Lifelong Learning Plan

Mission Nowadays, the ever-developing world puts great responsibilities on personal development of modern people. One of the key success factors in such dynamic environment is flexibility in both thought and action which is attainable through constant renovation and update of one’s educational experience.Advertising We will write a custom article sample on Lifelong Learning Plan specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Lifelong learning becomes the key to one’s ultimate success in all spheres of life, including inter alia employment and health (Field, 2006). Considering the objective inability of standard education to satisfy the immediate ever-changing need for innovatory knowledge during one’s whole life, it appears most reasonable to work out a lifelong learning plan so that the need for development and adaptation is fulfilled. In addition, individual lifelong learning plan is the more successful that it satisfies the requirements of flexibility: it is much easier to adapt an individual plan to the ever-changing environment rather than revolutionize a whole organization. Environment Since the pace of development in modern world is extreme, any long-term planning should be approached with caution. One never knows how the course of development will proceed in the long run, therefore it appears more reasonable to set up an individual lifelong learning plan that would not exceed the coming decade. This period is both long enough to allow of setting considerable learning objectives, and short enough not to find oneself at a loss as a result of mistaken planning. A decade’s time is enough for a modern individual to attain significant knowledge, as well as develop one’s abilities that lead to a successful career in the chosen sphere. Vision Any learning is impossible without proper learning sources that provide adequate information and guidance on the studied issue. Since the present l ifelong learning plan is devised for the spheres of general management and health care administration, there are two crucial sources that may serve as instructive inspiration during the learning process. For the first sphere concerning general management, it appears necessary to utilize Michael Useem’s (1998) work The leadership moment: Nine true stories of triumph and disaster and their lessons for us all. This collection of real-life occurrences, which put managers and leaders in extreme situations and forced them to employ all their managerial wisdom into solving those issues, teaches many valuable lessons to the reader as well.Advertising Looking for article on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The secrets and strategies of managing are disclosed in a lively and understandable context, with practical implications obvious and therefore more impressive. The recommended second source, dealing with health care issues, would be Cases in health services management by Rakich, Longest and Darr (2004). This case collection is valuable for its broad scope of discussed issues that range from quality improvement to strategic planning, include cases of ethical dilemmas, as well as issues of cost-benefit analyses and resource utilization. The learning impact of both sources mentioned is especially high due to the case method they employ for teaching valuable lessons of management. Additionally, the cases discussed in those works appeal to the learner with their multifacetedness which allows of reconsidering them from various points of view depending on the learning situation. Goals A lifelong learning plan as such may seem an ambitious undertaking, but once it is neatly structured in a set of goals it appears much more comprehensible. In order to establish the range of goals to achieve, it is essential to realize what changes might occur in the given time within health care management and consequen tly to work out the ways one should direct one’s lifelong learning to keep abreast with the developments of the time. The line of development of health care management in the coming decade can be envisaged as evolving in response to the evolution in organization and delivery of health care. The goals of a lifelong learning plan for a health care manager should therefore involve continuous adaptation and upgrading of managerial standards and strategies in response to the ever-changing situation. A constantly developing health care manager should also build his/her activities in compliance with the technical achievements of health care industry that allow of new managerial techniques and approaches. Moreover, the development within the lifelong learning plan should consider the current medical situation in the professional environment: health care management should correspond to the current needs of the patients in the given place and at the given time.Advertising We will write a custom article sample on Lifelong Learning Plan specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Last but not least, lifelong learning plan should have as its goal not only isolated personal development but also creating a learner-friendly environment that would allow sharing knowledge in a larger community of health care managers. Strategies In order to achieve the aforementioned goals of the lifelong learning plan, the health care manager should work out certain winning strategies that would lead him/her to success. For the purpose of adapting and upgrading managerial standards, it is vital to observe the current trends in health care management and develop a flexible approach that would allow meeting the needs of every individual situation. Technical modernity is promoted via openness to technical innovation and recognition of its importance for creating a contemporary health care institution. With the view of satisfying the individual req uirements of patients at a given time moment, the health care manager is required to possess sufficient up-to-date information on the contemporary health concerns of a given community.Finally, the requirement of constant knowledge sharing among health care managers necessitates creation of opportunities for information exchange and analysis. Tactics In the short-term range, the number of steps to undertake in order to realize the aforementioned strategies for lifelong learning plan is quite high. One thing that appears vital is maintaining one’s learning activities constantly; this can be achieved through variegating them and connecting them with one’s daily working practice. Thus for one thing, observation of current trends in health care management is possible through observing the experience of major health care establishments. The news of technical achievements and current medical picture of the community are available through firstly, own-conducted surveys and res earch and secondly, through regular reviewing up-to-date publications in related editions. The favorable environment for group learning is created through establishing and actively participating in workshops and conferences of healthcare managers. In addition to those tactics, it is worth creating certain topical self-assessment modules that would stipulate the information to learn at a given period of time, as well as the study questions to be answered and practical tasks to be solved on the basis of that information.Advertising Looking for article on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Within those module both theoretical and practical assignments should be completed: theory can be drawn from multiple informative publications on health care, and practical tasks arise from everyday managerial activities. It goes without saying that the most efficient and sensible way to conduct lifelong learning is always to connect practice with theory and make sure that the latter serves the needs of the former. Monitoring Lifelong learning process makes sense as long as it yields certain results. In order to understand