History of Cooperative Learning

History of Cooperative Learning 2.0 Introduction The review of the literature is organized in seven themes. The first theme aims to provide an overall overview on the history and previous studies made on Cooperative Learning. The second theme addresses the importance of Cooperative Learning. Then, the third and fourth themes focus on Group Work and its benefits. Followed by, are the fifth and sixth themes base on the positive perceptions and experiences from students using group work and use of Group work in accounting class. The seveseventh section which is the last one of the literature review enumerates some of the criticisms of using group work as a teaching and learning strategy. 2.1 History of Cooperative learning The origin of the Cooperative Learning dated back at least 100 years ago, and even thousands of years ago, but little research was made until the 1960s (Jacobs et al., 2002:2). Since then, it has awakened much attention and has constantly been a hot topic in education. From 1960s till today great importance has been attached to the term Cooperative Learning. For instance, in the mid 1960s Johnson and Johnson contributed much for cooperative learning in the training of teachers at the University of Minnesota. Then, it progressed till the early 1970s where researchers like David DeVries and Keith Edwards at Johns Hopkins University built up Teams-Games-Tournaments and other researchers like Sholmo and Yael Sharan in Israel developed the group investigation procedure for the Cooperative Learning groups. In the late 1970s Robert Slavin extended DeVries and Edwards work at Johns Hopkins into Student Teams-Achievement Divisions and modifying computer-assisted instruction into Team-assisted Instruction. At the same time, Spencer Kagan created the Co-op co-op procedure. Followed by, in the 1980s Donald Dansereau widened a number of cooperative scripts, and many other individuals worked out further cooperative procedures (Johnson, Johnson Smith, 1991).The Cooperative Learning has also been found as an effective epitome of communicative language teaching. As affirmed by Putnam (1995) that The Cooperative Learning is embraced within a communicative language teaching framework He also pointed out that the cooperative learning activities are often used in communicative language teaching Cooperative learning has become so common that it is no more considered as a new idea in education. This can be viewed in the mid of 20th century where applications of cooperative learning drew its development to sociology and social psychology specifically to Gordon Allports Social Contact Theory and Morton Deutschs studies of group dynamics. This continues on, as Cooperative Learning is believed to make educational magic in a uniquely 21st century way. 2.2 Definitions of Cooperative learning It is believed that the use of cooperative learning in the classroom as an instructional strategy had been a subject matter for many years. Jenkins and OConnor (1996) suggested that cooperative learning in the classroom is amongst the best strategies for teaching students with and without disabilities in the classroom. As a result, the success of teaching using cooperative learning was conclusive in almost all studies. To begin with, it can be noted that many scholars and researchers have attempted to investigate into the concept of Cooperative Learning. In view of that different definitions have been given to Cooperative learning. According to Slavin (1983) Cooperative learning has been defined as a teaching strategy that encourages students to work in small, heterogeneous learning groups in order to promote individual learning. The fact that learning groups should be mixed or diverse is significant to ensure that learners can learn from each other, and provide encouragement and support to each other in different aspects and at different levels of the curriculum. Likewise, cooperative learning has generally avowed to be the best option for all students since it emphasizes active interaction between students of diverse abilities and backgrounds (Nelson, Gallagher, Coleman, 1993; Tsai, 1998; Wei, 1997; Yu, 1995). The accepted idea proposed in these different definitions by different authors is that Cooperative learning should be taken as a learning approach in which student are grouped together in order to ensure that they help each other in learning an academic subject in the scope of a common goal and also where they are actively participating in the teaching-learning process 2.3 Importance of Cooperative Learning Today cooperative learning is a matter-of-fact in almost all school content areas and, progressively more, in college and university contexts all over the world (Johnson Johnson, 1989; Kessler, 1992). This could be found in the results of several studies of the cooperative learning literature where Springer, Stanne, and Donovan (1997) acknowledged that there is the need for a shift in importance from teaching to learning. At the very first glance, it might seem that cooperative learning is merely the splitting up of students with varying levels in small groups in order to attain common goals. Things; though, are not always what they appear to be. In reality, cooperative learning goes beyond organizing students. For example, as stated by Crandall (1999) Cooperative learning is more than just small group activity. In