EACH SET OF 2 HAS ITS OWN INSTRUCTIONS: 

Guided Response: Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings. When responding to your classmates, please provide a resource located in your region that assists clients with acquiring interview and professional clothing (e.g., a clothing closet at a church such as Hope Ministries Clothes Closet of Bushnell, FL; Dress for Success of Phoenix, AZ; Bottomless Closet of Milwaukee, WI; etc.). Explain what the resource offers clients—be specific. Support your initial and subsequent posts by citing at least two scholarly and peer-reviewed sources in addition to the course text. The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types.

TAMMY’S POST:

The scenario

As a human service professional, the agency I represent only provides career assistance, none of which is monetary; all other assistance is a referral to other resources. My sincerely motivated client cannot afford clothes for interviews. Other options have been exhausted.

Kitchener’s ethical decision-making model

Kitchener’s model is based on five assumptions that need to be at the core of any ethical evaluation and assumes that all ethical behaviors are presumed to be based on 1) autonomy, acting on free-will 2) beneficence, the intention is of benefit to the client, 3) nonmaleficence, actions are not harmful to the client, 4) justice, respect to rights and dignity of client and agency, and 5) fidelity, to commit to client need as appropriate to agency mission (Martin, 2018).

Applying the NOHS ethical principle to my rationale

The NOHS preamble states its purpose as providing human service professionals and educators with guidelines to manage ethical dilemmas effectively broken down into two sections. The first section focusing on human service professionals standards, and the second section focusing on human service educator standards. The human service professional standards categorize responsibilities of and to the client, community, and agency. The standards hone in on respect for dignity, honoring integrity, doing no harm, and avoiding exploitation by maintaining self-awareness and awareness of historical and current global influences that impact oppression and marginalization and demonstrate ethical personal and professional aspects. A human service professional has a duty to clients to recognize client strengths, a right to confidentiality, protect client records, avoid intimate relationships with clients, and not impose personal biases and values. To the public and society, these standards extend a professional obligation to provide services without discrimination or bias, the awareness of laws and advocacy if these violate client rights, how social and political issues impact diversity, and social justice advocacy eliminate oppression (Martin, 2018).

My mission and rationale

To choose a profession upholding clients’ empowerment struggling through disparity, I would purchase the client an outfit. A clean and presentable impression during the interview is instrumental in gaining employment. I would document my rationale and actions with the agency and preferably gain permission before acting on my own accord since there is a potential of liability. Ideally, I would request a superior to accompany me in shopping for the client to reduce any potential of manipulation or deception being alleged later (biases, intimacy, coercion). The outfit would be of average means and under no obligation to the client to reimburse however appropriate for the industry (frivolous or discrimination) to protect client confidentiality and dignity. The act would not be for purposes of recognition to nor the cost of financial benefit (tax relief and funding) to the agency. I would recommend the client sign an affidavit disclaiming that they are not being bribed nor coerced or under any influence to which unethical favors are being offered. Ideally, I would request verification of the interviews and results of each be documented as well. Again, this is of request, not demand.

To protect the agency, there should be an exception written that is highly stipulated to these crises, however not necessarily public, to alleviate funds’ future exhaustion, or torts and litigation of the, “But, you did it for …”. This gesture could motivate an optimistic forefront of funding to better services to clients through grants or donations from local sponsors or contributors. As noted, the agency is not seamless since ‘all other resources are referred.’ When agencies gear to one project there can be abundant assistance but the stress to oppressed and immobilized client further contributes to their state of destitution. 

Local Resource

The East Hill Church of Christ of York, Nebraska, offers annual and seasonal clothing drives. This year, the Fall Clothing Exchange was held Saturday, October 24, from 8:00 A.M. until 12:00 noon. In between the drive, there are frequent ‘closets’ offered. For means to free clothing along with other essential items to suffice, this is an ideal resource (East Hill Church of Christ, n.d.). A limitation is that York’s small city has no major public transportation other than YCT that operates on specific business days and restricted hours with 24 hours advance notice, including Uber or Lyft. However, many of their and other congregations are more than happy to help. Often posting for ISO on the local and surrounding Facebook groups is a great way to reach out in a very tight-knit community.

References

East Hill Church of Christ (n.d.). Clothing Exchange. https://www.easthillcofc.org/clothing-exchange.html (Links to an external site.)

Martin, M. E. (2018). Introduction to human services: Through the eyes of practice settings (4th ed.). Pearson.

CARMEN’S POST:

Ethic

The scenario for this week’s discussion had us to determine as human service professionals bound by general ethical principles but also by the agency policies of your employer. Our agency only provides career assistance; all other assistance is a referral to other resources. The client is in a situation where they cannot afford clothes for interviews, and your agency provides no monetary assistance. Other options have been exhausted, and you are contemplating paying for an outfit yourself because this client is sincerely trying to become self-sufficient.

