adcue with yaw o gyau

What Challenges do you foresee in the implementation of the 60,000 laptop project to Public Basic Schools, by the ministry of Education?* How should the challenges be addressed?

2011-11-05T06:12:00.000-07:00

Introduction

According to Ehrman, ‘teaching and learning is our core business which is changing students’ knowledge, aptitudes, abilities and attitudes, and everything else must add value to it.’ Changing students’ knowledge, aptitudes, abilities and attitudes is like changing a Lizard into a Butterfly. And if teaching and learning is the key for such a transformation, then it is possible. However, it is a very complex task. Getting children to metamorphose from one status of intellect to another, through teaching and learning involve several procedures, theories and principles that must be followed over a long period of time. Conventional teaching practices, with outmoded pedagogy, have not been able to develop the learner's mind as it is supposed to. The introduction of technology into schools across the world, have transformed teaching and learning rapidly. It has also made students more proactive than passive. Today's rapid advancement and technological development have opened up a new and exciting world that, just a few years ago, seemed unimaginable. With the click of a mouse, technology continues to change the way we live, learn, work and interact each and every day. (Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, the 4th Prime Minister of Malaysia. (HMEF 5083 Course Manual, chapter 3).

Discussion

Ingrid Ansah in her submission, stated that the approach suggested by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in the course manual is what basic school teachers must do and I quote: ‘basic school teachers will have to adopt if or when the Ministry of Education fulfils its promise. This initiative will require training on a mass scale for both teachers and students. Teachers will need to be trained in skills such as;` learning skills, creative and critical thinking, facilitating, assessment and evaluation and technology competence.’

Well, for me what Ghanaian schools need, with regard to ICT education, is far more greater than training basic school teachers. Why on earth would one want to train teachers, when indeed there is no comprehensive plan for effective integration of educational and Instructional technology into schools? What happened in Malaysia, through the PDK programme, which later became known as SMART School, remember was guided by a model, which was carefully planned, with theories from the domains of Seels and Richey as well as the ADDIE model from McGriff. Today, they have a more comprehensive ICT education, which goes beyond the installation and use of broadband internet. Can Ghana boast of ICT education when indeed educators and policy makers are not applying tried and proven educational theories to change knowledge, aptitudes, attitudes and abilities of children?

On Monday, 12 September 2011, the major news that hit the headlines was that ‘Government is to distribute 60,000 laptops to basic schools across the country under its computerization project to improve the teaching of ICT.’ (GNA News. Source: Modernghana.com). Moreover, “Betty Mould Iddrisu, Ghana's minister of education, announced the plan as part of the government's Basic School Computerization Project, which is designed to ensure that Ghanaian children grow up computer literate in an increasingly digital world. (www.lenovo.com). The project was launched in Accra, under the theme “ICT as a tool for development at the basic level education”, said the initiative seeks to equip and empower basic school teachers and pupils with modern ICT equipment and skills to enhance their knowledge and capability in the use of modern technology.’’

A critical analysis of the theme for launching the project gives us some clues about the Government’s ICT agenda at the basic schools level. Using ICT as a tool for development in basic schools. This theme in itself is mediocre. One may ague that it is just a starting point. But I beg to differ because I have been an ICT Teaching Assistant in the Business and ICT department of Barking College in the United Kingdom during the 2005/ 2006 academic year. That was at the tertiary level. At the basic level, I was a volunteer teacher for a week in Lauriston Primary school in Hackney, London, to teach 8 year olds i.e. Key Stage 2 pupils. In Ghana, between the period of September 2006 to November 2007, I was the ICT instructor at Alsyd Academy, a basic school situated at Dworwulu, a suburb of Accra.

At the tertiary level in Barking College, I realized that all teachers had laptops and used the computer and its peripherals, alongside recommended software and applications to instruct or teach students. Every lecture room was fully equipped with technological devices such as desktop computers, webcams, projects, CDs and other storage devices. So teaching and learning was instructed through technology. Literacy and numeracy became very easy and inspiring for students to do. Class assignments were research and internet based as well as books. Note here that there were no dedicated computer laboratories, but rather the lecture rooms were furnished with technological devices, specifically for teaching and learning. This made students very active rather than passive learners.

At the basic level in Lauriston primary school, there was a dedicated computer laboratory for teaching and learning of ICT at certain periods in the week. And to my surprise, children of KS 2, saw the computer as a play device. But once they were instructed through demonstrations and maneuvering, they were engaged to study better than conventional teaching practices. In Alsyd Academy, there was a dedicated computer laboratory with 40 desktop computers and pupils had to share one computer by pairing. This was solely provided to teach Basic Computing Skills, but without overhead projectors. So as a teacher, I had to go round and help each pupil click the right button and menu box, etc. That for me is partial fulfillment of ICT education. It is not like absolute Instructional Technology that is taking place in Malaysia now, through the Smart School system. Meanwhile, the Minister for education said ‘the ICT project is one of the flagship projects the Ministry of education has kick-started, hoping that by the end of 2013 Ghana will be competing with countries likes of South Africa in terms of ICT Education. (GNA News. Source: moderngahana.com).

Competing with other countries is a great idea but studying what and how others have done it is key. This project is bound to face a myriad of challenges. But before I identify the challenges let me ask a few questions, which I believe need to be operationalised in the context of this discussion.
• Who is supposed to benefit from the 60,000 laptops?
• Will all children of all public basic schools have the laptops?
• Are private schools supposed to benefit from any similar package currently or in the future?
• By what criteria are they distributing the laptops?
• How are they going to be shared in terms of quantity?
• Are the laptops going to sit in computer laboratories?
• Are there proper storage facilities for these delicate machines?
• What kind of maintenance plan is in place to ensure long life span of the laptops?
• Are teachers part of the beneficiaries?
• Are there internet facilities to support teaching and learning?
• How integrating is it? Is it just for basic computing skills or for instructional technology?
• Have teachers been trained to instruct pupils with the laptops?
These and several other questions can be asked because the project is not well planned to ensure the success and development.

The Challenges

• The project is intended for only public basic schools and this cannot bring any significant development to education in Ghana
• How can ICT be taught effectively in schools that lack standard computer laboratories?
• Internet assess and installation is a problem that bedevil many public schools.
• Many teachers are likely not to benefit from this.
• Not all children are going to get these laptops because in one of the editions of the Daily Graphic, a list of students and teachers, from the various regions, were published as benefactors who had to go to the regional education units for them. That suggests to me that not all teachers and pupils are going to benefit from this. What are the criteria for distribution? Clearly, discrimination and inequality is going to come up as a challenge if all pupils are not furnished with a laptop.
• There are no customized software and application for teaching and learning.
• Teachers across board have not been trained for ICT education.

More Challenges

Ingrid Ansah, once again, mentioned yet another challenge, saying, ‘In addition to receiving training, teachers will need to be counselled on various issues, such as class control, and encourage students to stay focused, to achieve this, the lesson need to be interesting to hold the students attention. This is essentially a big change to them and they will need to be counselled on how to cope with these changes.’ I absolutely agree with her because certainly, the attitude of pupils is going to change due to the use of laptop. Behaviour change is likely to reach undefined heights and teachers will have to find ways of ensuring good behaviour. Counselling indeed will be an antidote to some of these challenges due to the sudden change.

Another major challenge is sustainability and maintenance. How secured are these laptops in the school environment especially where there are no dedicated computer laboratories? The laptops are likely to be stolen and this will cause heavy financial loss to the state. In terms of servicing the laptops, rlg, the company that supplied the laptops to the government, are ready to carry out such maintenance duties as and when the need arise.

Finally, I would like to touch on the challenge of curriculum development. The new curriculum captures ICT as a core subject at the basic level. Which is a good thing. But how is it being treated? To date, children in basic schools just learn the theory and principles of basic computing skills but there is no avenue for them to practice, because there are no computers. Ingrid Ansah in her final assertion threw more light on this, making mention of the policy statement of Ghana’s ICT for Accelerated Development: In the policy statement of Ghana’s ICT4AD 2003, there was a statement that `policy efforts shall be directed at using ICT’s to facilitate education and learning within the educational system and to promote e-learning and e-education as well as life-long learning within the population at large.’((ICT4AD) Policy 2003). That means e-learning and e-ducation are recognized as important tools for teaching and learning. But to what extent have educators prepared e-learning materials for individual course contents based on curriculum subjects outlined? That is what we need to do because e-learning require such things as ‘Course Content’, Student Support Services’, and other materials through the Internet for ‘Student-to-tutor interaction’ and ‘Student-to-Student interaction. [from Figure 3.1: E-Learning Model for Schools [Sourcecde.athabascau.ca/online_book/ch2.html]

Solutions and Recommnendations

I think the best way to address these challenges and solve them is to look at what Malaysia, UK, Korea, Australia have done and them tap into their expertise for effective installation of instructional technology into schools.

I also beleive that the Ministry of education must provide training packages for teachers to enrol during the long vacations so that they can have time to be exposed to the tenets of instructional technology once and for all. To ensure full and effective participation of the training by teachers and educators, the Ministry of Education must send a directive to withold the salary of teachers who do not avail themselves for training, for a three month period. That way, teachers will be compelled to streamline other roles for the training. This is very important because teachers every where must be ICT compliant and technologically sound in order to be able to impart knowledge and facilitate teaching and learning in schools.

The government must also make heavy investments into the provision of infrastructure, especially computer laboratories and other technological devices for teaching and learning. Some of the private schools have found ways of investing in ICT infrastructure including the Internet. So the government must be able to do this. The burden should not be on the government alone, but all stakeholders of education must be roped into this big idea of integrating instructional technology in to schools. Pupils and students at basic schools, must be counselled and psyched up for such a change and with time they will adopt it.

Finally, educational leaders and policy makers must also ensure that the curricular is catered for by creating customised or tailor made teaching materials that take in to account Ghanaian culture and other values that are unique to Ghana.

References

HMEF 5083 Course Manual Open University AIT Graduate Studies page 52,53, 61
Ghana News Agency. GNA News of 09-14-2011, 12-09-2011: www.moderngahan.com

http://www.lenovo.com/articles/us/en/news/ghana-to-deliver-60000-laptops-to-schools.html

http://www.modernghana.com/news/350146/1/govt-to-distribute-60000-laptops-to-school-childr.html

http://www.rlgghana.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=72&Itemid=100

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=218542

http://news.gkrom.com/articles/gov’t-to-distribute-60000-laptops-to-school-children

Educational and Instructional Technology for Development of Education in Ghana: Adopting the concepts of Seels, Richey & McGriff

2011-10-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

ABSTRACT

This term paper is prepared on the premise that Educational and Instructional Technology are crucial disciplines that, when integrated into schools, human resources become more developed and more productive. This has been proven in countries such as Malaysia, Newzeland, United Kingdom and USA. In 2005, Malaysia in collaboration with Newzeland, prepared a Handbook, dubbed ‘Monitoring and Evaluation of ICT in Education Projects’. The Handbook seeks to provide other countries with tools to develop more effective future strategies, which coordinate the introduction of computers with national education policies and programs related to changes in curriculum, teaching methods, assessment and teacher training. The Malaysian education policy is guided by the SMART School Model which is working efficiently. ICT for Accelerated Development (ICT4AD) is designed to propel educational technology in Ghana, but unfortunately, the policy is misdirected with emphasis on internet provision, rather than absolute replacement of conventional teaching with instructional technology. This paper studied and compared the educational policy framework of Malaysia and Ghana, suggesting ways of improving educational and instructional technology in Ghana; guided by the two theoretical models of educational technology by Seels and Richey as well as ADDIE model presented by McGriffi.