a well-structured cooperative task, there is a genuine information gap, requiring learners to both listen and contribute to the development of an oral, written or other product which represents the groups efforts, knowledge and perspectives. Many studies have been conducted vis-Ã  -vis the effectiveness of such cooperative learning approaches. Cooperative learning is group learning activity planned so that learning is reliant on the socially structured exchange of information between learners in groups and in which each learner is held accountable for his or her own learning and is motivated to increase the learning of others. (Olsen Kagan, 1992). In addition Barbara Leigh Smith and Jean T. MacGregor (1992) mentioned collaborative learning as an umbrella term for a variety of educational approaches involving joint intellectual effort by students, or students and teachers together. Drawing from this quotation, it can be said that to some extent together with cooperative learning, collaborative learning activities also cover a broad territory of approaches such as classroom discussions intersperse with short lectures, peer teaching, students put together around group work in the amount of in-class or out-of-class time and others. Nunan (1992), for instance, uses the terms cooperative learning and collaborative learning interchangeably and quotes the following definition: Collaborative learning entails students working together to achieve common learning goals.(Slavin, 1983; Sharan et al. 1984). But for this study our prime focus is on group work. 2.4 Definition of Group Work Toseland and Rivas (1984) described group work as a goal directed activity with small groups of people aimed at achieving socio-emotional needs and completing tasks. Normally, this activity is aimed at individual members of a group and to the group as a whole within a system of service delivery. The use of group work has been broadly accepted as an effective teaching and learning tool (Conway, Kember, Sivan, Wu, 1993; Freeman, 1995). More precisely, there is a substantial body of literature advocates that the use of group work as a cooperative learning approach has positively contributes to student learning (James, 2005; Mahenthiran Rouse, 2000; Roberts, 2004; Rossin Hyland, 2003). Furthermore, as stated by Lundgren (2008) cooperative learning was considered as a relationship in a group of students that requires positive interdependence, individual accountability, interpersonal skills, face-to-face positive interaction, and processing. Infrequently, random or special interest teams could be formed to maximize student talents or meet a specific student need (Kagan, 1994). 2.5 Benefits of Group work 2.5.1 Group Work enhance Learning To start with, it is recognized that engaging students in Cooperative learning make them learn best when they are actively involved in the process (Gross Davis, B 1993) and also Cooperative learning involves groups of students working to complete a common task together (Siegel, 2005). It has also been viewed by Vygotsky (1978) that students perform at higher levels when they work in diverse groups, as opposed to working individually. Furthermore, as asserted by Johnson and Johnson (1987) huge majority of the research comparing student-student interaction patterns indicated that students learn more effectively when they work cooperatively. Other investigators like Cotterill and Mills (1994), in Australia at Wollongong University, stated that all three benefits of group work in their assessment policy, Group work, under proper conditions, encourages peer learning and peer support and many studies validate the efficacy of peer learning. It is said that teachers also get satisfaction with the integration of cooperative learning groups (Linchevski Kutscher, 1998). It is so because the use of small groups requires fundamental changes not only in the organization of the classroom but also in ways of learning (Kramarski Mevarech, 2003). Likewise, cooperative learning facilitate individuals to develop their own understanding as cooperative learning approaches force learners to actively relate their own experiences and perceptions to those of others. Consequently, while interacting in cooperative learning activities individual understandings are verbalized and discussed and in the process of discussion new meanings are created as learners help each other to better understand the learning matter. (e.g. Akan, 2005; Anderson et al, 1996; Kalliath et al, 2006). It is at this point interesting to note that Anderson et al (1996) put forward that group learning has become more important, as institutions of higher learning consist of increasing numbers of mature learners who bring life and work experience into the classrooms. Therefore, these mature learners return to formal education because rapid social, economic and technological changes require them to be lifelong learners with transferable skills. 