Art Publishing – How to Make Money in the Art Business

There are a few ways to get into the business. You can be completely independent; creating, printing, marketing and distributing your own images. This is a worthy aspiration. You can also work with a publisher and have your work published by them so that the bulk of the financial responsibility rests of their shoulders and you receive a royalty based on sales. Both of these work, yet are vastly different. It’s up to you to learn the difference and decide which direction to go in.If you decide to publish your own work then it’s a matter of making your images print ready as you will be responsible for selling them. Preparing your art for printing means cleaning it up through Photoshop to make sure colors are working, the digital files are clean and there is proper copyright notice included. Your digital files should be at least 10 megabytes but not much larger than 50 or 60. You may want to create the digital file so that the images can be printed in a variety of sizes.Once you have cleaned your images and they are print ready you can upload them to user generated on-line galleries that will feature your work and sell it and you will receive a royalty. They will be the printer – all you have to do is add your images. Imagekind and Finerworks are two sites that offer this feature. If you decide to be entirely responsible for printing it then you will need to work with a printer who will give you a cost per print, decide with you on the paper quality and will be open to drop shipping to your customer. It is up to you to market your work. You can do this through blogs, Twitter, word of mouth, brick and mortar galleries and Facebook. It’s a tough way to go but if you enjoy social web sites and marketing then this is all part of the fun. You reap the rewards of 100% of the profit.If you decide that working with an art publisher is the direction to go then it’s up to you to do the research into which publisher. You can attend tradeshows to meet them or gather information through internet searches. Once you have a list review their sites to see if the work they publish is similar in style to the kind of work you do. If they are a publisher of very traditional western art and your work is urban inspired and very digital then this is probably not a good match and you are wasting your time. Look for a good fit. Once you have found that fit you will need to find out who the product development manager is and contact them. They will want the quickest and easiest way to review your work. Try sending them either your web address or a photo sharing site like Flickr that can be a quick way to review it. If they reject it, don’t take it personally…everyone gets rejected some time or another; just keep trying till you find one that fits. However if you have little success signing with a publisher then you may need to take an honest look at your art. No one wants to hear that their art isn’t good enough however a publisher is making large investment in your art – they need to be reasonably certain that it will sell. If they don’t feel good about it then they won’t work with you.Finally, do your research. Find out what the hottest trends are and try new artistic directions. Be bold and understand that making money from art is a good thing. You aren’t compromising yourself if you earn money from it, you are making a living and being paid for something you are good at. Rejoice in that.

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How to Set Up & Organize Your Customer Mailing List For Optimum Results