The Role of Internet in Education and the Challenges of using Internet in Education in Ghana

The Internet may be explained as interconnection of computers and computer networks using TCP/IP communication protocols according to T. B. Rajasherkar, NCSI, IISc; Introduction to Internet (May 2004). Protocol in the Internet domain is a set of rules of defining communication between systems. At the International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies - CompSysTech’06, Ismail Sarıtas et al, released a paper on the subject in a document entitled, ‘The Role of the Internet in Computer-Aided Education’. In this document they discussed the role of Net-Aided Education (NAE) as follows:
• NAE disposes the educators of the problem of time and place, which are the two greatest restrictions of conventional methods. The most important problem of education (i.e. of lack of time, place and educators) makes such methods as NAE an indispensable companion of conventional methods. Learning that is based on the Internet equips the students with the opportunity to access information, without having to conform to a designated time and place. Additionally, NAE affects the students’ level of education positively by also teaching them how to keep their knowledge updated all through their lives. (CompSysTech’06, Ismail Sarıtas et al.).
• Distribution of information through the Internet is made possible by e-learning portals. These applications, also known as ‘course management systems,’ are software that can handle automatically such services as teaching design, sharing and debating in many forms, registering to classes, undertaking research tasks, doing exams, going back in history to review researches and exams, arranging teaching designs, keeping records of learner, educator and the system and displaying reports all through the Internet. (CompSysTech’06, Ismail Sarıtas et al.)
• NAE provides the teachers and learners with a suitable environment by keeping in mind the variations of learning style and capabilities of individuals and by making it possible for learning process to continue anywhere and anytime other than regular lessons. (CompSysTech’06, Ismail Sarıtas et al.)

Challenges of ICT Education in Ghana

The ultimate objective of the Ghana ICT for Accelerated Development (ICT4AD) is to: ‘accelerate Ghana’s socio-economic development process towards the realization of the vision to transform Ghana into a high income economy and society that is predominately information-rich and knowledge-based within the next two to three decades or less.’[Ghana ICT4AD Policy Document – pdf; retrieved from infodev.org ] . Ghana’s quest to use the Internet for accelerated growth in schools and the entire economy, is bedeviled with numerous problems or challenges. While some are under control, others appear to be insurmountable. In his document entitled ‘Ten lessons for education in the developing world’, under the auspices of the World Links for Development Program - The World Bank Institute; Robert J. Hawkins identified Ten reasons why ICT education in Ghana is facing numerous challenges. In his introductory pages, Robert made a very insightful statement:
“The skills to productively transform knowledge and information into innovative products and services will define successful knowledge economies. Because knowledge and information have become the most important currency for productivity, competitiveness, and increased wealth and prosperity, nations have placed greater priority on developing their human capital. Governments around the world are thus focusing on strategies to increase access to and improve the quality of education. Decision makers find themselves asking key questions: What defines a quality education in today’s global information-based economy? Has education kept pace with a rapidly changing world? Are there good models for reform that we can follow?”
That is the reality that African countries especially Ghana, must come to terms with. Because it is not just a matter of internet use at certain urban or rural areas or schools, but absolute assimilation of ICT into everyday life and generic activities. A complete adoption of educational and instructional technology is what can make this a reality. Robert pointed out, among other pertinent challenges that in Ghana:
• Conventional teaching practices are still a deep-seated menace. “But if you were to compare the classroom of a hundred years ago with an average classroom today, you would recognize it immediately: students lined up in rows, paper and pencil in hand; a teacher at the blackboard jotting down important facts; students furiously copying all that is written and said, expecting to memorize the facts and spit them out on an exam. While much has been changed by the advances of science and technology, education and the way that students learn and teachers’ teach have remained largely unchanged.’’(Robert J. Hawkins)
• Another challenge is Teacher training. Hawkins states categorically that ‘one of the key failures of many past programs was that schools were provided with expensive equipment but with little or no support for teachers’ professional development, national ICT-in-education policies, or community involvement.’ Teachers are also not conforming to the changing trends of ICT integration into schools. It is only the ICT teachers that are conforming to change. But all teachers are supposed to conform and changing their outmoded teaching patterns. Having experienced this as ICT Teacher in a JHS School (name withheld) in Accra, during the 2006-2007 academic year, I can say for a fact that this is very stiff challenge and until teachers part with outmoded teaching practices and yield to training, the Government’s ICT4AD will never be achieved. These are the real problems that the government has to deal with at all levels.
• Inadequate supply of computers and laboratories in schools in both the urban and rural areas. Government should make more ICT facilities available and ensure smooth implementation. Robert J. Hawkins assertion to this challenge states that ‘in a recent survey of teachers in developing countries conducted by SRI International for World Links, the majority of teachers in African and Latin American countries reported that the lack of adequate hardware and software as well as unreliable Internet access were significant barriers to using computers in instruction. This report reflects the fact that many schools in developing countries have a student-teacher ratio as high as 80:1, and must contend with a computer lab often to twenty computers for the entire school—if they are lucky.’ Lack of adequate hardware and software reduces the whole objective of Ghana’s ICT4AD to absurdity. Because, it is absurd to think of integrating ICT as a subject into the basic school curriculum, without necessarily providing the basic resources that will expose children to the ‘know-how’ i.e. the practical aspects. The result is that students come out of school without the requisite skills required for productivity. This goes a long way to affect productivity.

Recommendations & Solutions

• Blended learning will be a better option for us in Ghana and Africa. Because people are so used to the traditional classroom learning and will not easily and entirely switch to 100% e-learning. Not to mention the numerous problems we face in ICT development. It will take quite a long period for absolute change to occur.
• Due to special education needs. As a trained Special Education Needs (SEN) teacher, coupled with my experience in London as a SEN Facilitator, I would like to state categorically, that 'all children/students are equal but not all children/students are the same'. Differences in IQ, cultural backgrounds, sensory impairments and other deficiencies on the part of students make it necessary for the blended option to be used.
• Training of teachers and facilitators as well as course structure. Teachers must be ICT compliant at all levels so that they can become facilitators. Differences in course structure and modules also make it impossible to use e-learning method only. Because some subject areas may require practical demonstrations through the traditional method of learning and this cannot probably be rendered with ICT. However, Technology today is capable of doing the unthinkable, so the right expertise must be tapped to treat such special areas.
• Computers and Laboratories, coupled with software and hardware must be provided by the Government with support from parents and teachers (PTAs), especially in the public schools, so as to equip students at all levels, with the practical problem-solving skills through technology

Differences and similarities between two concepts required for Educational and Instructional Technology.

In recent times, educational technology and Instructional Technology have become asserts to some educational systems, especially among developed countries. These two educational concepts are Internet driven, yet there are significant differences or variations that are worth examining. Countries that have adopted these concepts of education, driven by technology, have transformed traditional teacher-centered practices to learner-centered, thereby empowering the learner. In Malaysia for instance, the introduction of the SMART SCHOOL CONCEPT, which was initiated in 1992, on pilot basis, was fully launched in 2004. ‘What distinguishes smart schools from other schools is the use of technology to support and enhance teaching-learning. With the aid of multimedia technology, self-accessed, self paced and self directed learning can be practiced.’ (Tengku Putri Norishah Shariman; HMEF 5083 Course Manual). Educational Technology may look the same as Instructional technology and countires that have used e-learning to transform teaching and learning seem to be using both concepts. But the big question remains. Are they using both concepts? How different are they and to what extent have they used registered and proposed models such as ADDIE and ISD, from renowned researchers, to develop strategic and sustained educational plans. This paper seeks to find.

Understanding Educational Technology

According to Saettler (1990), the first person to introduce education technology was radio instruction pioneer, W. W. Charters in 1948. In October 2005 a search by Google listed 17.6 million listing for the definition of Educational Technology. ( paraphrased from Tengku Putri Norishah Shariman; HMEF 5083 Course Manual). That suggests to me that there are several meanings to the subject. Shafritz, Koeppe, and Soper (1988), defined the subject as a ‘systematic approach to solving the problems of instruction that includes the development of instructional systems, identification of resources and the delivery of those resources to students.’ In my opinion this definition lacks the technology acumen. It gives no place to technology. In another vein Educational Technology ‘is the application of research, learning theory, emergent technologies and child and adult psychology to solving instructional and performance problems (University of North Carolina Media Services,1997). According to the Department of Educational Technology, Boise State University, (2011), Educational Technology is an innovative way to design, deliver, facilitate, and manage instruction for learners of all ages, whether it is face-to-face in a classroom, online, or a combination of methods. In detail, It is much more than audio-visual add-ons. It is a way of engaging learners to understand the implications of technology in today's society, empowering them to think, supporting them to lead their own learning and career paths, as well as the learning of others.
This definition from Boise State University gives me a better understanding of the subject. Because it presents educational technology as a management process that seeks to plan, manage, design material, facilitate and deliver knowledge (instruction) to learners of all ages in three major ways – online, face-to-face in a classroom or a combination of both. That pre-supposes that the tenets of educational technology must be strategically planned, designed and delivered; with utmost attention to Content, Context, Learner and Assessment. However, the need for equipment that will guide and facilitate teaching and learning cannot be under-estimated in educational technology.
Technology concerns itself with equipment and the know-how; i.e. how available tools and materials could be skillfully used to create or produce something. The Association of Educational Communication and Technology (AECT), seems to suggest that ‘more professionals now use educational technology in a general sense to describe any use of technology in an educational endeavour.’ (Tengku Putri Norishah Shariman; HMEF 5083 Course Manual). But technology alone cannot trigger or enhance attainment in schools, unless it is directed or tailored to do so. That is why planning and designing of educational material is key to effective use of technology to ensure achievement. According to Mohamed Ally of Athabasca University, in his work entitled, Foundations of educational theory for online learning, ‘it has long been recognized that specialized delivery technologies can provide efficient and timely access to learning materials; however, Clark (1983) claims that technologies are merely vehicles that deliver instruction, and do not themselves influence student achievement. As Clark notes, meta-analysis studies on media research show that students gain significant learning benefits from audiovisual or computer media as opposed to conventional instruction; however, the same studies also suggest that the reason for those benefits is not the medium of instruction, but the instructional strategies built into the learning materials.’ In a nutshell, educational technology must operate in a wider spectrum to ensure that the principles of strategic education are blended with technological advancements to ensure quality education that is not offered by conventional instruction.

Understanding Instructional Technology
In 1994, Seals and Richey, through the Association for Educational Communication and Technology (AECT), defined Instructional technology as ‘the theory and practice of design, development, utilization, management and evaluation of processes and resources for learning.’ This definition throws more light on theory, practice and process with the perspective of design, development, utilization and evaluation. Drawing from the definition of educational technology discussed above, it is obvious that some similarities exist between Instructional Technology and Educational Technology. The issue of design, development, utilization and evaluation seem inevitable among them. Perhaps, seeking another opinion will help one find the similarities and differences that pertain.
Instructional technology is the use of a variety of teaching tools to improve student learning. We usually think of computers and computer software when we think of instructional technology, but instructional technologies are not limited to computers in the classroom. Instructional technology describes all tools that are used for teaching and learning such as: cameras, CD players, PDA's, GPS devices, computer-based probes, calculators and electronic tools we have yet to discover. (Illinois School District U-46, from http://www.u-46.org/it/DefinitionofInstructionalTechnology.htm).
This definition is very insightful, reflecting the true nature of instructional technology and emphasizing the idea of using a variety of teaching tools to improve student learning. There are several technological devices and tools that can be used to facilitate and enhance teaching and learning in schools. For example, the computer and its peripherals, digital cameras, video camcorders, projectors, 3G mobile phones, Portable Device Assistants (PDAs), calculators, CD/ DVD players, electronic white boards, computer-based applications (softwares) and many more.
In the United Kingdom for example, educational reforms through the ‘Baker Commission’ gave birth to a new system of education under the Education Reform Act. This led to the introduction of the National Curriculum (NC) in 1988. The NC was to lay down a common syllabus and course content that every state school should follow. The NC was divided into core and foundational subjects. Among the numerous foundational subjects was ‘Technology’. In order to improve standards, the NC required the use of Technology as the basis for teaching and learning at all levels. Additionally, the organization of teaching and learning required active strategic planning which was supposed to capture Literacy, Numeracy and Whole Class Approach. The idea of Whole Class Approach became necessary because some children required Special Education Needs (SEN), others suffered Emotional and Behaviour Development (EBD) problems. So the process of differentiation was adopted. ‘Differentiation’ was the process whereby, pupils across the whole range of ability (mixed) can have access to and benefit from the curriculum. Because it was believed that children could be exposed to different learning styles driven by technology. Some children are ‘audio learners’, ‘visual learners’, ‘kinesthetic learners’ or a combination of all. Due to this, authorities were not ready to differentiate or separate such children, but rather integrate all of them into mainstream school environment. My experience in the UK school environment as a Special Education Needs (SEN) teacher, taught me that if Instructional Technology was not practically and effectively introduced into the classroom environment, children who suffered EBD or SEN, would have had a tough time with the old conventional way of instruction. Having supported two SEN students at college level in London, I can categorically say that the use of computer and its peripherals, coupled with other technological devices for teaching and learning, have tremendously, helped such students to find instructive learning very easy.
The beauty of instructional technology is that technological devices for teaching and learning can be customized or specially designed with specific features, to serve specific needs. For example, the brail and other learning devices have been created for visually impaired students to participate in teaching and learning. Therefore, it will be treacherous to limit instructional technology to only computers in the classroom. Instructional technology has more to do with direct application of technology in the acts of teaching and learning. In other words instructional technology is a sub-category of educational technology. (AECT)
In concluding this section, I would like to state that there is a difference between Educational Technology and Instructional Technology but with some similarities as well. Where as Educational Technology serves as a the umbrella discipline with emphasis on strategic planning and designing content, context and assessment for all learners with primary consideration to technological equipment for effective teaching and learning; Instructional technology, is a sub-discipline that seeks to execute the basic tenets of educational technology. Ensuring that various technological devices and applications that serve as channels for students to experience real-life models and simulations; and the students’ interaction with those models and simulations facilitate teaching and learning. That means Instructional Technology should be more interactive than Educational technology. Offering a two-way or mutual communication flow between the learner and the technological device.
Instructional technology also encapsulates online learning, which is gradually eroding conventional instruction. Because, online learning makes use of the computer and the Internet with computer-based applications, such as Internet browsers and other learning platforms. Online learning is also referred to as e-learning, internet learning, networked learning, distant learning among others. Online learning allows participants to collapse time and space (Cole, 2000); however, the learning materials must be designed properly to engage the learner and promote learning. According to Bonk and Reynolds (1997), to promote higher-order thinking on the web, online learning must create challenging activities that enable learners to link new information to old: acquire meaningful knowledge; and use their metacognitive abilities; hence it is the instructional strategy, not the technology that influences the quality of learning.

The proposals of Seels and Richey (1994)

Educational Technology and Instructional Technology have earlier been discussed in this paper to enumerate their meaning and characteristics. This section will further elaborate the various aspects of educational and instructional technology that were introduced by Seels and Richey in 1994. It will also dilate on the similarities and differences that exist between the two disciplines.
The studies of Seels and Richey along side other researchers in the field have yielded tremendous benefits for the students to have insight into these two broad areas. According to the Association for Educational Communication and Technology (AECT), the studies of Seels and Richey, provided an overview of the various aspects of educational technology, both in theory and practice. Besides the sub committee of AECT that was tasked to do an in depth study of educational and instructional technology, did not only provide a working definition for both, but also produced a working document which examined in depth, the various domains introduced by Seels and Richey. That document is known as Knowledge base. The knowledge base for the field is divided into five interrelated domains: design, development, utilization, management, and evaluation (Seels & Richey, 1994, p. 21).. The knowledge base sought to provide in depth knowledge about the sub-domains that digested the content of each domain. Hence the five domains and sub-domains are described as follows:
Design: refers to the process of specifying conditions for learning. Sub-domains that can be identified in here are instructional systems, Message design, Instructional strategies and learner characteristics.
Development: refers to the process of translating the design specifications into physical form. In this domain such things as print technologies, audiovisual technologies. Computer based technology and integrated technologies key elements that form the sub-domains.
Utilization: refers o the use of processes and resources for learning. Utilization is also characterized by media utilization, diffusion of innovations, implementation and institutionalization.
Management: refers to processes for controlling instructional technology. Management must take into account such things as project management, resource management delivery system management and information management.
Evaluation: is the process for determining the adequacy of instruction. (Seels & Richey, 1994, pp. 24-43). This domain identifies four main items that make up the sub-domain. They are, problem analysis, criterion referenced measurement, format evaluation, summative evaluation.
AECT in explaining how the domains work, noted that ‘within each domain there are sub-domains that serve to describe each domain. For example, evaluation is divided into problem analysis, criterion-referenced measurement, formative evaluation, and summative evaluation.’ It further states that ‘the relationship among the domains shown in Figure 1 is not linear, but synergistic. Although research may focus on one specific domain or sub-domain, practice, in reality, combines functions in all or several domains. For example, a practitioner working in the development domain uses theory from the design domain, such as instructional systems design theory and message design theory.’ (http://www.aect.org/standards/knowledgebase.html). At this stage it is appropriate to study another or similar theory in order to know the similarities or differences that exist. For the purpose of this study, the ADDIE theory, introduce by McGriff will be analysed and discussed.

The proposals of McGriff

Models, like myths and metaphors, help us to make sense of our world. Whether derived from whim or from serious research, a model offers its user a means of comprehending an otherwise incomprehensible problem.. Models help us to visualize the problem, to break it down into discrete, manageable units. (Martin Ryder University of Colorado).
Like the model above, McGriff (2001), introduced another model to emphasize the nature of instructional and educational technology. McGriff, discussed five major areas that should guide the structure of educational and instructional technology. According to the Instructional Design Central website, ‘the ADDIE instructional design model is the generic process traditionally used by instructional designers and training developers. The five phases—Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation—represent a dynamic, flexible guideline for building effective training and performance support tools.’
Hence, offering a model which became known as ADDIE model. ADDIE is an instructional design method, more particularly an instructional systems design model.
Well the ADDIE model introduced by McGriff, does not necessarily follow a linear order though the five components can be classified into phases because one will have to revisit any one of the five phases at any given time. Each phase consist of a set of elements that help to execute it effectively. They are as follows:
Analysis phase says the audience must be defined, tasks and learning needs must be analyzed, and then constraints must be identified.
Design phase says that subject matters must be analysed in depth. Identify objective or goals with regard to competence; identify a sequence to meet these objectives; create learning scenarios for each subject objective and then identify kinds of learning materials and tools needed.
Development phase means to practically do the planned strategy for growth.
Implementation phase requires the training of teachers and learners to use available resources and then insure delivery e.g. through a book or CD ROM.
Evaluation phase requires the evaluation of design and initiating measurement and monitoring tools. But this stage is performed through out the entire process.

Comparing ADDIE model and the Domains from Seels and Richey
A careful study of the two models presented above, indicate that, certainly there are similarities and differences in the content and context. The similarities can be identified as follows:
• With regard to objective or goal, one can tell that both ADDIE model and the Domains of Seels and Richey had the primary objective of transforming Traditional leaning Environments (TLE) to New Learning Environments (NLT). But this transformation was supposed to be driven by technology in schools and among students of all levels. The Institutional Society of Technology in Education (ISTE), an organization based in the United Kingdom, has over the years, helped advance the use of technology in classroom. In the course of this they provided a ‘New Learning Environments’ model ensuring that learning and research in modern societies must be student-centered, constructivist and collaborative learning; because it is more effective than the traditional top-down lecture-based, text-driven model (paraphrased from HMEF5083 course manual). Therefore, coming back to the two models, it is clear that the objective of these models were to provide a guide to support the planning, preparation, management, implementation and evaluation of teaching and learning driven by technology.
• Another similarity that can be found with both models is that the Domains of Seels and Richey aim at doing same or similar things as the ADDIE model of McGriff. If one should try to literally synchronize them, basic things such as planning, layout, improvement, practical use of resources and assessment are the ingredients that Instructional technology, should thrive on.

It is worth noting, however, that the Concept of the Instructional Technology Field, a diagram that indicates how Instructional technology works, teachs that there are three major items that Instructional technology must possess before it is able to connect with other items to become effective. The three major items are:
• Theory, Strategies and Techniques; (i.e. systematic application of theories, applications and techniques)
• Change in Behaviour and Knowledge; (it must have positive effect on learners)
• Communication (it must enhance and facilitate communication, from a ‘sender’ to the ‘receiver’)
Due to the essential nature of these variables, the Domains of Seels and Richey, are captured in that diagram as a set of phases that link theory, strategies and techniques. Design, Development, Management, Utilization and Evaluation are supposed to be processed and coordinated efficiently in order to stimulate a measurable change in the actins, behaviour and knowledge base of learners at all ages/ levels. Below is a quick illustration of the Concept of the Instructional Technology Field.

In a nutshell, the domains of Seels and Richey cannot be underestimated in educational and instructional technology. They are very important for Instructional design technologists. In conclusion, educators who seek to transform traditional teaching practices should advance educational systems via instructional technology at all levels. Now let us compare ICT education in Ghana with that of Malaysia.

Comparing ICT Education in Malaysia and Ghana: A suggested Model for Ghana

Introduction to SMART Schools
The SMART school concept is a recognized system of ICT education specially designed as an educational technology policy for all schools in Malaysia. The concept actually began in 1992 as with the introduction of a programme called ‘Computer in Education (Komputer Dalam Pendidkan – (KDP). The main aim of the programme was to ensure the construction of computer laboratories. In spite of the electricity, maintenance of hardware and financial constraints, the KDP programme was expanded rapidly. Seven years later, the Smart schools concept was tired in 87schools on pilot basis. If Malaysia was to implement the whole programme across the country, then they had to ensure that all schools had Internet access. So the School-Net Broadband infrastructure projects was introduced to deal with that in 2004. Followed by a website for the Ministry of education to relay more information about the programme. The aim of the Smart School was to ensure that the country, through the Education Ministry, produce knowledge workers for the nation’s high-tech industries in the 21st century.’ One distinct quality of the Smart school model is the use of technology to support and enhance teaching and learning. This quality was aided by multimedia technology, self-accessed, self-paced and self-directed learning can be practiced.
Initiating a policy of this sort, required the need for a model to guide and sustain the concept. Due to this the objectives of the Smart school concept was illustrated in a model. The model has the following, as it’s main features:

The Ghanaian ICT POLICY - ICT for Accelerated Development (ICT4AD)

The Government of Ghana has placed a strong emphasis on the role of ICT in contributing to the country’s economy. The country’s medium-term development plan captured in the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (GPRS I&II) and the Education Strategic Plan 2003-2015 all suggest the use of ICT as a means of reaching out to the poor in Ghana. At the national level Kofi Mangesi states, that ‘In 2004 Parliament passed into law, Ghana’s ICT for Accelerated Development (ICT4AD) policy, which is currently at various stages of implementation. This policy represents the vision of Ghana in the information age and addresses some priority areas or pillars:

• Accelerating human resource development
• Promoting ICTs in education – the deployment and exploitation of ICTs in education
• Developing an export-oriented ICT products and services industry
• Developing a globally competitive value-added services sector – a regional business
service and ICT hub
• Deploying and spreading ICTs in the community
• Rapidly developing ICT and enabling physical infrastructure
• Developing R&D, scientific, and industrial research capacity
• Promoting foreign and local direct investment drive in ICTs
[SURVEY OF ICT AND EDUCATION IN AFRICA: Ghana Country Report–1, ICT in Education in Ghana; Kofi Mangesi, April 2007; retrieved from www.infodev.org]

In spite of all of these policy objectives, very little, in ICT has been achieved in Ghanaian schools. According to Kofi Mangesi, ‘the Ghanaian tertiary education sector is the most advanced in the deployment and use of ICTs in the country. All the country’s major universities have their own separate ICT policy, which includes an ICT levy for students. This enables students to have access to 24-hour computer labs with broadband connection. However not all tertiary institutions in the country are equally endowed and there are instances where the computer facilities are run purely by the private sector as cyber cafés on campuses’.
‘In the basic and secondary education sector, a project to set up computer laboratories in all science schools in the country has lead to a significant number of computers being installed across the country. A computer levy of ¢30,000 (USD$3.20) is allowed to be in most secondary schools. There is, however, a great disparity between public and private schools as well as between urban and rural areas in access to ICTs.’ (ICT in Education in Ghana; Kofi Mangesi, 2007)

Comparing The SMART School and the ICT Policy in Ghana.