2.5.2 Group Work and its 21st Century Skills Using Group work as a teaching and learning strategy does not only promote cognitive development but also plays an important role in the development of personal and social skills which will help students in future. As per Bermejo (2005) Group work is becoming more and more imperative with the demand for higher order thinking skills in the 21st century job market. The field of collaborative learning broadens beyond the classroom walls and then cooperative learning may be observed as a component of collaborative learning. This has been clearly discussed by Wiersma (2002) who believed that collaborative learning has a wider application outside the classroom and is rather a philosophy of life that involves working together, building together, learning together, changing together, improving together. Its a philosophy that fits todays globalized world. Moreover, it has been seen that in a literature there is a strong support that a successful cooperative work environment will lead to greater effort to achieve, more positive interpersonal relationships, and greater psychological health when compared to a competitive work environment (Johnson Johnson, 1989). As argued by Gibbs (2001) the requirements for students to enter todays work force with the ability to identify and organize information and resources, communicate well with others, and understand social and organizational systems. Therefore, it will be true to say that Collaborative learning does enhance leadership skills by developing and strengthening team members abilities to reflect, respect, converse, and resolve conflict. 2.6 Positive perceptions and experiences from students using Group Work According to Walker (2001) little research has been published to date reporting on student perceptions of group work. Despite the fact that focus of her study is on student perceptions of group work associated to peer assessment, her findings suggest that students in general had a positive attitude towards group work. The facts that most students are usually positive about group work have been echoed by additional researchers. To start with, Chapman et al (2006) in a study found that the overall attitude generally positive [and] degree of conflict was moderate. As a result, it can be said that most group experiences can be categorized as a positive one. The question which needs to be answered is: What are these positive experiences? At first, it will be true to say that students appear to enjoy working cooperatively and are willing to cooperate with others in the group (Krol, Janssen, Veenman, van der Linden, 2004). The reason behind which is the fact that it encourages various styles in which learning takes place. Normally, learning in groups is experienced as fun and more active. This can be found in a study by Yazici (2004) entitled as Student Perceptions of Collaborative Learning in Operations Management Classes provided evidence that the students agreed that they had a better understanding of Operations Management in a collaborative instruction environment. As said by Colbeck et al (2000) students who experienced to group learning approaches in education learn to value the skills which they are acquired for their future careers, like for instance, the ability to listen to other perspectives with an open mind, to suspend judgments, and to search for solutions in a democratic and inclusive manner. Moreover, in a study made by De Vita (2001) students found group work to be demanding, but on the other hand they felt that they learned a lot about themselves and felt better prepared to work in diverse teams in the future. As a result, it can be said that group work has lead to positive impact on students. 2.7 Use of group work in Accounting Class Many studies have focused on cooperative learning as teaching strategy in accounting field. For instance, Norman, Rose Lehmann (2004) in their broad review of literature between 1990 and 2003 agreed on the terms collaboration and cooperative learning were used interchangeably in many international accounting journals and elsewhere. In a study by B.J Farrell and H.M Farrell (2009) called Student satisfaction with cooperative learning in an Accounting curriculum showed that team work has been as an instructional strategy. As a result, it can be viewed that the used of cooperative learning is common in tertiary sector. Thus, teachers in secondary schools must ensure that cooperative strategies are being used. In Mauritius, either it is in Primary or Secondary schools; more focus is paid on teacher-centered classroom rather than student-centered. Therefore, for accounting students who will opt for further studies in Universities or will join the world market, they should possess the knowledge, quality and skill to work in groups. It is because team work is required in almost every universities and work place. Hence, in every classroom, especially in accounting teachers must structure lessons so that students work co operatively in small groups, ensuring that all members master the assigned material. Restructuring the classroom using one of the many cooperative learning models represents a major departure from the traditional classroom setting. In Mauritius it can be clearly noted that there are a competitive situations in classroom. Students only aim is to compete with each other for grades, they work against each other to attain a goal that is getting the highest mark. Therefore this lead to a competitive or individualistic classroom environment, but studies have shown that working in groups lead to significant positive effects on the learning of the students ( Johnson Johnson, 1989; Johnson, Johnson and Smith, 1981, 1991; Johnson et. al. 1981; Qin, Johnson, Johnson, 1995). 