Your list of customers who have previously bought from you is your most important asset. These are the customers who will provide you with return business, which is more profitable than the first sale. But, are you getting the most from your customer list? There are some secrets you should know, so you can squeeze the most benefits out of your mailing list.Most business’ customer lists consist of this information: Name, Address, City, State, Zip. That’s it. Unfortunately, this mailing list is almost worthless. You need to have more information in your files than just that. One mail order operator has a customer database with 32 information fields! You should be able to set these up in your computer’s database, or, if you don’t use a computer(you REALLY should), all this information should fit on a large size index card in a card file. Here are some more useful fields to include in your customer database:LastName; FirstName; Title; Position; CompanyName; Address1;
Address2; City; State; Zip; PerPhone; BusPhone;
FaxPhone; InqDate; ReferSource; FollowUp1; FollowUp2; SubDate;
SubAmount; RenewDate;Purch1; Purch1Date; Purch1Amount; Purch2;
Purch2Date; Purch2Amount; Purch3; Purch3Date; Purch3Amount;
TotAmount; Comments; Cust#The first 10 fields (reading across) should be self-explanatory. Almost any address possible can be put into my database without having to leave out information or abbreviate. The next three are for phone numbers. You MUST have your customer’s phone numbers, when possible, to be able to follow up quickly and efficiently. Making one phone call can be the difference between a big sale and NO sale.The InqDate field is where you record the date the customer first inquired about your products and services, and the date you sent the information, since it’s always the same day (there’s no excuse not to follow up your inquiries on the same day you receive them). This information, coupled with the ReferSource field, tells you when your ads are hitting, and how quickly people are responding to them. If you see that inquiries are coming in slowly, or long after the ad is out, you know that you need more action incentives in my next ad. The ReferSource field is where you enter the “key” from my ad. You should use a letter code after my street address to indicate which publication and issue the inquiry comes from. You should also code your mailings, for the same reason.You enter a date into the two FollowUp fields to indicate when you want to send follow up literature to customers who don’t order on the first try. You should put a date two weeks from the InqDate in FollowUp1, and one two weeks later than that in FollowUp2. Then, every day, you should run a search on these two fields to pull up any records that have today’s date as a follow up date. You canteen print labels and put them on the envelopes and literature you have ready for follow ups.You should use the next three fields (SubDate, SubAmount, RenewDate) forth newsletter you publish (if you decide to publish one). These would have the
date you receive their subscription, the amount they paid (You should sometimes run special prices), and the date you want to send subscription renewal information (usually 10 1/2 months from the SubDate). You can then print labels in the same manner as you do for the FollowUp fields.Next come the Purchase fields. You should have three sets of purchase fields, one for each purchase the customer makes. In the Purch1field, enter a code for the product they have purchased. The other two fields get the date and amount of the purchase. The second and third sets of fields get the same information for the customer’s second and third purchases. The best customers to mail offers to are the ones that have purchased within the last90 days, so you don’t have to worry about many customers making more than three purchases during that time period (though I hope they will!). If someone does make a fourth purchase, move the second and third sets of data up to the first and second lines, and enter the new purchase information in the third data set.These fields are extremely important. You can instantly pull up a list of customers that have purchased within the past 90 days, or60 days, or 30 days, or even 15 days. When you rent out your house mailing list, this information is vital. The rental amount you can charge increases as the amount of time since the customer’s purchase decreases.The next field in my database is TotAmount, which contains a formula to calculate the total dollar amount that the customer has purchased from me to date.The Comments field is used to store any miscellaneous information about the customer that you think is important to know.Use the final field, Cust#, for a specially coded customer number that you assign each customer. Use this code to identify the recipient of any commissions you may pay to customers who have brought business my way.That’s a lot of information, and you may be wondering why I would need all of that. Well, I’ve already told you how to use the purchase data fields for identifying the “age” of the customers. You can also use the TotAmount field to compile a list of customers who have bought more than a certain amount from you. Together, these field searches can be used to produce a customized mailing list of, for example, customers who have bought more than $50 in the past 30 days. These would be the most responsive people to mail to, and would render the highest rental rate of my customer list.You can also use certain mailing list fields to identify people who should be dropped from my list. For example, you can search for customers with FollowUp2 dates that are four weeks past today’s date, and TotAmounts of zero. These customers could be erased from the list. Or, you could leave them on file, and put a word or two in the Comments field reminding you not to mail anything else to them, in case they inquire again. This saves me the cost of mailing something to someone who probably won’t respond. They might, but chances are they won’t.Finally, if you get a customer who has returned too many orders, or has defrauded you in some way, you can put that information in the Comments field. Then, if they order again, when their file comes up, you will see their history, and can use extra caution with them.As you can see, if you use foresight when initially setting up your customer list, you will have a valuable tool that you cause to increase your order potential, increase your income through specialized list rental, and decrease your mailing costs by eliminating “deadwood” from your list. This is one of the most important methods you can use to increase your chances of success.Copyright 2004 by DeAnna Spencer

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Learn How to Attain a Top Quality Health Care Education With an Online Health Care Degree

There are a wide array of online health care degree programs available to the student these days. Health care facility or nursing home administration, various nursing degrees, as well as physician assistance, Nurse practitioner, even nurses aid, pharmacy technician, or health educator degrees are available.For those who wish to pursue an education in health care of any variety you can typically find an online health care degree program that will suit your requirements for distance learning. Colleges with very prestigious names these days are offering online learning experiences in a wide variety of health disciplines to the student.Advantages of Studying from HomeIn many cases, and particularly when you are already in the workforce, traditional classrooms are harder to attend. When there are additional obligations such as home and family, very often the adult student has no alternative for career advancement or added education since finding time for the classes isn’t always easy to accomplish.Getting an online health care degree of any kind can advance your career.The RN to BSN online health care degree for example offers advanced education and training to the technical RN in order to better prepare her for a position in public health nursing, in corporate nursing, or even as an assistant or director of Nursing in a health care facility. The addition of education and a more advanced degree opens new doors that would not have been possible for the RN just a few years ago due to time constraints.Conformity of StandardsThe level of education is typically no different than that which would be given in a classroom situation. Your materials and the areas in which you are tested are similar and the laws of your state determine the content and skills that you must master. The disciplines that each student must learn are determined by your universities accrediting body as well as the prerequisites of the state in which you will practice.While some students have concerns about the kinds of materials they will study and the methods which are used to present the lectures and other materials, there are some wide choices out there in the online university world. Choose the kind of lecture and other materials that you are most comfortable with and from which you take away the greatest amount of knowledge.Online studies differ widely, depending on where you attend your online health care degree programs Some will offer lectures in downloadable media format, while others will give text only lectures. Select your degree program from those which offer you the best program for your purposes. Make sure that your online health care degree comes from an accredited university and that you are eligible to take your appropriate state board exams.