According to Martin (2018) there are times when emotions should lead, and we do not want to become ridged or heartless in our application of rules (p. 45). I feel that this is one of those instances. However, in making my final decision I feel that behaving ethically may also be challenging, it is important to understand the relationship between ethical value and emotions in that individuals often use their emotions to justify their unethical or immoral behavior (Martin, 2018, p. 46).  Keeping this in mind I feel I would not be able to purchase this client as I want to be just/ fair with other clients that might be going through the same experience. However, I feel that I would be able to brainstorm with other co-worker to see if they have other resources. In making this decision I analyze the YouTube video: Overview of Ethics for Counseling in which they stated that having ethical awareness is essential as there can have lots of grey areas, in addition, there are no clear “correct” answer. They also mention that when we put so much focus or caring for a client, it can be emotional causing over involvement, and can result in dual relationship and crossing boundaries. Therefore, I felt that If I cannot provide the same support to all my clients I would not be able to purchase for this client, in addition, I would need to check on agency policies as there are rules in which staff cannot purchase nor take items for/ from clients; however, I would work diligently to find other resources and brainstorm with co-workers to find other alternatives. I would also discuss with supervisor as this can be a continued dilemma. According to National Organization for Human Services (n.d.) the first standard is human service professionals recognize and build on client and community strength. I feel our role is to empower our clients to advocate for self and utilize resources in the community. Kitchener’s model has us evaluate our decision before acting. This model is very useful as I was able to analyze the gray areas and pick the best choice and explore other options. My priority was to cause no harm not only to this client but all my client. I want to be able to be resourceful to all my clients. According to Pollard (1987) decision making and problem solving are beneficial in groups setting as well. This would be a great opportunity to discuss this matter with my employer of how we can continue to grow by providing these resources to clients. I would provide recommendations such as having staff donate clothing, ask my supervisor if I can post a flier and start a donation box in which clients can find clothing, reach out to churches and community agency that can also help our agency in helping our clients reach their goals. This was a difficult assessment of self, but helpful to analyze what I felt might be the best practice.

References

Martin, M. E. (2018). Introduction to human services: Through the eyes of practice settings (4th ed.). Pearson.

National Organization for Human Services. (n.d.). Ethical standards for human services professionals (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.). https://www.nationalhumanservices.org/ethical-standards-for-hs-professionals (Links to an external site.)

Pollard, W. E. (1987). Decision Making and the Use of Evaluation Research: DECISION MAKING INDIVIDUAL DECISION MAKING GROUP DECISION MAKING USE OF EVALUATION RESEARCH IN DECISION MAKING PROBLEM STRUCTURING EVALUATION OF SOLUTIONS IMPLEMENTATION SUMMARY REFERENCES. The American Behavioral Scientist (1986-1994), 30(6), 661. https://search-proquest-com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/docview/194853554?accountid=32521

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwLr5C_-OLQ (Links to an external site.)

Guided Response: Review several of your classmates’ stories. Respond to at least two with an analysis of how the conditioning did or did not affect their learning. Compare their outcomes with your own and suggest reasons for any variance. Be sure to respond to any queries or comments posted by your instructor.

ARICA’S POST:

First, describe the difference between classical and operant conditioning. Reflect on your own educational experience. Describe examples of classical and operant conditioning that you have experienced. Also, describe outcomes of each. 

The classical conditioning is the automatic behavior of the children within the classroom.  Operant conditioning is the reinforcement or punishment after a behavior occurs.   

When thinking back to my own educational experience, I remember working in small groups for a project, the teacher would let us do our own thing if we were working and getting our project done.  She never intervened unless there were issues, or we needed to move onto the next subject.  The outcome was that either you got your work done or you didn’t.  The consequence was that you didn’t get a good grade if you didn’t complete your project.   

An operant conditioning is when we read, we would track how many minutes that we did.  After a certain number of minutes, we would receive a book it for pizza hut which meant that we could get a free personal pan pizza.  I was motivated to read to obtain my reward of my book it.  Every so often we would go on a Friday and I would redeem my pizza with pride that I accomplished that reading.   

Then, compare positive and negative reinforcement strategies. How is negative reinforcement different than punishment? Refer to the examples you shared in your first paragraph: explain whether they were instances of positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, or punishment. Provide your reasoning and explain how they impacted your learning. 

My teacher used positive reinforcement with the book it by encouraging us to read.  A negative reinforcement could have been taking away a privilege in the classroom because they weren’t doing their reading or even our work during small group work.  My teacher chose to use natural consequence in the group project and a positive reinforcement for the book it.  I never experienced a punishment that I can remember during my school career.  It made me responsible by knowing that I had jobs to do and that I would either receive a reward or a natural consequence of not receiving a good grade.  I still use this with my own children in terms of their grades.  My philosophy is that you get what you put into something   

CIARA’S POST:

· First, describe the difference between classical and operant conditioning. Reflect on your own educational experience. Describe examples of classical and operant conditioning that you have experienced. Also, describe outcomes of each.