2.8 Criticism of Group Work It is believed that to avoid drawbacks of this particular teaching strategy, it is of the essence to recognize what has been said against it. Many researchers have proved that cooperative elements alone do not ensure maximal productivity from a learning group; there has to be both cooperation and conflict (Iganaki Hatano, 1986, Tjosvold Johnson, 1978, Worchel McCormick, 1963). To be more precise, group work practices have been criticized as being ineffective (Alexander, Rose Woodhead, 1992). It is because many problems like conflicts of ideas, disagreements, misunderstanding and free riders can be found during the processes of the strategy. On the word of D.Johnson, R.Johnson and A.Smith (1990), it has been viewed that when students interact conflicts among their ideas, conclusions, theories, information, views, opinions and preferences are obvious. Furthermore, Cohen (1996) stressed upon the fact that, Disagreements about ideas is a healthy sign during group work as long as intellectual disagreement does not degenerate into sharp interpersonal conflict. As said by Ames (1984) when cooperative groups fail, there is the tendency to fix blame on others and the weaker group members become the scapegoat. Therefore, misunderstanding might rise up. There are still some cases where pupils, even in small groups, tend to be silent participants and depend on the thinking of other students. Previous studies by Galton et al. (1980) and Bennet (1987) have shown that, whilst children in classrooms may be seen sitting in groups; closer observation proves that their mode of working is rarely collaborative. Free-rider is a familiar problem in group work. In a study by Per Ola BÃ ¶rjesson et al. named Free-riding in Group Work Mechanisms and Countermeasures, free-riding in group work has been described when one or several members of a group contribute so little to a group project that if the same grade is given to all members of the group, the grade would be misleading and unfair. Hence, this is ascertained that such problem is inevitable. Although many studies have shown that both low and high ability students tend to benefit from cooperative learning, the question of whether the experience of working in group will be of value in terms of creating a pleasant environment which will lead students in achieving academically is remained to be answered. Occasionally, random or special interest teams could be formed to maximize student talents or meet a specific student need (Kagan, 1994). It was certainly understandable Jerome Bruner wrote The single most characteristic thing about human beings is that they learn (1967: 113). The review of the cooperative learning literature is structured around six themes. The first theme aims to provide a theoretical frame of learning underpinning the use of group work as learning and teaching strategy in education in general. The second theme focuses on the rationale for the use of group work in Accounting. Vital in a discussion about group work in accounting education are the group work experiences and views of learners and educators as discussed in studies about group work these make up the third and fourth theme respectively. The review then examines suggestions put forward in the literature regarding ways to overcome some of the challenges associated with group work. The last theme focuses on the influence of task design on group work and suggests that good design can contribute to addressing a number of group work challenges. Use of collaborative learning in general collaborative learning Use of group work in accounting Group work experiences and views of learners as discussed in previous studies Overcome some challenges Task to design group work There have also been criticisms of this pedagogic approach, Holt et al (1997) council against its indiscriminate use. They note the complex relationship between individual, competitive and collaborative behaviours. Holt also stresses that all costs and benefits, particularly to the students, must be weighed. Further noting that time, in particular, is a very scarce resource for students. Evaluation has been carried out on the effectiveness of group work in accounting education for meeting the desired learning outcomes (Caldwell et al 1996; Ravenscroft et al 1997, Berry, 1993). Berry expresses concerns similar to those above about theconflict between individual and collaborative behaviours in this context. The effect of cooperative learning has been measured using student examination performance Ciccotello et al (1997). observed that students exposed to cooperative learning outperformed students taught by individual problem solving sessions on a managerial accounting course. Several papers report on the implementation and operational issues arising from the use of group work in accounting (Cottell et al, 1992; Cottell et al 1993; Peek et al, 1995). Referring back to the Group work in accouting that cooperative learning as a student-focussed pedagogical approach provides educational satisfaction (Norman et al., 2004) in creating a positive learning engagement for most students studying International Accounting and in developing their interpersonal, professional and written communication skills. Norman, Rose Lehmann (2004) in their extensive review of literature between 1990 and 2003 found the terms collaboration and cooperative learning were used interchangeably in many international accounting journals and elsewhere.