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Commercial Loan For Your Hotel Property

Getting a commercial mortgage for a hotel property is very similar to getting a commercial mortgage for an owner occupied commercial property with a few subtle differences. The driving force for the majority of most hotel income is the RevPar or revenue per available room. RevPar is most commonly calculated by multiplying a hotels average daily room rate (ADR) by it occupancy rate and is a key indicator of performance. Rising RevPar is an indication that either occupancy is improving; the ADR is increasing, or a combination of the two.Although RevPar only evaluates the strength of room revenue, it is typically the most relevant indicator of performance. While many full service hotels generate revenue through other means such as restaurants, casinos, conferences, spas, or other amenities the majority of hotel properties are either limited service flagged properties or limited service unflagged properties. A limited service hotel is simply a hotel with out a restaurant. Because the operating costs of the restaurant component generally run higher than that of the hotel operations, it is common for the net operating income (NOI) as a percentage of total sales to be lower for a full service than a limited service hotel. For this reason the majority of commercial lenders prefer to finance limited service hotels.Flagged vs. Unflagged Properties:A flagged hotel property is simply a hotel that belongs to a national franchise. An example of a flagged property would be a Holiday Inn or a Best Western. For the guest, a flagged property provides the benefits of a uniform standard that is upheld by the franchisor. A guest could stay in a flagged property on the east coast and could expect the same flag on the west coast to have the same standard of cleanliness and amenities. The owner of the property gets the benefit of a nationwide reservation system and marketing. For this benefit the operator is expected to pay a franchise fee which can typically range anywhere from 5% to 10% of room revenue. Because of the advantages that a flagged property has, most commercial lenders prefer to finance them over an unflagged property. Sometimes it can be extremely difficult to get a commercial loan for an unflagged property, especially if the property isn’t in what is considered a destination resort area. A destination resort area would be an area like Miami, Myrtle Beach, or Orlando FL. An unflagged property in a destination resort is easier to obtain a commercial loan on than an unflagged property in other areas of the country.Exterior Corridor vs. Interior Corridor:An exterior corridor property is a hotel property where you can actually see the door to the rooms from the exterior of the property. These are sometimes referred to as a motel instead of a hotel. The term motel is actually derived from the term motor hotel where most travelers would park their vehicle directly in front of their room. While there are disagreements between what defines a motel and what defines a hotel, there is typically very little difference between the two outside of a lenders perception.Most exterior corridor properties are older and subsequently will not have the quality of furnishings and will have more deferred maintenance than an interior corridor property. An interior corridor property is going to be more energy efficient and would have a lower utility expense as a percentage of gross revenue.Financing Your Hotel Property:When trying to get a commercial loan for your hotel property there are a few distinct differences you can expect as opposed to financing other commercial properties. A hotel property is considered special purpose in nature which simply means that it is generally cost prohibitive to convert it to alternate use. An office building or retail space can accommodate numerous types of businesses whereas a hotel property can only accommodate a hotel. Because of this a commercial mortgage for a hotel is going to be considered riskier to the lender than a commercial mortgage for other general purpose property types. A lender will mediate this risk by taking a more conservative approach to underwriting a hotel property.The loan to value (LTV) for a hotel property will be lower than other general purpose property types. For a limited service, flagged property 65% LTV is typical and that number can go down depending upon the age of the property and whether its interior or exterior corridor. The LTV is simply a ratio calculated by dividing the loan amount by the value of the property. The debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) for a hotel will also need to be higher than that of a general purpose property type. The DSCR is a ratio that determines the strength of the property or business income in relation to the proposed mortgage payment. A typical required DSCR for a hotel property by a commercial lender is 1.30 which simply means that for every $1.00 in proposed mortgage expense there should be $1.30 available to pay it. For other general purpose property types the DSCR is lower. A DSCR of 1.20 is common for general purpose property types and can go oven lower for a less risky property such as an apartment building.Because the acquisition of a hotel property under a conventional program requires a large capital injection, many borrowers prefer to purchase a hotel property by utilizing the SBA 504 program. This program enables the borrower to put in as little as 15% and still obtain a better interest rate than a traditional commercial mortgage for a hotel.