Having studied the two reports on ICT education from both countries, I state, without exception, that Ghana’s ICT Policy lacks direction and the requisite impetus to fully integrate educational and instructional technology into schools at all levels. This may be due to two reasons:
• Either policy makers do not understand the essentials of educational technology and instructional technology or
• Policy makers did not have any clear-cut plan for such a massive integration. Because all that have been done so far that ICT has been added to the school curriculum and computer laboratories have been established in some few public schools. With private schools leading the way.
Meanwhile, the purpose of educational technology is not to, literally provide computer laboratories or provide Internet access in schools. It goes beyond that. At least having understood the models of Seels and Richey alongside McGraffi’s ADDIE model, I realize depth of insight and resources that educational and instructional technology requires.
• Malaysia did it within 12 years, but Ghana is still hovering around the issues because there is no clear-cut plan.
• Moreover, whereas Malaysia was inspired to democratize education through technology, Ghana is so urban bias.
• Many teachers, especially in the rural areas in Ghana, are reluctant to change because they are so steeped in the conventional way of teaching as well as lack of ICT literacy. But the SMART school concept in Malaysia sought to increase stakeholders’ involvement.
• There is no conceptual model to guide this, so needed integration of ICT into mainstream education.
There are so many issues we can point out but I think that is the more reason why ICT education in Ghana needs a model to guide its operations and set out a clear plan for a successful educational and instructional technology. There are fourteen priority areas that have been listed in the objectives of Ghana’s ICT4AD. Guided by that, one can formulate a critical and applicable model to guide and offer a clear-cut plan for effective integration of ICT into Ghanaian schools at all levels.

The diagram above is a proposed model for ICT education in Ghana. First of all, there must be a clear-cut philosophy for educational technology in Ghana. The problem in Ghana is quite a perculiar one and so this model has been created, not necessarily to follow the Malaysian model, but tailor-made to solve some pertinent problems that Ghanaian children/ students generally face. Such problems that technology can be used to solve are attitudinal, behavioural, emotional, and psychological problems. Self-esteem for example is a very big problem for many Ghanaian students, because many suffer inferiority complex and other esteem needs. But I believe that when technology is customized for specific needs it can resolve critical deficiencies. I have always argued that technology has really saved people with disability and special education needs. So the issue of attitudinal, behavioural and psychological needs should be one of the major reasons to integrate educational and institutional technology in Ghanaian schools at all levels.

Summary/ Conclusion

Educational and Instructional Technology have come of age and it is expedient for governments across the globe to fully endorse and implement them in the education of students at all levels. Interestingly, these two disciplines have been found to be partners with one being the subset of the other. Meanwhile, the Internet, a system of networking computers for mutual communication, has been found to be the lifeblood of Educational and Instructional Technology. It was also realized that, whereas educational technology seeks to plan, manage and coordinate the domains of ICT education, instructional technology is designed to offer students the opportunity to effectively use and experience various technological devices alongside duly prepared study materials.

Countries like Malaysia, Newzeland and United Kingdom have successfully integrated ICT into education. Others like Ghana and Nigeria are struggling because of several challenges that have been discussed in this paper. This paper identifies and elaborates on the DOMAINS of Seels and Richey as well as the ADDIE model of MaGriffi. These two models or concepts have the keys for to unlock the potential of instructional technology and educational technology. Guided by these two models as well as SMART school model, the author of this paper has proposed a model alongside other recommendations for effective implementation of ICT in education in Ghana.

REFERENCES

Department of Educational Technology, Boise State University, (2011) from http://edtech.boisestate.edu/web/edtech.htm
Tengku Putri Norishah Shariman; HMEF 5083 Course Manual; Educational Technology in School, Chapter 3.
Centre for Graduate Studies, Open University Malaysia; HMEF 5083 Instructional Technology Course Manual. Chapter 1
http://www.instructionaldesigncentral.com/htm/IDC_instructionaldesignmodels.htm
McGriff, S. (2001,Oct, 27). ISD Knowledge Base/Instructional Systems Design Models/
http://www.nsf.gov/about/history/nsf0050/internet/pdf.htm
http://ncsi-net.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/gsdl/collect/drtbrara/index/assoc/HASH01db.dir/doc.pdf
http:// www.infoDev.org
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/sat1.html#model
http://ecet.ecs.ru.acad.bg/cst06/docs/cp/siv/iv.18.pdf

Psychoanalytic Counselling and Urbanisation: the need for more professional counsellors.

2011-10-28T08:36:00.000-07:00

Abstract

Psychoanalytic theories that are in use today, can be credited to Sigmund Freud, whose works emanated from various psychological and physiological experiences. In a quest to make meaning out of what he experienced, Freud experimented till he discovered. Gerald Corey also added that, 'it is the views of Freud and psychoanalysis that continue to influence the contemporary practice of counseling and psychology.’ This term paper describes how counselling psychology fits into urbanization in the Ghanaian situation. It also describes how the need for innovation has compelled the American Psychology Association (APA) to setup an additional division. With urbanization taking place in Ghanaian societies and APA expanding its divisions, it is necessary to acknowledge the services of professional counselors. This paper identifies the role of psychoanalytic counselling in an urbanized society: something which also appears to be the need for APA to expand.
CHAPTER 1
Do you support the main argument for setting up the Division of Counselling Psychology within the American Psychology Association? Give tangible reasons for your answer
Introduction
Setting up the Division of Counselling Psychology within the American Psychology Association is pretty much a good idea. Indeed, as a world-renowned organization for issues concerning psychology, it is expedient to find out what might have necessitated the establishment of such a division. Ideally, such a reputable organization should have tangible reasons for doing so. Needs assessment, pre-testing and research are vital exercises that might have triggered the need for such a division. This paper will highlight the possible factors that, in several respects, support or otherwise debang the argument for setting up the Division of Counselling Psychology.
Historically, "In 1952 the Division of Counseling Psychology (Division 17) of the American Psychological Association was formally established" (Gladding, 1988, p. 14). “Counseling psychology focuses on providing therapeutic treatments to clients who experience a wide variety of symptoms. It is also one of the largest specialty areas within psychology. The Society of Counseling Psychology describes the field as: "a psychological specialty [that] facilitates personal and interpersonal functioning across the life span with a focus on emotional, social, vocational, educational, health-related, developmental and organizational concerns." [Quoted from, about.com. – at www.psychology.about.com/od/pyschology career profiles/p/counselling-psychology.htm.]
A critical look at the definition cited above, by the Society of Counselling Psychology, indicates that this kind of psychology takes into account the life span of an individual in relation to developmental and organizational concerns. In my estimation, guided by the focus listed in the definition above, the developmental and organizational concerns could be classified into two broad areas: because the focus of Counselling Psychology is on the emotional, social, vocational, educational, and health-related issues in the life span of an individual. Social orientations, vocational and educational qualities go a long way to determine the rate or level of development of an individual. Emotional stability coupled with good health also have the potential to determine one’s organizational abilities.
According to the Gale Encyclopedia, “Counselling psychology, a specialty within the area broadly designated as applied psychology, is not primarily an entitative science but draws heavily upon the basic and applied fields of psychology and upon other behavioral sciences for its foundations (Berdie 1959). It uses concepts, tools, and techniques that are also used by other specialty groups—notably industrial and personnel, clinical, and school psychology. It is, however, most appropriately viewed as the application of psychological and behavioral science knowledge in the form of a unique personal service furnished by professional practitioners with special qualifications”
The explanation of the subject by the Gale Encyclopedia, shows that Counselling psychology uses concepts, tools and techniques. However, the APA believes that it is important for some individuals to think and plan or take decisions that will help them to be more productive in the community. Quoting from the Gale Encyclopedia, the APA identifies decisions and planning as major characteristics of Counselling Psychology.
“As such a specialty the most important characteristic of
counselling psychology is its focus on the decisions and
plans that individuals must make in order to play productive
roles in their social environments. It is irrelevant whether the
person receiving professional assistance is sick or well,
normal or abnormal, handicapped or whole—that is to say he
is a client and not a patient. In counseling psychology the
emphasis is on further development as an individual; its
concern is the identification and enhancement of possibilities
and potentialities’’ (American Psychological Association 1961).

The APA, in addition to the above, offer more characteristics on the subject They include the following:
• a primary focus on normal people;
• service that is available throughout the life span;
• emphasis on the individual’s strengths and assets;
• emphasis on cognitive elements, especially where choice and decision are involved, with rationality and reason stressed;
• the dealing with personality difficulties in the context of the total goals, plans, and roles of the individual;
Basically, counseling psychology is concerned with the choices, decisions, and plans that every individual must make, as contrasted, for example, with clinical psychology, which is largely concerned with the problems and difficulties that some individuals face (Sundberg & Tyler 1962).
A critical look at the goals of the APA with regard to the Division 17, might offer the caveat for setting up such a division. In reference to the SCUCC Spring 2011 newsletter, published by the Sections College and University Counseling Centers (SCUCC), a unit of the Society of Counselling Psychology (SCP) under the American Psychological Association (APA); there is a vision or goal with which the APA has had to set up such a Division for Counselling Psychology.
“Our organization strives to further the research, training, theory and practice of counseling psychology among counseling center psychologists. The Section goals address a variety of domains, including counseling center research, training of future psychologists, individual and group treatment of students, assessment in student populations, consulting with faculty and staff, outreach programming to campus communities, and administrative issues.” [SCUCC, Spring 2011 Newsletter, Vol. 5, Issue 2]. ‘The Section operates by consensus of its members and is committed to advancing the human rights of all men and women regardless of race, sexual orientation, class, nationality, gender identity, ethnicity, age, disability, or religious orientation.” [SCUCC, Spring 2011 Newsletter, Vol. 5, Issue 2].

Reasons for Setting Up Division 17
The statement above clearly demonstrates that the APA, through the SCP, have sound reasons why Division 17 is needed. The goals provide a lens for one to identify, among others, the reasons for setting up division 17. They can be listed as follows:
• the need for a counseling center research,
• the need to train future psychologists,
• individual and group treatment of students,
• assessment in student populations,
• outreach programming to campus communities,
Additional reasons were also introduced by, Aaron Krasnow, the Chairman of the SCUCC, in his article published in the SCUCC newsletter, emphasized the need for ‘Innovation’ to take the place of ‘Traditional practices’ which were outmoded.
“I contend that as long as counseling centers seek to solve traditional
problems with traditional responses focused on the problem we’ll continue
to see the same trends we’ve seen for over a decade: increased severity, increased staff turnover, and decreased funding. It’s time for us to innovate.’ Being innovative requires a Future-system and person-focused approach
which tends to lead to long-term systemic changes or brand new knowledge. Typically innovation in all fields, including those innovative counseling centers, is driven by the desire to advance the field and to meet the needs
of people (customers, clients, users, populations).” (Krasnow A. 2011)
The issue of innovation, I believe, is the main reason that necessitated the establishment of Division 17 within the APA. Krasnow’s argument is sound and makes sense because it seeks to ensure that counseling centers within the APA, eradicate traditional practices, which in several respects, have not yielded dividends. Traditional practices have not only decreased funding, but also increased severity and staff turnover.

Sections in Division 17
It is interesting to note that Division 17 contains sections representing Advancement of Women; College and University Counseling Centers; International; Promotion of Psychotherapy Science; Counseling Health Psychology; Ethnic and Racial Diversity; Independent Practice; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Awareness; Prevention; and Vocational Psychology.

CHAPTER 2
Counselling can become an important profession as Ghanaian society becomes more modern and urbanized. Discuss.
Introduction

The Ghanaian economy is growing sturdily with the aim of reaching a middle-income status by 2015. In spite of the pessimistic stands of the opposition New Patriotic Party that Ghana should attain a middle-income status in 2012. In November 2010, the statistical Department of Ghana revealed that Ghana had attained the middle-income status due to some economic indicators. Latest figures released by Ghana’s Statistical Service indicate the country’s economy stands at GH¢44 billion, 60 per cent more than earlier estimated. The country per this new figure is deemed to have attained a middle-income status. Government’s statistician, Dr. Grace Bediako told Joy Business the new figures confirm suspicions that the economy has been grossly undervalued at least for the past five years. The growth rate for 2008 shot up to 8.4 percent instead of the 7.2 percent. Ghana has the largest Per Capita Income in West Africa but 21st in the continent. [Source: Joy Online Business News of Saturday, 6 November 2010].
There is no doubt that, Ghana as a country situated in the West-African Sub-region, seeks to transform its society from an impoverished to a more developed status. Although it is made up of ten regions, it is only a few regions that tend to harbour societies with the potential to becoming modern or urbanized. In the Greater Accra and Ashanti regional capitals, the quest to urbanize the cities have been displaced by intense migration. Rural-urban migration is so alarming and out of control. Industrialisation is virtually non-existing. Many young people, move from the rural areas to the urban areas in search for greener pastures, only to realize that there are virtually non-existing jobs. Such people find themselves in desperate and helpless situations due to harsh economic conditions and societal pressure. Guidance in difficult to come by; who guides these people? How do they cope with the homelessness, starvation, illiteracy, unemployment, delusions, confusion, ignorance and survival? Children and adolescent mothers are not left out. Many turn out to fill the principal streets of the cities, as beggars and poppers. Some end up as prostitutes, house helps and head-potters, popularly known as ‘Kayayo’. Learning a vocation is great but many cannot afford the initial financial arrangements that are required for apprenticeship. Due to this, many disappointed migrants tend to resort to self-styled employment, which usually begins with acts of robbery and crime.
A few months ago, newspaper headlines captured the Accra Metropolitan Assembly’s initiative to rid the streets of Accra of petty traders whose activities engulfed traffic prone areas in the metropolis. As a result, many petty traders suffered from the brutal activities of the ‘Task Force’, mandated to pursue and face out street hawking. Some were detained in jail while others suffered bruises amidst lost of valuable items when merciless operatives caught them. Currently, the AMA appears to have failed and the situation on the streets of Accra is the same.
Efforts to transform this country into a modern and urbanized society are underway, but gradually. City Authorities are using numerous approaches, yet to no avail. However, people have become victims from what may be regarded as inconsistencies within the transition period. There is the need, therefore, to ensure that victims, who have and would suffer any form of impropriety, during the transition period, must be recommended for professional counseling. If Ghana should attain a middle-income status by 2015, then it is obvious that more professional counselors might be required, due to the simple reason that lifestyles will change and such illness as stress, depression, delusion, hallucination, will double. To better understand the need for professional counselors in a growing or urbanized society, it is important to explore the very nature of urbanization and its related issues.

What is Urbanisation?
Urbanisation is defined by the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English as ‘an urbanized country or area has a lot of houses, factories, shops, offices etc.’ It further explains that in an urbanized society, there are a lot of people who live and work in towns and cities. In a related issue, an urbanized society is also explained as the state of being or becoming a community with urban characteristics. According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, ‘Britain became the world’s first modern urbanized society.’ The question then, should be, what is an urban society and what are the characteristics of an urban society?
‘Urban society includes the towns, cities and metros with a specific way of life. An urban society can be defined as an area having higher density of population, people engaging mostly in occupations other than agriculture and domestication of animals, having a distinct ecology and cultural different from that of the larger society’s culture.’ [Source: http://nos.org/331courseE/L. Notes on Indian Society: Tribal, Rural and Urban; Urban Society p. 46.]. Additionally, the notes also enumerates the following as characteristics of urban societies:
• Cities have a distinctive environment that is not natural but a man made environment.
• The occupation of the urban areas is mainly non-agricultural, i.e. based on manufacturing, trade & commerce, professional and government, etc.
• Cities and towns have higher density of population than the rural areas.
• People in the cities have an urban way of life. Which means they have formal interaction, impersonal behaviour, non-kingship relationships, cultural exhibitionism, passing leisure time in clubs, parks, restaurants, cinema halls or markets.
• In urban areas more social mobility is found in the sense people gradually adapt to class structure (lower, middle or upper class based on economic criteria).
Urbanized societies have peculiar social problems as well. According to the Notes on Indian Societies: Tribal, Rural and Urban (p.47), ‘urban society has several social problems such as congestion of population, slums, crime, and acute shortage of resources and facilities (such as water, electricity).’ These may be regarded as general problems but there are more specific problems.

Urbanized Societies and the Need for Professional Counsellors
Anonymity in cities is a real problem that tends to affect both individuals and groups that get involved in some form of relationship. Due to mistrust and disloyalty, many people tend to experience disloyalty, betrayal and abuse. Anonymous activities such as gossip, hear say, propaganda and unsubstantiated issues, go a long way to cast dark scare on hard earned reputations. This causes tremendous mental pressure and tension among individuals in homes, businesses, churches, schools, markets and every human institution. Due to this problem of anonymity, many people suffer from numerous physiological ailments. Guidance and Counselling professionals will have a lot more work to do as Ghana strives to attain modernism and urbanism.
Another factor, which will trigger the services of more professional counselors, is that the rural-urban drift, has compelled many young people into the cities for white-colour jobs or non-existent jobs. It is rather awesome to find that unemployment rates are very high in the urban areas. This happens because of the push and pull factor that unfortunate migrants find themselves in. ‘Push factor means that lack of employment in the villages pushes the villagers to the towns in such of jobs. Pull factor means the relative in the town invite their close people and try to give them jobs. Many helpless Migrants become frustrated and destitute. Miserably enough, there is nobody to talk to and no counselor will listen to the plight of these people and they are left to battle life’s stress in everyway possible. Professional counselors will constantly be needed for help and direction.
Furthermore, migrants who try to settle in the cities, do not have and cannot afford decent places to stay. So they generally settle down as clusters at unwarranted sites which later grow to become slums. Typical of such in Accra are ‘Sodom and Gomorah’, ‘Nima’, ‘Sukura’, and ‘Tabooline’, among others. These slum areas have become hideout for criminals, drug couriers, armed robbers, money launderers, pick pockets and swindlers. Empirical statistics, over the years have shown that crime is on the ascendancy. Unfortunately, many young adults, emanating from these slum areas, engage in heinous crime and criminal activities. The desire to live adorable lifestyles have been found to be some of the reasons why criminals engage in such practices. When they are arrested they express fears and ramous that shows how dearly, they need a counselor. They wish they had not gotten involved at all. So the need for Ghanaian prisons and places of detention, to be furnished with professional counselors to help such culprits.
Educational opportunities are also cut off from many people who migrate to the cities; especially those above eighteen years of age. Apart from migrants, ordinary pupils and students must be guided and counseled to choose carrier paths that will help prepare them to the manpower needs of industrialization that should evolve if Ghana works towards attaining a modern and urbanized society. A myriad of problems seem to engulf the educational development of children, right from cradle to the university. Some can be identified as psychological, behavioural and attitudinal problems – so severe that teachers alone are not able to cope. Other problems emanate from career choices or paths, employment opportunities, examination issues, irregularities in teaching and learning, lacks of teaching and learning resources etc. Socio-economic vices such as child labour, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, self-abuse, sexual immorality among others, are real issues that many young people, due to circumstances, engage themselves. Unfortunately, the educational sector has not seen much improvement in counselling. Many schools have no counseling centers. Tutorial sessions are not designed to help solve academic, and in some cases, personal issues bothering students and pupils. The Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), has identified lack of guidance and counselling in basic schools in the Upper East Region, as a major cause of the high drop-out rate among girls in the area. The Regional Manager of ISODEC, Mr. Jonathan Adabre made this observation at a trainer of trainers' workshop, organised for Ambassador Girls Scholarship School Programme (AGSP) facilitators, managers of educational institutions and teachers drawn from Bongo, Bawku and Garu districts in the region and Walewale in the Northern Region. He explained that because of lack of guidance and counselling in many schools in the region, the career development of some school children especially girls, is not properly shaped as some of the girls get pregnant and stop schooling while the boys take onto the streets. [Source: GNA, via www.businessghana.com: Lack of guidance and counselling affecting basic schools in UER. 24th March 2010].
Professional counselors and psychoanalytic counselors, at the school and community levels, will definitely be needed to help many young people out of these issues or problems.
One problem that urbanization also authors is mental health and health related problems. General health issues affect people of all classes, especially in business, manufacturing, mining, agriculture, engineering, armed forces, air force and may more. The human resource development of an urbanized society must be preserved for short and long-term purposes. In an urbanized society, much more work will be required of the labour force at all levels and the most important thing is to preserve the level of productivity that exude from the respective labour force. Surely, such ailments as stress, hypertension, parkinson disease and other mental health related illnesses are likely to affect workers and productivity. In the last decade, HIV/ AIDS, as a dreadful disease has affected the lives of many workers and thereby affected productivity. In 1992, some 213 clients were diagnosed as HIV-positive at the Hospital. Of these, 152 clients were seen for counselling; 81 were male, including one child; 71 were female, and five of these were children. The distribution of clients seen at Holy Family Hospital is: 47 from the District, 60 from other Regions and 45 from other countries. (Marie L. Ego and Margaret Moran 1993: Health Transition Review Vol. 3, supplementary issue; HIV/AIDS counselling program: a rural Ghana experience: Holy Family Hospital, Berekum, Ghana. The national HIV prevalence suffered an increase from 1.7 per cent in 2008 to 1.9 in 2009 but experts say despite the increase, Ghana's epidemic was still on the decline. The highest prevalence rate was recorded among the 40 to 45 years and the least in the 15-19 years age group.   Prevalence among the youth between 15-24 years, used as a marker for new infection is 2.1 per cent. (Accra, March 15, GNA). These empirical data are clear indicators for one to realize that, when Ghana becomes a more urbanized society, HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is likely to increase among the workforce and therefore, there will be the need for more professional counselors to serve in such capacities.

Limitations to counselling in Ghana
In the Ghanaian context, many people think that counseling is an act of giving advice, and for that matter, people wield the perception that they are counselors because they literally can advice somebody. Due to this, many people don’t find the profession attractive enough and therefore, are not be able to appreciate the need for counselors. Today, counseling is commonly viewed as a common practice in the Church or adorned places of worship. Even fetish priests have resorted to advertising their outfits as solution centers. Though they are not professional counselors, they tend to offer some form of counseling to clients who patronize their services.

CHAPTER 3
What is the goal of counselling according to psychoanalytic approach? Describe in detail psychoanalytic counselling techniques used in psychoanalytic counselling.

Introduction

Before a client attempts to find a psychologist that uses psychoanalytic techniques it is important to better understand this therapy style (John Culbertson, 2010). According to his article entitled Theory of Practice of Counselling and Psychotherapy (eight edition), Gerald Corey, Professor emeritus of human services at California State University and a licensed psychologist, teaches that in spite of all the theories that he has postulated, ‘it is the views of Freud and psychoanalysis that continue to influence the contemporary practice of counseling and psychology.’
The statements shared by these two renowned psychoanalytic writers, indicate that Psychoanalytic Counseling is a crucial part of counseling as a profession and the tenets of it could be traced to one Austrian psychiatrist known as Sigmund Freud who in the 1940s began a study on psychoanalysis. Freud postulated a series of ideas on human behaviour and development, due to emotional problems he experienced during the 1940s. Notable among the numerous emotional problems he suffered are various illness originating from stress, phobias and dreams. Childhood experiences and sexual feelings are also flagships from which his theories evolved. Drawing from his experiences and unfavourable circumstances, Freud was able to identify and examine the deficiencies in his life. Taking a series of cues from his emotional laxities, he proposed basic assumptions for human nature, believing that humans, are basically driven by irrational forces, unconscious motives and physiological drives that mainly evolved during childhood years.
John Culbertson’s statement above places emphasis on psychoanalytic techniques and therapy. In my opinion, this is free advice for both counsellors and clients. Fact is that counselors, who are engaged in psychoanalytic counselling must endeavour to use appropriate theray to help clients. Likewise, clients must also be concerned with the kind of therapy that a counselor should adopt for utmost clinical care. But the question is, what is a therapy? Therapy may be explained as:
‘treatment of physical, mental, or behavioral problems that is
meant to cure or rehabilitate somebody or
psychoanalysis or techniques from another school of psychotherapy, intended to treat mental and emotional problems with psychological methods’ (quoted from Encarta® World English Dictionary)

This definition suggests to me that the word ‘therapy’ means, treatment of something with the purpose to cure something specific. Again psychoanalytic techniques could be used to treat illness relating to mental and emotional health. Meanwhile, there is a hole that must be plugged. That hole is psychoanalysis.

