salt (morphine hydrochloride or morphine sulphate) that suppositories should contain. Evidence shows two deaths15 after consequent doses of rectal morphine should raise awareness and the need of monitoring the dosing regimen and frequency. Rectal route is not avoiding completely the first pass metabolism; therefore the bioavailability might be influenced. Non conventional routes Apart from the conventional drug routes mentioned before, it is necessary to look into other not so popular ones such as the transmucosal, transdermal, sublingual, intrathecal and nebulised routes of administration and try to compare them. Transdermal- Transmucosal Transdermal route is a relatively painless method. The drug absorption is rapidly. Patches are easy to use and not quite expensive. Although this method is usually tolerated from the patients skin irritation and rashes might appear. Transdermal morphine is not popular as there are questions about the efficacy of this method. However, fentanyl another opioid is the drug of choice. More specifically, fentanyl patches are more effective in managing chronic pain compared to modified release oral morphine9. Also, transdermal fentanyl causes reduced constipation and drowsiness14. Another administration route which fentanyl is again preferred than morphine is the transmucosal route by a buccal tablet. The main reason is that fentanyl is a lipophilic drug while morphine has a limited lipid solubility. More specifically, when fentanyl is placed in saliva it is 80% non-ionized  and it usually takes 20-30 minutes for the analgesic effect to reach its peak14. Note transmucosal morphine is also available but the bioavailability is low and analgesic effect is not significant. Sublingual route This route utilises soluble immediate release tablets and it is recommended to patients that have swallowing difficulties. Morphine enters into bloodstream via sublingual mucosa. Investigations have shown that the absorption of morphine is the same (and in a few cases faster) compared with the oral route7. Same studies have shown that there is no significant difference in the extent and duration of analgesic effect when is compared with oral administered morphine3. Nebulised morphine Nebulised morphine utilises the airways to deliver the drug into pulmonary circulation. It can be used for COPD patients in the management of acute thoracic pain11. Through this route, the effect of hepatic metabolism is avoided and a rapid absorption is noted. However, the plasma drug levels are unpredictable indicating the necessity of further clinical investigations. Studies showed that inhaled morphine was as effective as intravenous PCA morphine without causing strong sedating symptoms8. Although nebulised morphine is well accepted, patients who are not used to opioids might experience nausea and vomiting and in rare cases respiratory depression. Other common side effects include constipation and histamine induced broncho-constriction. Another drawback of nebulised morphine is the high cost of the equipment (nebuliser, injectable vials, etc). It is not a simple method and some patients might find it difficult to use the nebuliser. Studies show a wide range of bioavailability in subjects; relating the bioavailability of the drug with the patients ability to use the nebuliser in the right way10. Epidural/intrathecal Both epidural and intrathecal routes are used mostly in the hospital clinical environment. The bioavailability is high so spinal administered morphine can provide extended analgesic effect at lower doses (compared to the conventional drug routes)12. Although epidural and intrathecal morphine can relieve both acute and chronic pain; studies suggest that these routes should be used only for pain which cannot be controlled by the classic established methods13. For instance, these routes are effective in managing lower body pain. Note that only 1% of the daily iv dose must be used intrathecally and only 10% epidurally5. An implanted infusion pump may be used to deliver intrathecal morphine at a continuous rate. A disadvantage of these methods is the high risk of infection and overdose as the staff must be trained and careful when dosing for breakthrough pains. Studies have reported a number of patients experiencing side effects such as sedation, dyspnoea, nausea and vomiting after spinal administration12. Spinal morphine is not usually preferred while diamorphine is the drug of choice due to its high solubility manner. Conclusion As it was mentioned before, morphine can be administered via different routes. However, it is vital each time to consider the risk- benefit ratio for each method and choose the most effective and safe one. Moreover, before establishing unconventional methods such as nebulised and spinal morphine it is important to further investigate their suitability and ways to improve the drug delivery and minimise side effects. Finally, if it is necessary to choose other opiates (such as fentanyl and diamorphine), which might be more efficient than morphine.