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Create a Cutting Edge Marketing Campaign With a Brochure Printing For Visual Artists

In today’s competitive business world, it is vitally important to make your company stand out from your competitors. By using insightful marketing strategies, you can help people get a real feel for your business and gain an understanding of the services you offer. This is where brochure printing for visual artists can help to highlight the very best of your company.Make Use of the Best Imagery and Graphics to Showcase the Talent Within Your CompanyIt makes perfect sense to create something that is aesthetically and artistically stunning when creating promotional materials. This gives potential customers an insight into the quality and variety of products available. Brochure printing for visual artists should highlight the talent and top quality service offered by your company, giving you an advantage over other companies within the same field of business. When selecting the images and graphics, use of as many different types, sizes and shapes should be included to highlight the versatility of your company.Think About Other Ways to Display the Quality of Service Delivered By Your CompanyYour business may already have created promotional materials without even realizing. Something as humble as a drinking mug that has company produced graphics on it can become an effective marketing tool that can help your business stand out from your competitors. Other ideas that can be employed are key rings and bookmarks both of which are relatively easy to create. They can be mentioned in the brochure printing for visual artists, helping potential customers have first-hand access to the amazing services offered by your company.Make the Pricing System ClearA good method to employ in the creation of a pricing system is to present it in a straightforward list format. Use graphics and images alongside each service offered and its price; this has a great impact, giving the customer a clear idea and vision of what to expect from each service you offer. If you use a company to help you in the creation process that specializes in brochure printing for visual artists, they can provide some useful tips and techniques to get the most out of your promotional materials.Include Information on How to Place an OrderSo now, you’ve attracted the customer and they’ve made a decision about what they’d like to purchase; now you need to inform them about how to place an order. The inclusion of an order form within any brochure printing for visual artists will help make the order process clear and straightforward for your customer. Making this part of the process easier for your customers will help secure a sale. Payment methods and estimated shipping times are useful information to include here. A customer may want to place an order in person, so providing information about how to do this will enhance the customer experience.If you are involved in this business and have been thinking about brochure printing for visual artists pay a visit to Conquest Graphics, a one-stop shop for all your marketing needs.

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Developing a Pupil’s Capacity at School

Schools must develop the pupils capacity for critical and independent appraisal and their ability to resist tendentious influence. This aim should be constantly pursued in, not least in addressed to classes or groups and in practical vocational orientation. A critical attitude means among other things that pupils are taught to query the theoretical foundations of and the selection of facts in the information supplied. They must be made aware, for example, of the uncertainty of forecasts, and they must be made critical of categorical statements concerning developments in the labor market. Schools should always state their sources and discuss whether the end in view has been allowed, deliberately or unconsciously, to influence the selection of facts or their presentation. An attitude of critical analysis also means that in connection with field trips, homework and practical vocational orientation, the pupils will ask questions and procure facts shedding light on social relations at work, values among different groups and problems such as the aims of activities, pay differentials, the status of different occupations, the relation between subordinate and superior, sex roles and so on, and that they will then discuss these questions and relate them to their own choice of occupation.Schools have a special responsibility towards those who, for physical, mental and other reasons, encounter difficulties in their school work. School staff must therefore also devote special care to these pupils in the context immigrant children and their parents too are often in special need of assistance.In principle, must be conducted using the same working methods and the same work procedures as other school activities. It must tie in with the pupils I perception of reality and must gradually broaden their perspectives. It must employ investigatory working methods and aim at pupil activity and individualization. It may constitute elements of class or group instruction as well as individual work, and it can provide a starting point for in-depth studies and project days.An important part is played by the pupil’s conversations with teachers and counselor concerning his (or her) interests and plans for the future. The subject matter of many different teaching subjects, contributions by persons active in the community at large -trade union representatives and representatives of enterprise, the public sector and parents -field trips and practical orientation will give pupils an increasingly broad understanding of educational and vocational activities as their school career progresses. In this way personal interviews can lead the individual pupil to seek education and to attach importance to it.Schools should encourage the individual to be independently active, to engage in self-analysis and to subject alternative choices to a process of appraisal. This will increase the pupil’s ability to cope with situations of choice and to revise his educational and occupational choice, for example when his educational and vocational plans have to be altered because of external circumstances or contact and partnership a change in his interests. But the person providing individual educational and vocational guidance should not remain passive. If teachers and counselors merely operate as the suppliers of information on demand, it will not become a powerful counterpoise to the influence exerted by the family environment, classmates, mass media etc.Individual educational and vocational counseling interviews are optional for pupils and, of course, for their parents, but schools should endeavor to reach as many as possible, not merely through the medium of printed matter but also through activation measures.Like other aspects of school instruction, requires a supply of printed material. Pupils must therefore be able to find the general and specialized information they require in the school’s book collections.It is the responsibility of school management to ensure that is planned and evaluated as part of the school working plan.In the various subject who are taught, teachers must let their pupils seek knowledge and develop skills which are of importance in the context. In language teaching, for example, it is natural for the pupils’ attention to be drawn to the importance of knowledge of languages in different occupations and fields of study and for a discussion to take place concerning the various occupations in which knowledge of languages is essential. Other subjects can make equally natural contributions towards an all-round orientation. Practical vocational orientation involves extensive co-operation with the working community outside the school. This participation by enterprise, public authorities and organizations etc. is an essential ingredient of educational and vocational orientation.The school doctor, school nurse, school social worker and school psychologist have a special knowledge of the pupil’s aptitudes and needs. The work done by the counselor has a vital bearing on individual interviews, general information, and liaison work with receiving schools and contacts with labor market authorities. But the counselors should also join with teachers in discussing and planning the role in school work. In doing so they can make suggestions regarding investigations, projects studies, individual assignments, exhibitions and field trips.