Classical conditioning is the behavior the child has been conditioned to have, conditioning its the connection that the child has connected with certain events. Ex: If a child accidentally drop a glass cup, automatically he will be filled with fear because he is conditioned to think a mistake/accident deserves scolding or corporal punishment. 

Operant on the other hand comes after the fact.

I was conditioned as a young girls to thin for myself, to educated myself to develop my own opinion and not to copy what everyone else was doing. I was conditioned this way because that is how my father taught me. Not only did he condition me to be this ways he modeled it in his own life. I was conditioned to ask questions and to speak-up. As I got older since I was conditioned to think  for myself, ask questions and do what  I know is right; as a mother I was able to over come challenges that most in the same situation would have not with integrity. As my children faced challenges I was able to teach them how to over come, think for themselves and also ask questions. I am thankful for this conditioning because it lead me to become a Christian not by following a religion, or a tradition because I knew not of one but instead because I have learned about the Savior for myself through study and application. The conditioning was to think for myself, and the Operant which is the follow up after my behavior lead me to accepting Christ.

· Then, compare positive and negative reinforcement strategies. How is negative reinforcement different than punishment?

Positive: Keep- up the hard work

Negative: Ignore the child/ no feed back at all.

Negative reinforcement and punishment differ because one is mental and the other is more physical. Otherwise they both are form of punishments that is negative and can be damaging to the child. 

· Refer to the examples you shared in your first paragraph: explain whether they were instances of positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, or punishment. Provide your reasoning and explain how they impacted your learning.

My example provided above was an example of positive reinforcement. My father never spoke a negative word to me, maybe he thought it but he never said it. He alway acknowledged when I made good choices or was just quiet and enjoyed my company. He did more listening but never failed to correct me when I did bad things. The interesting part is he ever used physical punishment but would have this look on his face without saying anything or just shaking he is head and that would be cutting. Gentle and quiet spirit in positive and negative reinforcement goes a long ways.

 Guided Response: Review a number of your classmates’ posts and respond to at least two explanations. Ask them to clarify any ideas that are confusing or lack depth. Share other examples of how educational psychology theories inform practice. Be sure to respond to any queries or comments posted by your instructor.

ALYSSA’S POST:

“In Reciprocal Teaching, students are taught four cognitive strategies for increasing reading comprehension: generating questions, summarizing, attempting to clarify word meanings and confusing text, and predicting what will happen next.” (LeFrançois, G. R. 2018 ) Reciprocal Teaching prepares students to lead by asking questions, and finding the meaning of what they are reading or being read. When you engage your students in the story for example, in the video, asking what are otters, or having your student ask their peers along with yourself about words they may not know they will gain a deeper understanding about the story. With this teaching method students are encouraged to ask questions, make predictions about what they think might happen next, or even comment on what another student thinks might happen next. “In Bruner’s Theory, the learner goes “beyond the information given”—that is, makes inferences and decisions—by relating new learning (new stimulus input) to previously learned concepts (which he labels categories and coding systems).” ( LeFrançois, G. R. 2018) I think this Bruner’s theory employs reciprocal teaching because it causes the students to think about what they have previously learned or even something they have yet to learn and ask questions regarding it. 

LeFrançois, G. R. (2018). Psychology for teaching (2nd ed.). Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu

DESIREE’S POST:

Good Morning,

After watching the text comprehension video it was very clear what the purpose of this group activity was for and how to structure reading for individuals. The students here assume responsibility for one another by helping with words that they are not familiar with and providing a definition with the guidance of the teacher. As well as using the four steps to a discussion that each student may lead asking questions about the book that engage the other students to be a part of this discussion. 

Reciprocal teaching is a way for students to comprehend what going on is book by making predictions about what the book will be about, asking questions that collate with the book and allow the students to have a discussion to better understand and put into practice what they are learning about. This also goes with closed reading because the students are able to ask questions that have purpose and discussion verses just having the classroom teacher led. Students are more involved in the learning and teaching process of the classroom. 

I believe that reciprocal learning can be supported with Ausubel’s theory: Reception learning. Why you may ask because his theory discusses how students learn through making connections to what they already know. So if we are using the method of scaffolding in the classroom and reading lessons like in the video students are able to make predictions that are correct about what they are learning and add information to the related topic if they did not know that previously to reading or the learning activity. 

References:

LeFrançois, G. R. (2018). Psychology for teaching (2nd ed.). Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu

Boyles, N. (2013). Closing in on close reading. Educational leadership, 70(4). 36-41. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec12/vol70/num04/Closing-in-on-Close-Reading.aspx (Links to an external site.)

(Links to an external site.)wetalearningmedia. (2008, May 19th). Watch & learn: text comprehension. (Links to an external site.) [Video file].
    Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbnwBVrJVdY