Shoes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Shoes - Essay Example This paper explores the origin of shoes and some of the most groundbreaking inventions in the shoe industry. The origin of shoes dates back to about 40,000 years ago during the Middle Paleolithic age. Evidence points out that footwear was amongst the things that the ancient man made. The early man was compelled to device a means of protecting their feet from rugged terrains, jagged rocks and hot sand among other things that could hurt their feet (Yue & Yue, 1997). In early civilizations, sandals were the most common footwear among people. However, some communities such as Mesopotamia had shoes. In Mesopotamia, individuals who live in mountains around the boundary with Iran wore some kind of soft shoes made of wraparound leather. There was no marked distinction between the left and right shoes. Even by 1850, both the left and right pairs of shoes remained largely the same with most shoes having straight lasts. According to Yue and Yue (1997), the ancient shoe designs were in accordanc e with the surrounding environment of the inventor such as the conditions that people needed to be protected from as well as the available materials. Fast movement was essential for survival, thus â€Å"shoes needed to be light-weight but still strong enough for adequate protection† (Yue & Yue, 1997, p.9). Shoes needed to cover up the foot and have tight grip. In warm areas, people sought flat materials and tied them onto their feet soles while those in colder climates covered their feet and legs with animal skins tying them with thongs (Yue & Yue, 1997). Many of the shoes that rule the current world of fashion existed in the ancient periods. Different kinds of shoes from thick to thin existed in the antique world. To begin with, sandals are one of the most common footwear among early inhabitants of the planet earth. Sandal still remains common footwear in warm countries. The ancient Japanese had their version of sandal with a wooden sole called the geta. The geta was worn wi th socks known as tabi (Yue & Yue, 1997). Among the Indians was chappli, a tall knobbed sandal that was made from the hide of water buffalo with a wood and metal to keep the foot above the ground. Early Egyptians were associated with sandals that were basically made of plaited leaves of papyrus. Sandal making was a widely acknowledged practice among early Egyptians. The Egyptian sandals were unique in that they appeared as both left and right pair unlike most European shoes that had no differences. In Greece and Rome, the use of sandals was restricted with specific sandals being set for different occasions (Aswad & Meredith, 2003). In cold countries, moccasin was the most common type of shoes. Moccasin was simple and made of one round of leather sewed together and had laces that were also made of leather. Moccasin was common among Native Americans and ancient American pioneers. The ancient Romans have been associated with wooden soled shoes. Peasants across Europe have worn clogs as well as other shoes with wooden soles for a very long period of time. Similar to the Japanese geta, the thick wooden sole protected the foot from road fragments, mud, stones, and cold among others. Klompen were wooden shoes in Holland and still exist today. Pattens were worn until middle ages, during Victorian periods. Among the early French was sabot, a wooden sole shoe for factory employees and peasants. High heel shoes, which commonly rule the women’s fashion world, existed for both males and females in the ancient times. These include

Transitional Leadership Essay Example for Free

Transitional Leadership Essay Organizational Culture is defined as â€Å"a common perception held by the organization’s members; a system of shared meaning† (Robbins, 2004). It is the name given to the idea that an organization holds a set of values, beliefs and practices that are common to all the members of that organization. It is the idea that an organization cannot exist on its own without a dominant culture practiced within the boundaries of the organization. Due to the growing workplace diversity, it has become impossible for every member of a different culture to practice their own beliefs and values. Thus, organizational culture provides the framework and the behavioral guidelines on how to behave within an organization. The characteristics of organizational culture are: Innovation and risk taking Attention to detail Outcome orientation People orientation Team orientation Aggressiveness Stability (Robbins, 2004) There can be different types of organizational cultures depending on the hierarchy, the business it is in and the scope of the organization, It is not necessary that two identical organizations will have the same organizational culture. It all depends on the workforce and the mission and vision of the organization that determines the organizational culture. My organization has a customer-responsive culture. This means that the culture in my organization has a set of practices that are customer-centric. The characteristics of such a culture are very much different from any other traditional customer-focused organization. Since culture is the summation of values, beliefs, attitudes and practices, The customer-responsive culture is one where there is employee empowerment, involvement and continuous learning. Information sharing is an integral part of daily communication