What is Psychoanalysis?
Psychoanalysis may be defined as ‘a psychological theory and therapeutic method developed by Sigmund Freud, based on the ideas that mental life functions on both conscious and unconscious levels and that childhood events have a powerful psychological influence throughout life.’ It is also called depth psychology. (Encarta® World English Dictionary). The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English also defines the subject as ‘medical treatment that involves talking to someone about their life, feelings etc in order to find out the hidden causes of their problems.’
Another definition states that, Psychoanalysis is a specific mind investigation technique and a therapy inspired from this investigation. [Quoting from www.freudfile.org]. The same source discloses that in relation to this definition, psychoanalysis may be designated in three parts:
• A method of mind investigation. And especially of the unconscious mind;
• A therapy of neurosis inspired from the above method;
• A new stand-alone discipline who is based on the knowledge acquired from applying the investigation method and clinical experiences.
Le Bach P. (2010) also defines Psychoanalysis as ‘a specific framework of techniques and procedures that therapists use to help clients access subconscious feelings and desires’.
Gleaning from the various definitions, it is clear that psychoanalysis seeks to use systematic or therapeutic techniques to investigate and solve mental and emotional problems for clients. (Gyau Y. 2011). Departing from the caveats offered for the meaning of psychoanalysis, it is important to look into the purpose of this stand-alone discipline in counseling. What could possibly be the goals of psychoanalytic counseling?
Goals of Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Counselling
Before the goals of Psychoanalytic Counselling are established, it is important to look at the original goals of psychoanalysis as outlined by the theorist. According to Corey, Sigmund Freud in his psychoanalysis theory had some basic underlying goals.
• To make unconscious thoughts and memories conscious
• To reconstruct the basic personality of a client
• To assist clients in reliving earlier experiences and working through repressed conflicts
• To achieve intellectual and emotional awareness
• Additionally, Freud and psychoanalysis believe that it is important to strengthen one’s ego so that behavior will be based more in reality and not so much on the instinctual cravings that the Id wants to express.
The goals of psychoanalytic counselling are:
• to help clients become aware of their unconscious thoughts and emotions that have effected their behaviour or action;
• to help clients identify unresolved development issues, eihter, personality or psychosexual aspects, so that clients can continue with their development in a healthy way.
• also to help clients recognize ineffective ways of coping with stress they had previously adopted
• to teach clients how to cope positively with anxiety and the demands of living.

Psychoanalytic Counselling Techniques Explained
There are various techniques that a counselor can use as a tool to help clients solve their problems. Usually, Psychoanalysts listen to their clients concerns. Corey offers the following explanations for three of the key psychoanalytic techniques:
Free association technique
This technique provides the cohesive element binding together other techniques, according to Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (eigth edition) by Gerald Corey, published by Thompson in 2009. Free association technique is quite flexible because it allows the client to speak his or her mind without any ramous or favour. In this technique, ‘the client is encouraged to verbalize any arising thoughts. It does not matter which thoughts even if the thoughts seem irrelevant or illogical. This technique allows uncensored speaking which brings subconscious thoughts to the surface. Verbalized subject matter is just as important as areas not spoken about’ (Le Back Pham, 2010). The issues verbalized by the client may be silly, unimportant, rude, or painful but the psychoanalyst is required to give a listening ear. In this regard the psychoanalyst must interpret the same material (content) released by the client and then aim at leading the client to have better insights of the hidden issues. Thereby enhancing the psychology of the client.
The dream analysis
Sigmund Freud believed that ‘dreams are the royal roads to the unconsciousness’ because of the fact that so much reserved unconscious material arises within the context of dreams. According to Corey, ‘dream analysis uses interpretation to understanding the meaning behind latent and manifest content in a client’s dreams. Latent content in dreams consists of hidden, symbolic, and unconscious thoughts and feelings.’ Therefore, the therapist must work to uncover the disguised meanings that are in the dream through the study of the dream symbolism.
Analysis of resistance
Resistance in counseling is like a defense mechanism which occurs when a client, with time, become unwilling to release unconscious thoughts or issues for the counselor to explore them. The client may maintain the status quo rather that adopt to change. Resistance refers to anything that works against the progress of therapy and prevents the client from accessing unconscious thoughts and feelings, according to Corey. During counselling sessions, the counsellor may point out to the client the occurrence of resistance in reference to a particular subject matter. But this technique, in my view, is a bit unethical, since the counselor, in the event of misconduct, may encroach upon the rights of the client. A better option will be, to diligently educate the client about how the unconscious content could work better for him than oppose or resist it.
Analysing transference
This technique deals with the thoughts and feelings that are deeply rooted in the subconscious mind of the client. During the therapeutic process thoughts and feelings of the client can be transferred to the counselor. But this largely depends on the kind of relationship that the counselor and the client have established among each other. According to Corey, transference is when the client allows past relationships to affect the client’s current relationship with the therapist. According Le Back P. (2010), ‘Transference can even occur between clients and computers, because computers within our society take on human-like qualities, reported an article written by John Suler, titled Psychology of Cyberspace – Transference to Computers, published on September 27, 2009 in Selfhelp Magazine.’ What I a learning from this technique is that, it can be found in all areas involving relationships. Meanwhile, communication is one of the key determinants of a strong relationship, and communication is always between two or more people. It should be learned, then, that when people communicate more often, more attention is demonstrated to the parties involved and as a result, relationships are established and strengthened. It is interesting to note that, counsellors may be caught in this natural human act of relationship, in their quest to keep a rapport with their clients and help them. That is why during the psychoanalysis counselling process, counsellors must not, under any circumstance, present themselves as the solution to the clients problems. Neither should counsellors take advantage of the client’s vulnerability and abuse the client. Especially in cases related to marriage, divorce, relationships, self-development etc. The advantage in this technique is that is enables the client to understand the effect of hidden material on current relationships.
Interpretation & Psychoanalysis
Interpretation is another technique used for psychoanalysis. This technique seeks to explain the meaning behind the client’s behavior that is manifested in dreams and free association exercises. Interpretation also helps to understand resistance and transference issues, according to Corey. After interpreting the meanings behind unconscious material the client is able to dig deeper and uncover more unconscious thoughts and feelings.

The Purpose of Psychoanalysis
All of the techniques and processes involved in the psychoanalytic framework are aimed at uncovering and interpreting unconscious material. This gives the client and the therapist a deeper understanding of underlying motives and feelings affecting every day life. Therefore, the client and the therapist work together through this unconscious material in order to improve the client’s well-being and quality of life. the therapist works to accomplish the primary goal of bringing the unconscious into conscious awareness.

Limitations of Psychoanalytic Techniques
There are some limitations of Psychoanalytic Counselling that use the various techniques. According to Corey (2010) ‘clients who seek to be counselled through this kind of counselling must first know that such intensive therapy is both time consuming and very expensive.’
Secondly, the techniques explained above, indicate that psychoanalytic counselling is a vary delicate discipline and therefore, it must take a highly skilled and trained therapist for the techniques to be used appropriately and in a way that is truly compatible to therapy. Further more, clients with a weak ego may not be able to handle this intensive form of therapy.

Summary/ Conclusion
Discussing guidance and counselling in these specified areas connotes that it is an inevitable discipline that must be taken seriously. It was absolutely stunning to realize that the APA has created an additional division because of innovation. So that traditional practices which were expensive and time consuming could be abolished. The need for more professional counselors, have also become imperative because Ghana strives to attain a middle-income status by 2015. At a press conference organized by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural development on 13th October in Accra, it was revealed by the sector minister, Hon. Samuel Ofosu Appiah, that ‘a five-year urbanization development plan in collaboration with the Millenium Development Authority had been prepared and will be implemented shortly. That should suggest, then, that urbanization and modernization of our societies are closer to us than we thought. The government should put structures in place to train counselors to ensure a balance in urbanization.
Psychoanalytic counselors will also have a place in urbanization. Though the therapy/ techniques are expensive, the elite in an urbanized Ghanaian society, may be able to afford such specialized services. This academic, in several respects, place the counselor at the centre of urbanization, hence broadening the scope of guidance and counselling.

REFERENCES
American Board of Examiners in Professional Psychology (1953) The Certification of Advanced Specialists in Professional Psychology. Washington: American Psychological Association.
American Psychological Association, Division of Counseling and Guidance, Committee on Counselor Training (1952a) Recommended Standards for Training Counseling Psychologists at the Doctorate Level. American Psychologist 7:175–181.
American Psychological Association, Division of Counseling and Guidance, Committee on Counselor Training (1952b) The Practicum Training of Counseling Psychologists. American Psychologist 7: 182–188.
Harris, Alex H.S.;Thoresen, Carl E.;Lopez, Shane J. (2007). Integrating positive psychology into counseling why and (when appropriate) how. (Practice & Theory): Journal of Counseling and Development.

Moore, James L., III (2005). A call for greater collaboration between the Counseling Psychology and School Counseling professions.(Trends): Journal of Counseling and Development.

www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=178595

www.wiki.answers.com

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/urbanized

http://www.modernghana.com/news/192598/1/ghanas-quest-for-middle-income-vision-2020-2015-or.html

http://margiecash.com/counselingpsychology.htm

www.smcuniversity.com

www.sonoma.edu/psychology/careers.htm

www.encyclopedia.com/doc/fullarticle/1G1-158682737.html

http://www.div17.org/sections_scucc.html

http://www.div17.org/students_defining.html

http://www.editorsweb.org/mental/psychoanalysis.htm

http://www.apa.org/careers/resources/guides/careers.aspx

http://www.med.nyu.edu/psa/psychoanalysis/therapy.html

http://www.science.fau.edu/student_services/handouts/counseling%20psychology.pdf

Reinforcements and Rewards not the same

2011-10-19T09:28:00.000-07:00

Introduction

Children of all ages have to make a choice each time they are in the classroom, home or elsewhere. They may choose to work and behave well in order to receive rewards or put up an unacceptable behaviour and suffer the consequences. Pupils everywhere work hard when they are motivated with rewards. What constitute a reward varies from school to school. Several scholars have discussed the issue of ‘rewards’ and ‘reinforcements’. But I believe that a better way to understand these two subjects is to find the origin. What triggered the evolution of ‘reinforcements’ and ‘rewards’? How did it find its way into psychology, how practical and relevant is it in contemporary societies? These are issues that I seek to find. These shall form the basis of my discussion.

The Origin of reinforcement and reward?
‘Through classical conditioning, an organism associates different stimuli that it does not control. Through operant conditioning, the organism associates its behaviours with consequences. Behaviours followed by reinforcers increase; those followed by punishers decrease. This simple but powerful principle has many applications, and also several important qualifications.’(Myers D. G., Psychology; 2004, seventh ed.)

The statement above clearly indicates the origin of ‘reinforcement’, comparing classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Ivan Pavlov a Russian Physiologist, whose work contributed a lot to learning principles, introduced classical conditioning. In his study, Pavlov sought to know whether an organism could associate two events as they occur together without their control? Edward Thorndike (1874-1949), conducted a study on ‘Animal Intelligence’ describing how he used cats and ‘puzzle boxes’ to establish the law of effects. The law of effect, states that; Rewarded behaviour is likely to recur.

Thorndike’s works also inspired others like Ivan Pavlov to experiment with dogs, and B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) experimented with rats in an operant chamber, which later became known as ‘Skinners box’. Using Thorndike’s law of effects as a starting point, Skinner developed a ‘behavioural technology’ that formed the principles of behaviour control. According to Myers, through operant conditioning organisms associate behaviours and get to learn their consequences. Due to this they become more likely to repeat rewarded (reinforced) behaviours and less likely to repeat punished behaviours. Notice in this statement that Myers is using the word ‘reinforced’ to refer to ‘rewarded behaviours’. That is a bit thought provoking because one is compelled to believe that when one is repeatedly rewarded for behaviour then that act of repetition is equal to ‘reinforcement’. Does it mean then, that rewards and reinforcements are the same? Or it has to come with some degree of frequency? These questions are very important because, by definition the Encarta® World English Dictionary (1999) states that reinforcement is ‘the addition of strengthening or supporting material to make something stronger or more durable; it is also the rewarding positive reinforcement or punishing negative reinforcement of particular actions, especially in an experimental situation, for the purpose of changing a subject’s behavior.’ If this definition is anything to go by, then it should be clear in our minds that ‘reinforcements’ and ‘rewards’ are not the same.

Meanwhile, operant conditioning involves operant behaviour, which is so called because the act of an organism operates on the environment to produce rewarding or punishing stimuli – Skinner states. Now take note of the phrase ‘punishing stimuli’. This presupposes that an organism’s behaviour in a given environment could earn him a reward or a punishment.
If punishment is involved in the entire operant principle, then it can be likened to sanctions.