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Increasing Student Success Through Instruction in Self-Determination

An enormous amount of research shows the importance of self-determination (i.e., autonomy) for students in elementary school through college for enhancing learning and improving important post-school outcomes.
Findings

Research by psychologists Richard Ryan, PhD, and Edward Deci, PhD, on Self-Determination Theory indicates that intrinsic motivation (doing something because it is inherently interesting or enjoyable), and thus higher quality learning, flourishes in contexts that satisfy human needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Students experience competence when challenged and given prompt feedback. Students experience autonomy when they feel supported to explore, take initiative and develop and implement solutions for their problems. Students experience relatedness when they perceive others listening and responding to them. When these three needs are met, students are more intrinsically motivated and actively engaged in their learning.

Numerous studies have found that students who are more involved in setting educational goals are more likely to reach their goals. When students perceive that the primary focus of learning is to obtain external rewards, such as a grade on an exam, they often perform more poorly, think of themselves as less competent, and report greater anxiety than when they believe that exams are simply a way for them to monitor their own learning. Some studies have found that the use of external rewards actually decreased motivation for a task for which the student initially was motivated. In a 1999 examination of 128 studies that investigated the effects of external rewards on intrinsic motivations, Drs. Deci and Ryan, along with psychologist Richard Koestner, PhD, concluded that such rewards tend to have a substantially negative effect on intrinsic motivation by undermining people’s taking responsibility for motivating or regulating themselves.

Self-determination research has also identified flaws in high stakes, test focused school reforms, which despite good intentions, has led teachers and administrators to engage in precisely the types of interventions that result in poor quality learning. Dr. Ryan and colleagues found that high stakes tests tend to constrain teachers’ choices about curriculum coverage and curtail teachers’ ability to respond to students’ interests (Ryan & La Guardia, 1999). Also, psychologists Tim Urdan, PhD, and Scott Paris, PhD, found that such tests can decrease teacher enthusiasm for teaching, which has an adverse effect on students’ motivation (Urdan & Paris, 1994).

The processes described in self-determination theory may be particularly important for children with special educational needs. Researcher Michael Wehmeyer found that students with disabilities who are more self-determined are more likely to be employed and living independently in the community after completing high school than students who are less self-determined.

Research also shows that the educational benefits of self-determination principles don’t stop with high school graduation. Studies show how the orientation taken by college and medical school instructors (whether it is toward controlling students’ behavior or supporting the students’ autonomy) affects the students’ motivation and learning.
Significance

Self-determination theory has identified ways to better motivate students to learn at all educational levels, including those with disabilities.
Practical Application

Schools throughout the country are using self-determination instruction as a way to better motivate students and meet the growing need to teach children and youth ways to more fully accept responsibility for their lives by helping them to identify their needs and develop strategies to meet those needs.