and the customer is the center of attention in all considerations. Religious practices and occasions are part of the organizational culture and employees are kept autonomous and happy to the maximum possible extent so that this results in a well-served customer. I believe that my organization’s culture is well-suited for future development and success. This is because of the fact that businesses all around the globe have become highly customer focused. Organizations are beginning to learn that the customer is the most important person and no amount of wooing will ensure a prolonged loyalty from the customer. They are now designing products and services keeping in view the demands of the customer. There has been a shift from the sales paradigm to the customer needs paradigm where organizations are constantly worried about what the customer wants and strive to meet those requirements. Future success depends on the ability to understand and meet customers’ requirements. Since the organizational culture is customer-centric, I am sure there are no problems posed to the organization in meeting them. In fact, the customer-focused organizational culture will also mean that the employees in the organization will be highly motivated towards achieving the goals assigned targets since the organizational culture ensures autonomy, employee empowerment and flexibility. These traits ensure that the employees feel part of the organization and take more pride and enthusiasm in working towards achieving its goals. In conclusion, I would like to state that an organizational culture which is customer-centric is bound to be successful in the future due to the fact that the global industry is moving towards understanding the needs of the customer and delivering products and services fulfilling those needs. Bibliography Robbins, S. P. (2004). Organizational Behavior. New York: Pearsons.

How McCabe and Mrs Miller and Blade Runner Subvert Their Genres and Def

How McCabe and Mrs Miller and Blade Runner Subvert Their Genres and Defy Audience Expectations Two genres which have always been Hollywood staples are science-fiction and the western. The genres can be seen in films made as early as Le Voyage Dans la lune (Georges Melies 1902) and The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter 1903). On the surface the two genres are very different, however if one looks closely at them they are similar in many ways. Both genres usually feature uncharted frontiers, strong silent protagonists, frightening savages (played by either space aliens or Native Americans) and damsels in distress. The formula for these two genres was established many decades ago and in recent years it takes a film that defies and subverts those expectations such as Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood 1992) or Alien (Ridley Scott 1979) to receive an enthusiastic critical and box office response. Two other films which subvert the traditional genres of westerns or science fiction films are McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman 1971) and Blade Runner (Ridley Scott 1982). These films use archetypal settings, characters and action in a way which is substantially different from our expectations and the results are extremely memorable films. McCabe and Mrs. Miller is the story of a man, John McCabe (Warren Beatty) who tries to set up a whorehouse/tavern in a small town in the Pacific Northwest in 1901. He meets an astute madam, Mrs. Miller (Julie Christie) who runs his business and shares in his profits. The business thrives and they develop a relationship. A mineral deposit draws powerful mining company men to the town to try and buy McCabe's holdings. He refuses to sell and they retaliate. He ultimately is mortally wounded in a bloody showdown with the mining company's thugs leaving Mrs. Miller all alone. Robert Altman created a film which Pauline Kael called "a beautiful pipe dream of a movie -- a fleeting, almost diaphanous vision of what frontier life might have been." The film certainly feels different from most Westerns, featuring the distinctively different music of Leonard Cohen and a washed-out style of cinematography which Altman claimed "was trying to get the feeling of antiquity, like the photographs of the time." The cinematography is starkly different from the vibrant colours of The Searchers (John Ford 1956) or Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks 1959... ...ells him to do but he does it anyway. This is a stark difference from Captain James T. Kirk or Luke Skywalker. Scott is clearly trying to create a film which does not fit into traditional science-fiction formulas and he has succeeded with Blade Runner. Both McCabe and Mrs. Miller and Blade Runner are excellent films, they manage to succeed in subverting traditional genres in a way that creates fresh and different movies which both critics and movie goers have not seen before. This kind of genre shifting has grown more and more popular in recent years as movie goers have grown tired of seeing formulaic films filled with stock characters. In the future as young filmmakers look to the past for inspiration to create fresh and unique films which subvert genres and defy audience expectations hopefully they will look to the work of Robert Altman and Ridley Scott as prime examples. Bibliography: Jacobs, Diane. Hollywood Renaissance: The New Generation of Filmmakers and their works. 