In a typical classroom situation, a pupil who misbehaves could be reminded of the consequences of sanctions that could be metered out. Sanctions given to the pupil as consequences of a poor or challenging behaviour may come in different forms. They include, detention, time-out, referral, written letter, call to parents, be on report for a time period, withdrawal of favours and opportunities, community service and exclusion. On the other hand, when a pupil does something that could be regarded as good behaviour, there should be a reward for that child. Among the numerous rewards, verbal praise, awards, written comments in exercise books and gift items could be offered to the child. Others include, written letters sent home, special certificates designed by the teacher, tokens, stamps and stars, vouchers and display of pupil’s name on the notice board as student of the week.

Grant Bulmuo, in his book entitled Classroom behaviour management, states that, ‘the list of rewards and sanctions is endless. Since every school has policies for rewards and consequences new teachers are advised to always enquire before using a particular form. Continuity and consistency is the key to effective and successful rewards and sanctions system in every school.’ These rewards and sanctions go a long way to shape behaviour in the classroom and in my estimation they are better alternatives to traditional whipping and smacking of children in the classroom.

Based on this premise, I wish to state categorically, that if teachers will use these tools to control behaviour in schools it will yield better results than smacking. Let me quickly add, that rewards are not the same as reinforcements. Rather it is the rate at which rewards (like those mentioned above) are offered to pupils and students that reinforcement occurs. I am saying this with emphasis on frequency, i.e. the rate at which the behaviour of a child is rewarded or sanctioned. According to Wikipedia, ‘Reinforcement is a term in operant conditioning and behaviuor analysis for the process of increasing the rate or probability of a behaviuor in the form of a "response" by the delivery or emergence of a stimulus (e.g. a candy) immediately or shortly after performing the behaviour. The response strength is assessed by measuring frequency, duration, latency, accuracy, and/or persistence of the response after reinforcement stops.’ Yet Skinner’s concept of reinforcement, is ‘any event that increase the frequency of a preceding response’. (Myers D. G. 2004).

Take note of the issue of time, frequency and persistence and how these things determine the response rate or the response strength to behaviour. For example, my 3-year old girl, will always whine or cry for everything she wants or needs, whether it is good or bad. Now the act of whining is annoying and to me a bad behaviour. If I give the child a candy (reward) she will stop crying but the behaviour still remains. If she cries and I do not give her a candy (sanction) she might stop crying – learning that crying is not the best way to ask for her needs. We can glean from this scenario that, rewards and sanctions can be positive or negative, but the frequency is what determines the response strength to behaviour.

Understanding Reinforcement
According to Myers D. G. (2004), Skinner’s definition of reinforcement is ‘any event that increases the frequency of a preceding response’. In another definition introduced by Psychology 101 in chapter 4: Learning Theory and Behavioural Psychology, ‘the term ‘reinforce’ means to strengthen, and is used in psychology to refer to anything stimulus which strengthens or increases the probability of a specific response.’ For example, if you want your cat to run on command, you may give him a bowl of milk every time he runs for you. With time the cat will come to understand that running, when told to, will result in a treat. This treat is reinforcement because he likes it and will therefore, like to run when instructed to do so.

Types of Reinforcement
From chapter 3 of the LEMASS Notes on Counselling theories, I have learned that reinforcement come in four(4) different types. They are:
• Positive reinforcement: When your child cleans his room, give him a small reward that he likes so that in future he will remember to clean his room.
• Negative reinforcement: When your child cleans his room, do not spank him (you have warned him about getting spanked if he does not clean his room). Hopefully in future he will remember to clean his room.
• Positive punishment: When your two children fight with each other, give them both a spanking so that in future they will not repeat the behaviour.
• Negative punishment: When your two children fight with each other, do not take them shopping. Hopefully they will stop fighting because what they really want is to go to shopping.
A question often asked is whether reinforcement is the same as reward? The answer is no. It is inappropriate to use the term reward because in essence, reward does not always result in an increase of a particular behaviour. Parents and teachers often reward children with the hope that they will repeat a targeted behaviour. What if the reward is not something the receiver likes? Then it is no use rewarding. (Paraphrased from LEMASS notes, chapter 3: Counselling theories II, P.45-46).

Understanding reinforcers?
Most people think that reinforcers are rewards. According to Skinner in his study reinforcers are ‘actually anything that serves to increase behaviour’. (Myers D. G. 2004). Reinforcers vary with circumstance. What is reinforcing to one person may not be to another. Again reinforcers can be classified in two parts. They are:
• Primary reinforcers e.g. getting food when hungry or being relieved of a muscle pain with an ointment.
• Secondary reinforcers are supposed to be learned in as much as they get their power through association with primary reinforcers.

In order to show the relationship between primary reinforcers and secondary reinforcers, Myers D. G. 2004, p. 325, cited an example saying that, ‘if a rat in a skinner box learns that a light reliably signals that food is coming, the rat will work to turn on the light. The light has become a secondary reinforcer associated with food.’ He further states that ‘Our lives are filled with potential secondary reinforcers – money, good grades, a pleasant tone of voice, a word of praise – each of which may have been linked with more basic rewards.’

What I gather from this assertion is that, primary reinforcers are ‘rewards’ e.g. food, money, water, et cetera. But secondary reinforcers are internal or external activities that one has to do to trigger or receive a ‘reward’. That means rewards and reinforsers are different but closely related because they need to work together to ‘shape’ or ‘strengthen’ behaviour.
In a panel discussion at the second annual "Behavioral Safety Now" users conference in Houston last November, for example, Aubrey Daniels warned a large audience to realize the special status of "positive reinforcement" and to act accordingly. The implication was that reinforcers are much more important than rewards, feedback celebrations, and recognition.

Shaping behaviour
Shaping behaviour was also an essential part of Skinner’s experiment. Skinner’s experiments gave birth to what became known as ‘shaping’, - a procedure in which reinforcers, such as food, gradually guide an animal’s actions toward a desired behaviour. (Myers D. G. 2004. p. 323). Skinner’s box was soundproof, with a bar or key that an animal presses or pecks to release a reward of food or water, and a device that records these responses. It must be mentioned, however, that these earlier experiments aimed at studying the subject of ‘learning’ and how organisms learn. To date, it is a phenomenon to know that learning is described ‘as a relatively permanent change in an organism’s behaviour due to experience’ (Myers D.G. 2004, p. 309). That change can happen but with time. So Myers explains that successive approximations is a method that can be used to shape behaviour. This method of successive approximations, suggests that responses that are ever-closer to the final desired behaviour must be rewarded and all other responses must be ignored. For instance, if my six-year old girl should make successive attempts at doing her homework and yet is not able to finish it, then that successive approximations (trying to get close to finishing the work) must be rewarded. By this animal trainers and researchers have gradually shaped complex behaviour.

Summary
I would like to conclude my argument by reiterating that reinforcements and rewards are not the same. Various studies have revealed that rewards and reinforcers are not the same, neither is reinforcement the same as reward. We must remember that rewards are incentives for response to a particular behaviour to be strengthened. But reinforcement also depends on the circumstance at stake and the frequency at which the reward is given over a period of time. Learning that reinforcement can be positive or negative, means that clients who seek counseling can receive positive or negative reinforcement but depending on the circumstance and the period between intense crisis and when the crisis should end. I guese counselors, teachers and parents must take this theory seriously in order to shape behaviour of children and clients, because once these parties have used this strategy to check behaviour, the more influence they effect in a client’s life.

REFERENCES

Aubrey D. (1993). Bringing out the best in people: How to apply the astonishing power of positive reinforcement. (Kindle Ed.). Rewards and Positive Reinforcers are Not the Same: But We Need Both.

Allpsych & Heffna Media Group Inc. (1993-2004), Learning theory and behavioral psychology; Published at, http://www.allpsych.com/psychology101/reinforcement.html

Bulmuo G. (2005). Classroom behaviour management; training manual. London, UK.

AIT/ OUM LEMASS notes on guidance and counselling, chapter 3: Counselling theories II, p. 45-46
Myers D. G. (2004). Psychology (Seventh ed.): Worth Publisher, USA
Rozycki E. G. (1999. Are rewards reinforcers? On Probabilizing Behavior. Published in Ethics 84,4 July 1974 as "More on Rewards and Reinforcers: a reply to Michael Schleifer"

The Encarta® World English Dictionary (1999).

Thorndike E. L. (2010). Animal intelligence; experimental studies: Forgotten books, Nabus press.

http://www.mightystudents.com/essay/

http://www.safetyperformance.com/Articles_1998

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schedule_of_reinforcement#Schedules_of_reinforcement

Journalism via Mobile Phones

2009-07-19T10:58:00.000-07:00

The use of mobile phones to record information for publishing, is gradually becoming a useful instrument for Citizen journalism. Mobile bloggers are comfortably working under cover, using mobile phones and other digital devices. Apart from the financial gains and information relay, mobile bloggers are complementing the efforts of traditional media owners by supplying news/stories that may not be accurate after all. When the story happened is important but how it happened is vital. Objectively, mobile phones may not be regarded as powerful devices for news and information gathering, yet they are potentially viable tools that can be used to exposes or uncover corrupt practices and emergency situations. But the question is, can citizen journalism, through cell phones, help enhance the news? What are the opportunities and threats to adopt and avoid when using mobile phones for citizen journalism?

In July 2006, Erik Sundelof, a Reuters Digital Vision Fellow at Stanford University, in a discussion with Mark Glaser, stated categorically, that ''the cell phone is a perfect complement to news contributed to the web. You can get it online easily.'' Sundelof also mentioned that he is developing a prototype (software) which will facilitate the use of mobile phones for information gathering. Sundelof's software, will not only open doors to people who capture issues around them but also enable them to post unrefined stories to a specific website. Source: http://www.pbs.org/mediashift.

In my opinion, Sundelof's idea is brilliant. The reason is that it will contribute immensely to web journalism or online journalism. Market leaders like Youtube and Mobile Reporters accept news and information that is captured via mobile phones and allow bona fide users to post them on their sites. Other interested readers access these sites for both formal and informal news as they happen in society. Obviously, traditional media owners, in one way or another, tap into some of these sites for news stories; especially those related to natural disasters like the Tsunami and recent floods in some Asian countries. Such instances always show how late traditional media can be. By the time they arrive at the scene, the drama is gone and they can only depend on eye-witnesses and passers-by, who probably were quick enough to document the scene as and when it happened and how it happened. It is worth noting that people who engage in such practices, do so sometimes at the peril of their lives and the common devices that they use are mobile phones and digital camcorders.

As I think about this aspect of journalism practice, I ask myself one question: what are the issues confronting citizen journalism and how can they be addressed? In my estimation, there are five basic issues in this method of citizen journalism. They are listed as follows:

1. What kind of mobile phone is ideal for such stories? I beleive that ideally, mobile phones for citizen journalism must have GPRS, Multimedia utilities such as inbuilt camera, video (MP4 playback), sound recording input, good sound, SMS/MMS, and a reliable internet network.
2. How accurate is the story or information that is captured and posted?
3. Which mobile internet service provider can facilitate this service
4. Which website or blog is expected to manage the volume of information or stories that is received.
5. How accessible is the information that is posted?

In spite of these issues, there are a number of challenges that one has to go through in order to fully utilize mobile reporting. Mobile reporting is now a global phenomenon and as a result mobile bloggers (moblogs) are also springing up rapidly. Currently, such blogs as moblogUK, InTheFieldOnline.net and some Reuters' blogs are actively engaged in mobile blogging. 3G mobile phones are probably the best for citizen journalism using cellphones. Because they have all the features - text processing, multimedia inputs, video, audio, SMS/MMS and GPRS.

As a tutor, if I have to teach a journalistic course with the object of using social/citizen media, I will use the following process as introduced by Erik Sundelof who experimented these proposed steps and challenged people to try it: The procedure is listed below as follows:
1. Take a picture, audio and/or video clip.
2. Choose to send that clip or picture via a Picture Message/Multimedia Message using your mobile phone.
3. Send this message to ‘show@inthefieldonline.net’ (of course short-codes are supported.)
4. Just watch the screen and you will see it pop up on its own.

The simplicity also exist for SMS and it has been tested in most continents. I tried this and it worked. However, it must be reiterated that in Ghana, this method is a problem because many of my students do not have mobile phones with all the features listed above. Others have, but the internet service provision is quite a challenge since it is expensive.

In conclusion, I beleive that, mobile reporters play a significant role in news and information gathering and traditional media owners do need their services. There are several opportunities and very few threats if citizen journalism should grow in our country. These opportunities and threats will be later discussed in Part II of this article.

Independence vrs. Freedom in ICT Education.