Researchers have developed and evaluated instructional interventions and supports to encourage self-determination for all students, with many of these programs designed for use by students with disabilities. Many parents, researchers and policy makers have voiced concern about high rates of unemployment, under-employment and poverty experienced by students with disabilities after they complete their educational programs. Providing support for student self-determination in school settings is one way to enhance student learning and improve important post-school outcomes for students with disabilities. Schools have particularly emphasized the use of self-determination curricula with students with disabilities to meet federal mandates to actively involve students with disabilities in the Individualized Education Planning process.

Programs to promote self-determination help students acquire knowledge, skills and beliefs that meet their needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness (for example, see Steps to Self-determination by educational researchers Sharon Field and Alan Hoffman). Such programs also provide instruction aimed specifically at helping students play a more active role in educational planning (for example, see The Self-directed Individualized Education Plan by Jim Martin, Laura Huber Marshall, Laurie Maxson, & Patty Jerman).

Drs. Field and Hoffman developed a model designed to guide the development of self-determination instructional interventions. According to the model, instructional activities in areas such as increasing self-awareness; improving decision-making, goal-setting and goal-attainment skills; enhancing communication and relationship skills; and developing the ability to celebrate success and learn from reflecting on experiences lead to increased student self-determination. Self-determination instructional programs help students learn how to participate more actively in educational decision-making by helping them become familiar with the educational planning process, assisting them to identify information they would like to share at educational planning meetings, and supporting students to develop skills to effectively communicate their needs and wants. Examples of activities used in self-determination instructional programs include reflecting on daydreams to help students decide what is important to them; teaching students how to set goals that are important to them and then, with the support of peers, family members and teachers, taking steps to achieve those goals. Providing contextual supports and opportunities for students, such as coaching for problem-solving and offering opportunities for choice, are also critical elements that lead to meeting needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness and thus, increasing student self-determination.

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How to Build a Better Educational System: Jigsaw Classrooms

The jigsaw classroom technique can transform competitive classrooms in which many students are struggling into cooperative classrooms in which once-struggling students show dramatic academic and social improvements.
Findings

In the early 1970s, in the wake of the civil rights movement, educators were faced with a social dilemma that had no obvious solution. All over the country, well-intentioned efforts to desegregate America’s public schools were leading to serious problems. Ethnic minority children, most of whom had previously attended severely under-funded schools, found themselves in classrooms composed predominantly of more privileged White children. This created a situation in which students from affluent backgrounds often shone brilliantly while students from impoverished backgrounds often struggled. Of course, this difficult situation seemed to confirm age-old stereotypes: that Blacks and Latinos are stupid or lazy and that Whites are pushy and overly competitive. The end result was strained relations between children from different ethnic groups and widening gaps in the academic achievement of Whites and minorities.

Drawing on classic psychological research on how to reduce tensions between competing groups (e.g., see Allport, 1954; Sherif, 1958; see also Pettigrew, 1998), Elliot Aronson and colleagues realized that one of the major reasons for this problem was the competitive nature of the typical classroom. In a typical classroom, students work on assignments individually, and teachers often call on students to see who can publicly demonstrate his or her knowledge. Anyone who has ever been called to the board to solve a long division problem – only to get confused about dividends and divisors – knows that public failure can be devastating. The snide remarks that children often make when their peers fail do little to remedy this situation. But what if students could be taught to work together in the classroom – as cooperating members of a cohesive team? Could a cooperative learning environment turn things around for struggling students? When this is done properly, the answer appears to be a resounding yes.

In response to real educational dilemmas, Aronson and colleagues developed and implemented the jigsaw classroom technique in Austin, Texas, in 1971. The jigsaw technique is so named because each child in a jigsaw classroom has to become an expert on a single topic that is a crucial part of a larger academic puzzle. For example, if the children in a jigsaw classroom were working on a project about World War II, a classroom of 30 children might be broken down into five diverse groups of six children each. Within each group, a different child would be given the responsibility of researching and learning about a different specific topic: Khanh might learn about Hitler’s rise to power, Tracy might learn about the U.S. entry into the war, Mauricio might learn about the development of the atomic bomb, etc. To be sure that each group member learned his or her material well, the students from different groups who had the same assignment would be instructed to compare notes and share information. Then students would be brought together in their primary groups, and each student would present his or her “piece of the puzzle” to the other group members. Of course, teachers play the important role of keeping the students involved and derailing any tensions that may emerge. For example, suppose Mauricio struggled as he tried to present his information about the atomic bomb. If Tracy were to make fun of him, the teacher would quickly remind Tracy that while it may make her feel good to make fun of her teammate, she is hurting herself and her group – because everyone will be expected to know all about the atomic bomb on the upcoming quiz.
Significance
When properly carried out, the jigsaw classroom technique can transform competitive classrooms in which many students are struggling into cooperative classrooms in which once-struggling students show dramatic academic and social improvements (and in which students who were already doing well continue to shine). Students in jigsaw classrooms also come to like each other more, as students begin to form cross-ethnic friendships and discard ethnic and cultural stereotypes. Finally, jigsaw classrooms decrease absenteeism, and they even seem to increase children’s level of empathy (i.e., children’s ability to put themselves in other people’s shoes). The jigsaw technique thus has the potential to improve education dramatically in a multi-cultural world by revolutionizing the way children learn.
Practical Application