1977. New York. Dell Publishing. Sammon, Paul M. Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner. 1996. New York. Harper Collins. Sklar, Robert. Movie-Made America. 1994. New York. Vintage Books. How McCabe and Mrs Miller and Blade Runner Subvert Their Genres and Def How McCabe and Mrs Miller and Blade Runner Subvert Their Genres and Defy Audience Expectations Two genres which have always been Hollywood staples are science-fiction and the western. The genres can be seen in films made as early as Le Voyage Dans la lune (Georges Melies 1902) and The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter 1903). On the surface the two genres are very different, however if one looks closely at them they are similar in many ways. Both genres usually feature uncharted frontiers, strong silent protagonists, frightening savages (played by either space aliens or Native Americans) and damsels in distress. The formula for these two genres was established many decades ago and in recent years it takes a film that defies and subverts those expectations such as Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood 1992) or Alien (Ridley Scott 1979) to receive an enthusiastic critical and box office response. Two other films which subvert the traditional genres of westerns or science fiction films are McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman 1971) and Blade Runner (Ridley Scott 1982). These films use archetypal settings, characters and action in a way which is substantially different from our expectations and the results are extremely memorable films. McCabe and Mrs. Miller is the story of a man, John McCabe (Warren Beatty) who tries to set up a whorehouse/tavern in a small town in the Pacific Northwest in 1901. He meets an astute madam, Mrs. Miller (Julie Christie) who runs his business and shares in his profits. The business thrives and they develop a relationship. A mineral deposit draws powerful mining company men to the town to try and buy McCabe's holdings. He refuses to sell and they retaliate. He ultimately is mortally wounded in a bloody showdown with the mining company's thugs leaving Mrs. Miller all alone. Robert Altman created a film which Pauline Kael called "a beautiful pipe dream of a movie -- a fleeting, almost diaphanous vision of what frontier life might have been." The film certainly feels different from most Westerns, featuring the distinctively different music of Leonard Cohen and a washed-out style of cinematography which Altman claimed "was trying to get the feeling of antiquity, like the photographs of the time." The cinematography is starkly different from the vibrant colours of The Searchers (John Ford 1956) or Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks 1959... ...ells him to do but he does it anyway. This is a stark difference from Captain James T. Kirk or Luke Skywalker. Scott is clearly trying to create a film which does not fit into traditional science-fiction formulas and he has succeeded with Blade Runner. Both McCabe and Mrs. Miller and Blade Runner are excellent films, they manage to succeed in subverting traditional genres in a way that creates fresh and different movies which both critics and movie goers have not seen before. This kind of genre shifting has grown more and more popular in recent years as movie goers have grown tired of seeing formulaic films filled with stock characters. In the future as young filmmakers look to the past for inspiration to create fresh and unique films which subvert genres and defy audience expectations hopefully they will look to the work of Robert Altman and Ridley Scott as prime examples. Bibliography: Jacobs, Diane. Hollywood Renaissance: The New Generation of Filmmakers and their works. 1977. New York. Dell Publishing. Sammon, Paul M. Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner. 1996. New York. Harper Collins. Sklar, Robert. Movie-Made America. 1994. New York. Vintage Books.

The Purpose of Education Essay -- Philosophy of Education Teaching Tea

The Purpose of Education As teachers endeavor into the field of education, it is imperative to ask exactly what the purpose of education is and why education has become one of the fundamental institutions of society. In examining this question, I realize that education serves as the basis for the organization of our culture, and essentially, the entire world and its influence is invaluable. I see four essential purposes of education: to foster thinking and reasoning skills in students, to create a sense of community, to develop life skills such as responsibility and cooperation, among others, and to provide a precursor for life’s continuous education. The most obvious purpose of education, and perhaps the one that many people view as the only purpose, is to instill in students a means of thinking. In our current education, this takes the form of several major subject areas, like math, science, history, and English, but these areas are constantly expanding to reflect our changing culture as students today are encouraged to expand their knowledges. But education goes beyond even providing subject information; it teaches students to think critically and rationally and to consider ideas— skills necessary in all life situations. The structure of education today, and throughout history, helps to provide a strong sense of community within society. Because students’ main access to other people outside their families is in school, thi...