2009-04-29T16:18:00.000-07:00

Underestimating the benefits that ICT Education and elearning bring to people is a big mistake but appreciating the endless possibilities is the best. As we identify the endless possibilities and benefits of elearning we prepare ourselves to fully utilize rather than abuse the independence offered by it. Unparalleled independence that traditional classroom education do not offer.
Personally, the issue of independence is true but I also believe that it is ambiguous. In the sense that if one is undertaking a course or programme via the internet, owning your own computer and internet service makes you independent.

On the other hand, using the interface to do assignments and other related tasks is partially independent. The reason to the latter is that elearning programmes must always go with a set of rules or instructions and therefore streamline the activities of the user on the internet or the interface. Which means the user or candidate depends highly on the examiner or sender and the content of the material and the 'how to' before any progress could be made. Otherwise it is not progressive. Therefore, independence that seem to be offered by elearning is partial not full.

We should be able to decipher independence from privacy. It is very critical because having your privacy does not mean 'independence'. The fact that you are not talking to a teacher in the classroom does not mean elearning provides full independence. Indirectly you have to depend on some other resources to get started and get finished. Which if you were in the classroom you would depend on or expect the teacher to provide.

The difference between privacy and independence is what presents the issue of abuse. Abuse is something we always have to deal with when it comes to elearning and the use of ICT devices. Because privacy can be abused and likewise independence. That is why internet security is always being upgraded and restrictions are becoming more rampant.

Freedom for students is relative. If teachers use elearning as a medium to enhance teaching and learning, then they have to streamline or control it by directing students to the exact websites or links, ensuring that the tasks will engage their mind to the extent that they will not have time to abuse/waste on other websites like pornography, music videos etc. But if teachers do not control the the students then freedom will be abused.Partial independence and privacy will be abused.

Motivating yourself to use ICT devices and elearning interfaces is a very difficult thing. Self-initiative, self-discipline and expensive devices are real issues that students have to deal with. As a matter of fact, these attributes demand a lot from students especially in Africa. Devices are expensive and students find it difficult to buy. Using available devices at Laboratories and Internet cafes is normal but the drive to self-initiate is confronted or shared with other burdensome activities. Usually accessibility is not channeled into serious academic work but social interactions in web communities. I get worried when project students make statements like 'I have searched and search again but I could not find it'. This is a clear case of lack of initiative to use the right methods and dig deeper in internet research. Students get demoralized too quickly.

The work of teachers could not be too demanding. It depends on what the teacher wants to do and the volume of material that has to be presented within the lesson period. If a good lesson plan is followed there will be just enough to do and not too much. I think it rather makes teaching and learning interesting, interactive, and fun. Maybe, traditional classroom teaching will one day face out.

ICT in Education: The African View

2009-04-29T16:12:00.000-07:00

This unit has been treated as per the instructions and for that matter a discussion group was set up yesterday (28th April) to deliberate, brainstorm and bring together ideas. Members of the group are Jonas, Kobina, Gyau, Collins and Modestus. After a thorough discussion these are the answers that group agreed to present.

Q1.

1. Share benefits of ICT among colleagues: Colleagues who have shown excellent
performance in elearning and ICT practice can encourage other colleagues by working
together.
2. ICT literacy: colleagues must buck up in the use of ICT devices.
3. Internal Policy: The Institute(GIJ)should introduce a policy to encourage staff to
get ICT compliant by issuing an ultimatum(say one year) that will be binding and
outline the threats that such staff are likely to face when they are not compliant
by the deadline.
4. Life long learning: Lifelong learning must be encouraged away from the classroom.
ICT should be spread to all aspects of life so that it becomes almost
indispensable.
By that people will be compelled to learn fast.
5. Early adopters can become useful champions: Those of us who have the skills should
be co-opted to help in the training of others. But with an incentive.

Q2.

1. Availability of facilities in the urban and rural areas. Government should make
more ICT facilities available and ensure implementation.
2. Functional literacy: This should be ICT driven
3. Some private and public institutions/Schools should
be compelled by an act to operate as community
centres and open their doors to other under
privileged children or students but under good supervision.
4. Early adopters can also be change agents
5. ICT training should be more fun:The teaching syllabus for ICT must capture more
softwares or programmes that will make ICT learning fun and interesting.
6. Universal use of ICT in government institutions: The government itself must take
the initiative and impose strict rules to ensure that all government institutions
to digitalize their operations and spread it to the private sector.

ICT in Education: The European View

2009-04-29T16:08:00.000-07:00

This unit has been treated as per the instructions and for that matter a discussion group was set up yesterday (28th April) to delibrate, brainstorm and bring together ideas. Members of the group are Jonas, Kobina, Gyau, Collins and Modestus. After a thorough discussion these are the answers that group agreed to present.

Q1. With regard to question 1, the group observed that there are a number of elements in the transformed role of the teacher in elearning which are beneficial to our work. The beneficial elements are as follows:
1. Less Physical contact: Undoubtedly, elearning reduces the level of physical contact that the teacher has to experience everyday. Because, lessons and assignments could be relayed to students by email. An example is what we are experiencing while undertaking this course. We have had a series of lessons and assignments from our tutors but without physical contact.
2. Teacher becomes a facilitator more than a lecturer. Rightly so because lesson could be presented in power point presentations and other formats so that the class becomes more interactive as the lecturer/teacher, conducts, guides or facilitate the smooth running of the class.
3. Design lesson materials in an interactive manner. This is a follow up to the second point. Lessons, when presented with ICT tools, makes the class more interactive and lively. Since the attention of students could be engaged with visuals (steel and motion) as well as sound. My experience in Barking College, London, taught me how to do this and do it effectively. Last semester, I tried this interactive ICT based method in the Diploma 2 class in GIJ. The topic was 'Measuring Advertising Effectiveness'. Ofcourse, testing effectiveness in advertising calls for 'Recognition', 'Recall', 'Salience', and 'Engagement' tests. In a quest to test the students, I presented two Television ads with the Laptop and the projector for students to watch and interact by discussing the high points of the ads. The results was amazing and after conducting plenary I realised that the lesson had gone down well and they had understood. the topic. For three consecutive times I had to do this to finish the topic and it worked.
4. Students have the opportunity to research more and get exposed to a greater community of learning. Exactly so. Offering students the opportunity to do assignments through research gives them a greater avenue to maneuver and search for info.

Q2. The answer to question 2 is as follows:

1. Blended learning will be a better option for us in
Ghana and Africa. Because people are so used to the traditional classroom learning and will not easily and entirely switch to 100% elearning Not to mention the numerous probems we face in ICT development. It might occure in the future but for now I am afraid not.
2. Due to special education needs. As a trainded Special Education Needs(SEN)teacher, coupled with my experience in London as a SEN Facilitator, I would like to state categorically, that 'all children/students are equal but not all children/students are the same'. Differences in IQ, cultural backgrounds, sensory impairments and others deficiencies on the part of students makes it necessary for the blended option to be used.
3. Course structure. Differences in course structure and modules also makes it impossible to use elearning method only. Because some subject areas may require practical demonstrations through the traditional method of learning and this cannot probably be rendered with ICT.
4. In terms of quota, how much emphasis should be placed on both? what should the ratio be? I think it should be 50% traditional and 50% elearning. However, it depends on the environment.

Q3.

1. I dont think the European and African attitudes
in education is compatible. Attitudes are not compatible. Because in Africa, attitude towards ICT adoption and practice is slow yet in Europe it is a generic/ everyday life kind of thing and adoption uncompromised – very fast.
2.. Literacy rates must improve in Ghana and Africa. Lack of education is a nuisance and delaying the proliferation of ICT.

3. Language barrier, lack of reading. In Africa the English language is a barrier to ICT development even in Anglophone countries like Ghana. Worse of it is reading and a culture of low-interest-in-reading. Yet reading is an inevitable activity in ICT. Change the language to the native/ local dialect and the problem of reading is likely to be there.

4. Elitism. What we mean by ‘elitism’ is that people who are computer literate (computer scientists/ programmers) in our societies are not developing programmes to help digitalize our day-to-day activities like transportation, buying and selling, traveling etc. at the local level. Rather they are producing for high capacity businesses and financial companies.

Web Communities: a myth or a reality?

2009-03-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

The influx of web communities such us Facebook, Twitter, Zimbio and Wikia is thought provoking; and one is compelled to think whether it is a myth or a reality? The truth is that it might be a myth, because many people do not fully understand why these web communities exist and how they can fully enjoy the endless possibilities that they offer. On the other hand, a reality because it is a dream come true: providing a social networking avenue where lots of people around the globe can communicate, making the world a global village. This report highlights the relationship between social media in journalism and intuitive web communities.

Assessing the performance of web communities in the USA in 2008 shows that there are five strong social media avenues (online communities); Facebook, Twitter, Zimbio, Multiply and Wikia. (Data sourced from CNET). Others include, Virtual Community, Dilicious, LinkedIn, UNYK, Reddit, Youtube, hi5, News Vine, Stumble upon, Digg and Mixx. How many, at a time, can one use? An influx indeed.

Until recently, 'Facebook' was probably the most popular around the world, but 'Twitter', surprisingly topped the chart in US only, for the year to February 2009.
''Twitter is the fastest-growing "member community" site in the US, posting an uplift in user numbers of 1,382%
for the year to February 2009, meaning it was well ahead of more established rivals including Facebook on this
measure.'' (Data sourced from CNET; through WARC - www.warc.com. 23 March 2009)

Zimbio, an interactive magazine web community, is rated second. ''In terms of overall growth, Zimbio, a social media site billing itself as an "interactive magazine", took second place, with its number of unique users in the US rising by 240% from 809,000 to 2.8 million.'' (Data sourced from CNET; through WARC - www.warc.com. 23 March 2009)

''Facebook was in third spot overall, with an improvement of 228%, but dominates in terms of user numbers, which rose from 20 million in February 2008 to 66 million a year later.'' (Data sourced from CNET; through WARC - www.warc.com. 23 March 2009).
For me, the position of Facebook is quite unassuming. However, this is just the US market. Worldwide, Facebook currently has about 175 million users and is now the most popular social networking site.

Identifying the role of these communities means demystifying social media from industrial media. While some serve as music, video, and photo portals, others serve as forum for interacting, chatting, socializing, sharing news and discussions.

Facebook, is an interactive web community owned by Zuckerberg. My experience with Facebook as a user, gives me the opportunity to engage in social networking for free, interact with other Facebook members through the exchange of messages, personal profiles and information and pictures.

Almost everyday, I log on to Facebook, UNYK and hi5. I realize that they are all doing the same thing, with slight difference. These three communities, help me get in touch with old siblings, friends, mates, business partners, lecturers, and even my students. Now i am in touch with over 200 friends and loved ones.

The relationship that exist between journalism and web communities is supposed to be quite cordial, but . . . The reality in Africa is that many people would like to render and share stories and news among friends but do not have social media tools like digital / video cameras and skills. Mobile phones are probably being under utilized in this respect and unfortunately people just do not know that they can start as amateur journalist. All they do then is to peddle personal stories( not community/social issues) by way of gossip in chat forum or in a short mail. Not forgetting the issue of confidentiality. People do not create news as formal as a newspaper journalist would because even the skill of writing is a problem. Among professional journalists, news and info could be prepared and wired/circulated to reach a wider audience faster. But I dont think that is happening in Facebook. Rather, 'Multiply' and 'Youtube' are more journal focused than others i use. Facebook could serve as a platform to expand the dissemination of news stories, created by amateur journalists(any user) from around the world. But the implications are likely to threaten ethics in journalism and new media. The big question is, is that the focus of Facebook and hi5, Dilicious and Digg? This relationship is still a myth.

Commenting on Mr. Fosu's answers, I would say that his argument is likely to tilt if he begins to use his favourite web communities more actively.

The adcue

2009-03-12T15:40:00.000-07:00

Hi, you are welcome to adcue i.e. the advertising guru's blog. The site that focuses on advertising issues. critiquing . psychology . research . & . updates. The blog that informs . educates . comments . reports . & . posts issues concerning the creative world.

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Originating from the democratic hub of Africa . Ghana . expect to see & read stories on other social issues happening in Ghana and Africa. Citizen & Social Media is my major tool. Both professional and amateur productions may come up but never mind, enjoy them and communicate back to me your comments . ideas . beliefs . & . ideals.

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