Since its demonstration in the 1970s, the jigsaw classroom has been used in hundreds of classrooms settings across the nation, ranging from the elementary schools where it was first developed to high school and college classrooms (e.g., see Aronson, Blaney, Stephan, Rosenfield, & Sikes, 1977; Perkins & Saris, 2001; Slavin, 1980). Researchers know that the technique is effective, incidentally, because it has been carefully studied using solid research techniques. For example, in many cases, students in different classrooms who are covering the same material are randomly assigned to receive either traditional instruction (no intervention) or instruction by means of the jigsaw technique. Studies in real classrooms have consistently revealed enhanced academic performance, reductions in stereotypes and prejudice, and improved social relations.

Aronson is not the only researcher to explore the merits of cooperative learning techniques. Shortly after Aronson and colleagues began to document the power of the jigsaw classroom, Robert Slavin, Elizabeth Cohen and others began to document the power of other kinds of cooperative learning programs (see Cohen & Lotan, 1995; Slavin, 1980; Slavin, Hurley, & Chamberlain, 2003). As of this writing, some kind of systematic cooperative learning technique had been applied in about 1500 schools across the country, and the technique appears to be picking up steam. Perhaps the only big question that remains about cooperative learning techniques such as the jigsaw classroom is why these techniques have not been implemented even more broadly than they already have.

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Have Your Children Had Their Anti-Smoking Shots?

Findings

In the early 1960s, social psychologist William McGuire published some classic papers showing that it is surprisingly easy to change people’s attitudes about things that we all wholeheartedly accept as true. For example, for speakers armed with a little knowledge of persuasion, it is remarkably easy to convince almost anyone that brushing one’s teeth is not such a great idea. McGuire’s insight into this curious phenomenon was that it is easy to change people’s minds about things that they have always taken for granted precisely because most people have little if any practice resisting attacks on attitudes that no one ever questions.

Taking this logic a little further, McGuire asked if it might be possible to train people to resist attacks on their beliefs by giving them practice at resisting arguments that they could easily refute. Specifically, McGuire drew an analogy between biological resistance to disease and psychological resistance to persuasion. Biological inoculation works by exposing people to a weakened version of an attacking agent such as a virus. People’s bodies produce antibodies that make them immune to the attacking agent, and when a full-blown version of the agent hits later in life, people win the biological battle against the full-blown disease. Would giving people a little practice fending off a weak attack on their attitudes make it easier for people to resist stronger attacks on their attitudes that come along later? The answer turns out to be yes. McGuire coined the phrase attitude inoculation to refer to the process of resisting strong persuasive arguments by getting practice fighting off weaker versions of the same arguments.
Significance

Once attitude inoculation had been demonstrated consistently in the laboratory, researchers decided to see if attitude inoculation could be used to help parents, teachers, and social service agents deal with a pressing social problem that kills about 440,000 people in the U.S. every year: cigarette smoking. Smoking seemed like an ideal problem to study because children below the age of 10 or 12 almost always report negative attitudes about smoking. However, in the face of peer pressure to be cool, many of these same children become smokers during middle to late adolescence.
Practical Application

Adolescents change their attitudes about smoking (and become smokers) because of the power of peer pressure. Researchers quickly realized that if they could inoculate children against pro-smoking arguments (by teaching them to resist pressure from their peers who believed that smoking is “cool”), they might be able to reduce the chances that children would become smokers. A series of field studies of attitude inoculation, conducted in junior high schools and high schools throughout the country, demonstrated that brief interventions using attitude inoculation dramatically reduced rates of teenage smoking. For instance, in an early study by Cheryl Perry and colleagues (1980), high school students inoculated junior high schools students against smoking by having the younger kids role-play the kind of situations they might actually face with a peer who pressured them to try a cigarette. For example, when a role-playing peer called a student “chicken” for not being willing to try an imaginary cigarette, the student practiced answers such as “I’d be a real chicken if I smoked just to impress you.” The kids who were inoculated in this way were about half as likely to become smokers as were kids in a very similar school who did not receive this special intervention.

Public service advertising campaigns have also made use of attitude inoculation theory by encouraging parents to help their children devise strategies for saying no when peers encourage them to smoke. Programs that have made whole or partial use of attitude inoculation programs have repeatedly documented the effectiveness of attitude inoculation to prevent teenage smoking, to curb illicit drug use, and to reduce teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. In comparison with old-fashioned interventions such as simple education about the risks of smoking or teenage pregnancy, attitude inoculation frequently reduces risky behaviors by 30-70% (see Botvin et al., 1995; Ellickson & Bell, 1990; Perry et al., 1980). As psychologist David Myers put it in his popular social psychology textbook, “Today any school district or teacher wishing to use the social psychological approach to smoking prevention can do so easily, inexpensively, and with the hope of significant reductions in future smoking rates and health costs.” So the next time you think about inoculating kids to keep them healthy, make sure you remember that one of the most important kinds of inoculation any kid can get is a psychological inoculation against tobacco.

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Early Intervention Can Improve Low-Income Children’s Cognitive Skills and Academic Achievement

National Head Start program conceptualized while psychologists were beginning to study preventive intervention for young children living in poverty.
Findings
As a group, children who live in poverty tend to perform worse in school than do children from more privileged backgrounds. For the first half of the 20th century, researchers attributed this difference to inherent cognitive deficits. At the time, the prevailing belief was that the course of child development was dictated by biology and maturation. By the early 1960s, this position gave way to the notion popularized by psychologists such as J. McVicker Hunt and Benjamin Bloom that intelligence could rather easily be shaped by the environment. There was very little research at the time to support these speculations but a few psychologists had begun to study whether environmental manipulation could prevent poor cognitive outcomes. Results of studies by psychologists Susan Gray and Rupert Klaus (1965), Martin Deutsch (1965) and Bettye Caldwell and former U.S. Surgeon General Julius Richmond (1968) supported the notion that early attention to physical and psychological development could improve cognitive ability.
Significance

These preliminary results caught the attention of Sargent Shriver, President Lyndon Johnson’s chief strategist in implementing an arsenal of antipoverty programs as part of the War on Poverty. His idea for a school readiness program for children of the poor focused on breaking the cycle of poverty. Shriver reasoned that if poor children could begin school on an equal footing with wealthier classmates, they would have a better of chance of succeeding in school and avoiding poverty in adulthood. He appointed a planning committee of 13 professionals in physical and mental health, early education, social work, and developmental psychology. Their work helped shape what is now known as the federal Head Start program.

The three developmental psychologists in the group were Urie Bronfenbrenner, Mamie Clark, and Edward Zigler. Bronfenbrenner convinced the other members that intervention would be most effective if it involved not just the child but the family and community that comprise the child-rearing environment. Parent involvement in school operations and administration were unheard of at the time, but it became a cornerstone of Head Start and proved to be a major contributor to its success. Zigler had been trained as a scientist and was distressed that the new program was not going to be field-tested before its nationwide launch. Arguing that it was not wise to base such a massive, innovative program on good ideas and concepts but little empirical evidence, he insisted that research and evaluation be part of Head Start. When he later became the federal official responsible for administering the program, Zigler (often referred to as the “father of Head Start”) worked to cast Head Start as a national laboratory for the design of effective early childhood services.

Although it is difficult to summarize the hundreds of empirical studies of Head Start outcomes, Head Start does seem to produce a variety of benefits for most children who participate. Although some studies have suggested that the intellectual advantages gained from participation in Head Start gradually disappear as children progress through elementary school, some of these same studies have shown more lasting benefits in the areas of school achievement and adjustment.
Practical Application

Head Start began as a great experiment that over the years has yielded prolific results. Some 20 million children and families have participated in Head Start since the summer of 1965; current enrollment approaches one million annually, including those in the new Early Head Start that serves families with children from birth to age 3. Psychological research on early intervention has proliferated, creating an expansive literature and sound knowledge base. Many research ideas designed and tested in the Head Start laboratory have been adapted in a variety of service delivery programs. These include family support services, home visiting, a credentialing process for early childhood workers, and education for parenthood. Head Start’s efforts in preschool education spotlighted the value of school readiness and helped spur today’s movement toward universal preschool.

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