Marketing Product Failure Research

Kelvinator which ruled Indian refrigerator industry but it lost its place because it fell into a cobweb of ownership issues. Whirlpool did not invest in Kelvinator since it had the rights to the brand only till 1997. So during these years, Whirlpool harvested Kelvinator while developing its own brand. When the brand came back to its original owner, Electrolux did not had the money to build this baby. In 2005, Kelvinator was killed. One brand which failed only due to wrong marketing strategy is Liril.When the brand was launched the Liril girl became the talk of the town. Liril was positioned on the freshness platform right from its birth. The girl and the waterfall with the unique jingle ensured that the freshness is experienced by the audience. But the brand did not change its position for 25 years. There was a flurry of brand launches during the past 10 years and Liril was sleeping all the time † may be resting on the laurel. Liril tried to introduce the Icy mint variant very late and that too with a different jingle and imagery.But it did not work and the product failed. Canada Dry was launched in India in 1995. The brand, from Cadbury Schweppes, was a highly popular brand of soft drinks across the globe. The brand has positioned itself as champagne and the taste was different and refreshing. The brand was also promoted heavily in various media. The ad featuring the snow and tiger brings back the nostalgia about this brand. The brand was positioned as a premium cold drink. But alas; the brand did not last too long in the market.In 1999 CocaCola took over the beverages business of Cadbury Schweppes and like GoldSpot and Limca. Coke killed this brand. The only reason for Coke to kill these brands was to make way for Coke's original brands. Vanilla Coke was touted as the greatest innovation since Diet Coke in 1983. Vanilla Coke was promoted in retro style. The brand had Vivek Oberoi , the then Bollywood flame endorsing the brand in an unusual style. Vivek sported the retro look with typical combination of Elvis style plus Shammi Kapoor style in an Old Lamby Scooter screaming Wakaw.The ads were surely clutter breaking and backed by 360 degree branding efforts that ensured good publicity. The brand also got into viral marketing. But the brand failed due to either bad taste or premium pricing. The failure of Vanilla Coke is a classic case that proves that Marketing is not a perfect science. There is no formula or theory that can make a brand successful. To Quote Kotler â€Å"Marketing is easy to teach and understand but difficult to practice†. Marketing Product Failure Research Kelvinator which ruled Indian refrigerator industry but it lost its place because it fell into a cobweb of ownership issues. Whirlpool did not invest in Kelvinator since it had the rights to the brand only till 1997. So during these years, Whirlpool harvested Kelvinator while developing its own brand. When the brand came back to its original owner, Electrolux did not had the money to build this baby. In 2005, Kelvinator was killed. One brand which failed only due to wrong marketing strategy is Liril.When the brand was launched the Liril girl became the talk of the town. Liril was positioned on the freshness platform right from its birth. The girl and the waterfall with the unique jingle ensured that the freshness is experienced by the audience. But the brand did not change its position for 25 years. There was a flurry of brand launches during the past 10 years and Liril was sleeping all the time † may be resting on the laurel. Liril tried to introduce the Icy mint variant very late and that too with a different jingle and imagery.But it did not work and the product failed. Canada Dry was launched in India in 1995. The brand, from Cadbury Schweppes, was a highly popular brand of soft drinks across the globe. The brand has positioned itself as champagne and the taste was different and refreshing. The brand was also promoted heavily in various media. The ad featuring the snow and tiger brings back the nostalgia about this brand. The brand was positioned as a premium cold drink. But alas; the brand did not last too long in the market.In 1999 CocaCola took over the beverages business of Cadbury Schweppes and like GoldSpot and Limca. Coke killed this brand. The only reason for Coke to kill these brands was to make way for Coke's original brands. Vanilla Coke was touted as the greatest innovation since Diet Coke in 1983. Vanilla Coke was promoted in retro style. The brand had Vivek Oberoi , the then Bollywood flame endorsing the brand in an unusual style. Vivek sported the retro look with typical combination of Elvis style plus Shammi Kapoor style in an Old Lamby Scooter screaming Wakaw.The ads were surely clutter breaking and backed by 360 degree branding efforts that ensured good publicity. The brand also got into viral marketing. But the brand failed due to either bad taste or premium pricing. The failure of Vanilla Coke is a classic case that proves that Marketing is not a perfect science. There is no formula or theory that can make a brand successful. To Quote Kotler â€Å"Marketing is easy to teach and understand but difficult to practice†.

The History of Spains Gran Dolina

The History of Spain's Gran Dolina Gran Dolina is a cave site in the Sierra de Atapuerca region of central Spain, approximately 15 kilometers from the town of Burgos. It is one of six important paleolithic sites located in the Atapuerca cave system; Gran Dolina represents the longest occupied, with occupations dated from the Lower and Middle Paleolithic periods of human history. Gran Dolina has 18-19 meters of archaeological deposits, including 19 levels of which eleven include human occupations. Most of the human deposits, which date between 300,000 and 780,000 years ago, are rich in animal bone and stone tools. The Aurora Stratum at Gran Dolina The oldest layer at Gran Dolina is called the Aurora stratum (or TD6). Recovered from TD6 were stone core-choppers, chipping debris, animal bone and hominin remains. TD6 was dated using electron spin resonance to approximately 780,000 years ago or a little earlier. Gran Dolina is one of the oldest human sites in Europe as only Dmanisi in Georgia is older. The Aurora stratum contained the remains of six individuals, of a hominid ancestor called Homo antecessor, or perhaps H. erectus: there is some debate of the specific hominid at Gran Dolina, in part because of some Neanderthal-like characteristics of the hominid skeletons (see Bermà ºdez Bermudez de Castro 2012 for a discussion). Elements of all six exhibited cut marks and other evidence of butchering, including dismembering, defleshing, and skinning of the hominids and thus Gran Dolina is the oldest evidence of human cannibalism found to date. Bone Tools From Gran Dolina Stratum TD-10 at Gran Dolina is described in the archaeological literature as transitional between Acheulean and Mousterian, within Marine Isotope Stage 9, or approximately 330,000 to 350,000 years ago. Within this level were recovered more than 20,000 stone artifacts, mostly of chert, quartzite, quartz, and sandstone, and denticulates and side-scrapers are the primary tools. Bone have been identified within TD-10, a handful of which are believed to represent tools, including a bone hammer. The hammer, similar to ones found in several other Middle Paleolithic sites, appears to have been used for soft-hammer percussion, that is, as a tool for making stone tools. See the description of the evidence in Rosell et al. listed below. Archaeology at Gran Dolina The complex of caves in Atapuerca was discovered when a railway trench was excavated through them in the mid-19th century; professional archaeological excavations were conducted in the 1960s and the Atapuerca Project began in 1978 and continues to this day. Source: Aguirre E, and Carbonell E. 2001. Early human expansions into Eurasia: The Atapuerca evidence. Quaternary International 75(1):11-18. Bermudez de Castro JM, Carbonell E, Caceres I, Diez JC, Fernandez-Jalvo Y, Mosquera M, Olle A, Rodriguez J, Rodriguez XP, Rosas A et al. 1999. The TD6 (Aurora stratum) hominid site, Final remarks and new questions. Journal of Human Evolution 37:695-700. Bermudez de Castro JM, Martinon-Torres M, Carbonell E, Sarmiento S, Rosas, Van der Made J, and Lozano M. 2004. The Atapuerca sites and their contribution to the knowledge of human evolution in Europe. Evolutionary Anthropology 13(1):25-41. Bermà ºdez de Castro JM, Carretero JM, Garcà ­a-Gonzlez R, Rodrà ­guez-Garcà ­a L, Martinà ³n-Torres M, Rosell J, Blasco R, Martà ­n-Francà ©s L, Modesto M, and Carbonell E. 2012. Early pleistocene human humeri from the Gran Dolina-TD6 site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain). American Journal of Physical Anthropology 147(4):604-617. Cuenca-Bescà ³s G, Melero-Rubio M, Rofes J, Martà ­nez I, Arsuaga JL, Blain HA, Là ³pez-Garcà ­a JM, Carbonell E, and Bermudez de Castro JM. 2011. The Early-Middle Pleistocene environmental and climatic change and the human expansion in Western Europe: A case study with small vertebrates (Gran Dolina, Atapuerca, Spain). Journal of Human Evolution 60(4):481-491. Fernndez-Jalvo Y, Dà ­ez JC, Cceres I, and Rosell J. 1999. Human cannibalism in the Early Pleistocene of Europe (Gran Dolina, Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain). Journal of Human Evolution 37(3-4):591-622. Là ³pez Antoà ±anzas R, and Cuenca Bescà ³s G. 2002. The Gran Dolina site (Lower to Middle Pleistocene, Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain): new palaeoenvironmental data based on the distribution of small mammals. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 186(3-4):311-334. Rosell J, Blasco R, Campeny G, Dà ­ez JC, Alcalde RA, Menà ©ndez L, Arsuaga JL, Bermà ºdez de Castro JM, and Carbonell E. 2011. Bone as a technological raw material at the Gran Dolina site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain). Journal of Human Evolution 61(1):125-131. Rightmire, GP. 2008 Homo in the Middle Pleistocene: Hypodigms, variation, and species recognition. Evolutionary Anthropology 17(1):8-21.

buy custom Constructivism Evaluation essay

buy custom Constructivism Evaluation essay Introduction Knowledge is acquired through interaction of learners with fellow students, teachers and learning materials. To help the learners, instructors should have an understanding of their students by examining them and the resources available to tackle the problem. They should also understand the problem to be solved and examine the kind of knowledge needed by learners to do it. This means that they should have an understanding of the learning process of their students and should be in a position to facilitate it. Learning is defined as modification of behaviour through practice, training and/or experience. According to researchers and scientist however, the definition of learning depends on the type of learning process used. These theories are behaviorism, social cognitive and constructivism (L. Nagowah S. Nagowah, 2009). This paper will focus on the theory of constructivism, its applicability in learning, strengths, weaknesses and an exhaustive comparison with other learning processes. Constructivism This is a learning theory whose basic idea is that learners should create their own understanding of an issue through interaction with others and in relation to knowledge that is already in existence. According to researchers, constructivism is not so much a theory of learning as a model of acquiring knowledge which can be used to create a learning theory (Richardson, 2003). To fully understand the constructivist theory, the following aspects are discussed. a) Social Constructivism This theory suggests that knowledge is constructed by people and its form is determined by the political environment, ideological perceptions, values, exertion of power and an attempt to preserve status, beliefs and economic interests of the people (Richardson, 2003). According to Richardson, an individuals learning process and understanding of their world is influenced by social factors. This means that the learning process involves accommodating shared social beliefs and ideologies to acquire formal knowledge. Social constructivism implies that theories and ideas developed by a learner or individual are viable and applicable in the larger social contexts. Social constructivists believe that knowledge is a function of shared reality which develops out of social limitations affecting the learning process of an individual (Karagiorgi Symeu, 2005). This implies that no learning can occur without interference from social environments surrounding the learner. This means that a learner creates meaning of a situation or a problem based on social interactions and experiences. b) Psychological Constructivism This theory suggests that construction of knowledge is based on experiences of an individual and depends on a learners prior knowledge (Richardson, 2003). According to Richardson, learners do not depend so much on the experiences and ideologies of a social group but on their personal experiences. The theory goes further to suggest that knowledge developed by an individual from his perspective can be adopted by groups formal knowledge. Psychological constructivists believe that realities and experiences are very unique to each individual (Karagiorgi Symeu, 2005). This means that the process of creating knowledge and the knowledge created by learners should be based on teir own experiences without the consideration of experiences from other individuals. To the constructivist, reality is not a function of socio-cultural practices within which a learner resides and social beliefs should therefore not influence the learners perspective in solving problems. This suggests that a learner should be motivated by his beliefs, ideologies and experiences to develop skills to cope with a problem. Behaviorism versus Constructivism Behaviorism as a learning process ignores the psychological ability of an individual and focuses on the observable actions of an individual (L. Nagowah S. Nagowah). Adherents to this theory suggest that learning can be measured by simply observing change in behavior of an individual. To them learning process is passive where knowledge is transferred and acquired by repetition of a new behavioral pattern. Behaviorists believe that the right behaviour pattern for learning can be reinforced by reward or punishment. They believe that learning should be a process of transferring knowledge from the teacher to the students who should be able to reproduce the knowledge when need be. The major difference between behaviorism and constructivism is that, constructivism allows student s to come up with their own understanding of a problem and device ways to resolve it. Constructivism encourages creativity while behaviorism encourages repletion of behavior and knowledge acquired. Cognitive Theory versus Constructivism Cognitive theory puts emphasis on the psychological activity of an individual in the learning process. The proponents of the theory argue that every task requires a unique and different cognitive process to resolve or understand. They insist that it is important to understand and appreciate the metal processes that enable an individual to acquire and retain knowledge so that the processes can be enhanced. To the cognitive psychologists, learning is an active activity for the learners that require creativity (L. Nagowah S. Nagowah). The cognitive theory relates to the role of information processing in learning. This is because the processing aspects such as memory organization and neurological connections form the basis of the cognitive theory. An individual requires cognitive knowledge in order to synthesis information acquired to form meaningful understanding. This theory suggests that learning is acquired at different levels by different individuals depending on their cognitive development. This theory is similar to the behaviorists because it suggests that learning is a process where knowledge is given and absolute. This means that knowledge is passed on from the teacher to the learners. The theory suggests that behavior can be used to deduce the cognitive ability of an individual to process information and apply it in learning (L. Nagowah S. Nagowah). This theory is different form constructivism because it only seeks to understand the processes of thinking that allows learning to take place. Unlike constru ctivism, it does not encourage innovation and it believes in the traditional way of learning where the teacher provides information and knowledge to the students. Constructivism as a learning model has generated a range of mixed feelings and criticism towards learning processes. The proponents support the ideologies and ht e expected outcomes of the model when used in education while those against it base their arguments on the weaknesses of the theory application as ddiscussed below. Strengths of the Constructivism a) Active learning Constructivism places a learner at the centre of the learning process. It fosters motivation of the learner because the students experience the pleasure that comes from solving a problem (Karagiorgi Symeu, 2005). The model also fosters creativity because it suggests that instructors should design problems that can be solved in different ways and leave the students to struggle through the solving process on their own. b) Authentic learning The model fosters authentic learning by offering an opportunity to model problems to fit real life occurrences. This stimulates the learner to own the problems and solve them in their own understanding as if in real life situations (Karagiorgi Symeu, 2005). Authentic learning motivates the learners to implement knowledge in a genuine way thus developing relevance and meaning to their learning process and knowledge. Weaknesses of the Model According to a research done in India, the model of constructivism generates major problems in the education system. The research shows that the model makes it hard to examine the knowledge acquired by learners because its learning process is based on practice and personal experiences. In the particular case of India, the model presented a problem in devising a methodology for written examination (Raina, 2011). The information formed by learners through constructivism learning is not acceptable at face value. It is must be measured against the acceptable already existing knowledge for its applicability in meaning. This is controversial to the aims of the model and the basis under which it is established. Those against the model argue that it is not logical to take the learners through the process of innovation and creativity only to measure them against already existing knowledge. To them, knowledge is information that has already been tested and approved as applicable and requires passing and assimilation. The protagonists of the model argue that acquisition of knowledge should be explicit until learners have acquired basic concepts and skills to engage in creative and active inquiry (Gibbons, 2003). Constructivism presents a problem when applied to absolute learning courses such as learning the English language as opposed to learning science. According to research, use of constructivism to teach language or absolute subjects is not applicable. The instructor cannot be able to allow the learners to formulate their own words so that they can understand the language they are learning. Conclusion Constructivism is applied in learning with the aim of stimulating learners to be creative in solving problems. However, the model presents controversy in evaluation method of the learning process. According to research, use of contemporary evaluation methods is pointless where the model has been used for learning. When applied in a learning context, the expected outcome of the process should be creativity and enhanced skills. However, the outcome is not always the same because the model largely depends on the social culture of an individual and the basic knowledge they can relate to their experiences. This leaves room for more research to be conducted on the models applicability to multicultural learning setup. Buy custom Constructivism Evaluation essay