whether the expected outcomes are achieved or not, it is essential to carry out monitoring via a set of various procedures. The most available and immediate monitoring is conducted through self-analysis and own reflection on the course of actions. Keeping a neat and detailed record of one’s long-term and short-term plans and ways of their realization would create a clear picture of the ways things go for the health care manager in the process of life learni ng. It would be logical to assume that if the goals are achieved, then the strategies and tactics have been chosen correctly; if not, then the strategies and tactics should be amended correspondingly. In addition to self-assessment, solicitation of colleague opinions is absolutely vital. An objective detached view would point out the advantages and disadvantages of one’s actions, sometimes doing it more clearly due to impartiality and freshness of perception. Therefore colleagues feedback should be gathered constantly, either directly (through immediate conversation) or indirectly (through observing colleagues’ cooperativeness and willingness to collaborate). Risk factors Achieving success in one’s lifelong learning is subject to action of certain risk factors that may either benefit or hinder one’s success. Among the crucial helping factors, information technology plays a role that is hard to overestimate. Learning as gaining, processing, creating, and s haring information is immensely facilitated by the ever-developing information technology and there is hope that this process continues on to the coming decade. Professional factors, such as availability or absence of knowledgeable interlocutors who can share and develop knowledge, can play either a positive or a negative role correspondingly. Last but not least, the success or failure of one’s lifelong learning plan crucially depends on personal factors. For one thing, the personality of the learner influences the learning process: such characteristics as stamina, self-organization, motivation, and openness to new ideas are indispensable to successful learning. For another thing, the personality of the people who may potentially share knowledge also matters: whether they are friendly and willing enough to cooperate is a decisive factor for obtaining the desired information. References Field, J. (2006). Lifelong learning and the new educational order (2nd ed.). Sterling, VA: Trentham Books Limited. Rakich, J. S., Longest, B. B., Darr, K. (Eds.). (2004). Cases in health services management (4th ed.). Baltimore, MD: Health Professions Press. Useem, M. (1998). The leadership moment: Nine true stories of triumph and disaster and their lessons for us all. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press. This article on Lifelong Learning Plan was written and submitted by user Senator Bail to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Reactivity Definition in Chemistry

Reactivity Definition in Chemistry In chemistry, reactivity is a measure of how readily a substance undergoes a chemical reaction. The reaction can involve the substance on its own or with other atoms or compounds, generally accompanied by a release of energy. The most reactive elements and compounds may ignite spontaneously or explosively. They generally burn in water as well as the oxygen in the air. Reactivity is dependent upon temperature. Increasing temperature increases the energy available for a chemical reaction, usually making it more likely. Another definition of reactivity is that it is the scientific study of chemical reactions and their kinetics. Reactivity Trend in the Periodic Table The organization of elements on the periodic table allows for predictions concerning reactivity. Both highly electropositive and highly electronegative elements have a strong tendency to react. These elements are located in the upper right and lower left corners of the periodic table and in certain element groups. The halogens, alkali metals, and alkaline earth metals are highly reactive. The most reactive element is fluorine, the first element in the  halogen group.The most reactive metal is francium, the last alkali metal. However, francium is an unstable radioactive element, only found in trace amounts. The most reactive metal that has a stable isotope is cesium, which is located directly above francium on the periodic table.The least reactive elements are the noble gases. Within this group, helium is the least reactive element, forming no stable compounds.Metal can have multiple oxidation states and tend to have intermediate reactivity. Metals with low reactivity are called noble metals.  The least reactive metal is platinum, followed by gold. Because of their low reactivity, these metals dont readily dissolve in strong acids. Aqua regia, a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid, is used to dissolve platinum and gold. How Reactivity Works A substance reacts when the products formed from a chemical reaction have lower energy (higher stability) than the reactants. The energy difference can be predicted using valence bond theory, atomic orbital theory, and molecular orbital theory. Basically, it boils down to the stability of electrons in their orbitals. Unpaired electrons with no electrons in comparable orbitals are the most likely to interact with orbitals from other atoms, forming chemical bonds. Unpaired electrons with degenerate orbitals that are half-filled are more stable but still reactive. The least reactive atoms are those with a filled set of orbitals (octet). The stability of the electrons in atoms determines not only the reactivity of an atom but its valence and the type of chemical bonds it can form. For example, carbon usually has a valence of 4 and forms 4 bonds because its ground state valence electron configuration is half-filled at  2s2  2p2. A simple explanation of reactivity is that it increases with the ease of accepting or donating an electron. In the case of carbon, an atom can either accept 4 electrons to fill its orbital or (less often) donate the four outer electrons. While the model is based on atomic behavior, the same principle applies to ions and compounds. Reactivity is affected by the physical properties of a sample, its chemical purity, and the presence of other substances. In other words, reactivity depends on the context in which a substance is viewed. For example, baking soda and water are not particularly reactive, while baking soda and vinegar readily react to form carbon dioxide gas and sodium acetate. Particle size affects reactivity. For example, a pile of corn starch is relatively inert. If one applies a direct flame to the starch, its difficult to initiate a combustion reaction. However, if the corn starch is vaporized to make a cloud of particles, it readily ignites. Sometimes the term reactivity  is also used to describe how quickly a material will react or the rate of the chemical reaction. Under this definition the chance of reacting and the speed of the reaction are related to each other by the rate law: Rate k[A] Where rate is the change in molar concentration per second in the rate-determining step of the reaction, k is the reaction constant (independent of concentration), and [A] is the product of the molar concentration of the reactants raised to the reaction order (which is one, in the basic equation). According to the equation, the higher the reactivity of the compound, the higher its value for k and rate. Stability Versus Reactivity Sometimes a species with low reactivity is called stable, but care should be taken to make the context clear. Stability can also refer to slow radioactive decay or to the transition of electrons from the excited state  to less energetic levels (as in luminescence). A nonreactive species may be called inert. However, most inert species actually do react under the right conditions to form complexes and compounds (e.g., higher atomic number noble gases).