Babbage Charles :: Essays Papers

Babbage Charles Charles Babbage was born at Walworth, Surrey England in December 26,1791. He achieved many great feats and belonged to many very distinguished groups before he died in October 18, 1871. Many people consider him to be the grandfather of computer science due to his great works with his Difference Engine (1821), which printed tables of polynomials, and his Analytical Engine (1856), which was intended as a general symbol manipulator. Babbage grew up with a fascination with the way mechanical objects worked and was an excellent mathematician. This was discovered at an early age when he employed a tutor only to find out he knew more about math than the tutor did. He was home schooled for most of his early education mainly on account of his invalid health. Babbage eventually enrolled in Cambridge University in 1810, an institution where he would later hold the position of Lucasian chair of mathematics from 1828 to 1839. He was involved in many different fields of science. He was the first person to be presented the Gold Medal award given by the Astronomical Society, and a key figure in the founding of the Astronomical Society in 1820, the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1831, and the Statistical Society of London in 1834. He authored the very influential book On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures, as well as a series of papers on varied topics such as optics and cryptology. Charles Babbage had a fascination with numbers and statistics. He was obsessed with quantifying everything observable in nature. Babbage delighted in the thought of having a daily account of food consumed by zoo animals, or the "proportion of sexes amongst our poultry". He proposed tables to calculate the amount of wood (elm or oak) a man would saw in 10 hours, or how much an ox or camel could plow or mow in a day. In Mechanics Magazine in 1857 Babbage published a "Table of the Relative Frequency of the Causes of Breaking of Plate Glass Windows" detailing 464 breakages, of which "drunken men, women, or boys" were responsible for 14. Babbage thought the table would be "of value in many respects", and might "induce others to furnish more extensive collections of similar and related facts". In Babbage’s early years he was a popular and well-liked socialite. In fact, he was known for extravagant dinner parties where many famous and prominent people would be in attendance.

Managerial Role Essay

Even though the employees are the prime workers in any organisations managers have to manage their employees and even he has to manage the external atmosphere at and around the organisation to run the organisation in an admirable path and their by achieving the predetermined goals. Here I would like to present the manager’s job in an organisation with an example of an interview and with my research work. I took an interview from a manager of software Solutions Company a small scale information technology based company in Australia. hile interviewing him we come across some of the important qualities of a manager According to him a manager should have a good academic qualifications like a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in any of the administrative fields, unless and until if a manager have a good academics he may not be able to solve academic problems in his company. He should also have good communicative skills and interactive skills, marketing ability, managing the customers and a good personality. R. W. Griffin defines manager as a person who first of all is responsible for realization of management process. In particular manager is â€Å"the person, that makes plans and decisions, organizes, supervises and controls human, finance and information resources† (Griffin 2000). I totally agree to the above statements as they said a manager should have a good academic qualification and he even should have a good personality to operate all the above mentioned functions. Unless a manager possesses them he/she can’t keep his company in a better position. He also stated that he has to interact with many people in his day to day life as his company is an IT based company deals with the problems in the technological aspects in hardware and software. He should have proper capability to face many new customers in his day to day life and to a lot his employees for the solution of the customers’ problem. He should attend the customer in his own office or at other private places in favour of customers’ flexibility. He has to take care of his employees, the resources he is utilizing, the marketing staff, more important the customers who are their bread and butter. Doing this he has to keep an eye on the technical advances in his field and on his competitors. So here I understand that managers’ job is much crucial job in any company and he has to be in up-to-date at things that are happening at and around his company. Many managers attain success by coordinating his/her employee effect, in turn obtaining success to the organisation. He states that in his list of people he has to interact in his everyday life the customers are his prime concern because they the main source of the companies’ income unless a customer satisfied with the employees work, he would not pay the amount. So in this relation I came to know that there exists a mutual benefit relationship between the customer and the company hence it is a good example for reciprocal relationship. â€Å"The needs to better understand customer behaviour and the interest of many managers to focus on those customers who can deliver long-term profits have changed how marketers view the world† (Russell S. Winer). The author says that consumers can change the performance of a market and the running style of an organisation hence a good manager should always keep his eye on such type of consumers. Next comes his employees, a good manager should maintain a good interaction with his employees. According to him â€Å"a good manager should look after their employees and he should be their well-wisher†. He says that a good interaction between a manager and his employees builds up a positive energy in the workplace results in better performance of the employee leading to success of the employee as well as the company. He even said that he will help his employees in various ways like allotting them regular and flexible working hours, monitoring their work, giving feedback whenever necessary and solving their issues regarding their work and in their lives. This shows there exists a reciprocal relationship with in them. He said that he has only 4 regular employees working currently with him and hires others whenever necessary. According to Katuria. M in his article named â€Å"three ways to built successful employee manager relationship† he stated that â€Å"the only relationship more important to an organisation than the ustomer-company relationship is the manager- employee relationship and according to the exit interview the no. 1 reason people leave their job is because of their improper relationship with the manager†. Going through all the above conversation I totally agree to both of them and I strictly believe in good manager- employee relationship which aids in success of the com pany and its employees. â€Å"An organisation grows and evolves new positions are added, senior managers have to find a way to tie all these departments together. Coordination refers to the quality of collaboration across the departments. It is required whether there is a functional, divisional or term structure†. (Draft 2012) this statement explains the most responsible duty of a manager in a growing company. It tells us that in a rapidly growing company the managers play a important role that is he has to do division and interlinking the departments there by forming more and more stronger work unit which helps them in solving more complex problems. When dealing with the suppliers he gave me the information that he is connected to many suppliers in his place and even in the Melbourne. As the company is based on the problems and solutions coming in the information technology, they have to be provided with plenty of resources. They need various types of computer spare parts, softwares and many advanced features which were been provided to them by many suppling companies. Even they dealings with vast companies like Harvey Norman etc. He explained me the advantages and disadvantages of maintaining such large groups of suppliers. Ha stated that trust is the main factor that works between suppliers and the company administrator. Many transactions run based on the trust philosophy only. Unless they trust a supplier and use their products they can’t run the company in some situations. I support this statement that trust is the main part of the business. I can state that trust should exist not only between a supplier and the management but also at all the levels in the business sector that is it should be in between the consumer-organisation-supplier. â€Å"Supplier Relationship Management is an all-inclusive approach to managing the affairs and interactions with the organizations that supply your company with goods and services. This includes communications, business practices, negotiations, methodologies and software that are used to establish and maintain a relationship with a supplier. Benefits include lower costs, higher quality, better forecasting and less tension between the two entities that result in a win-win relationship† (Bucki. j). The author explains us that for any company the supplier management relation should be in such a way that there is a benefit from both the sides and the tools were developed to reduce the work related problems between the supplier and the managers in the company who look after all these raw materials. I totally believe with the above discussions because unless there is an adequate amount of raw materials for a company they cannot reach the level of customer satisfaction which is their main goal and the supplier also has to be loyal to the company and supply the raw materials in time there by maintaining a mutual benefit relationship between them. The next I am going to discuss the other important environmental factor the labour market. In this case as the manager already stated that he hires the employees whenever he needs, in explanation to this he gave me the information that when his regular staff are not sufficient to complete a task which was assigned to them he hires some of the software professionals from the employment centres for a shorter period of time and assigns them to work with his regular employees. Without strategic planning it is unlikely that any organisation will be able to meet successfully numerous challenges that face them† (Bryson. j. m). This shows that planning and organisation is the main crucial duties of a manager. Manager has to plan the project prior to its start and distribute the work to his employees accordingly. If a manager fails to perform this step in his level he/she may not be able to reach the target level and fails in leading the organisation and its staff. Finally for an organisation to run in the way of profits and to sustain in this present competitive word the manager has to look after many types of environmental factors some of them which are prime concerned are discussed above the other factors which influence the organisation are Technology, Natural, Sociocultural, Economic, Legal, Political, International (all of these come under external environment) and Culture management. (Draft, R. L) in my opinion manager should have the capability in controlling all these environmental factors. This company having limited employees and being a small scale company the external environmental factors may not have such a great influence. Among them only the technology has a powerful impact because it is purely a software solution company so the employees and the manager should beware of the changing trends in the technology and should be in up to date daily. Recommendations: Keeping in mind the whole interview and with my research I would like to recommend some changes this organisation should implement for better progress they are 1. Increase the employee work ratio. 2. Use of the labour market for hiring the employees should be stopped because the information in the company regarding the projects and codes should be within the company. 3. Instead of hiring the employees from the outside try to increase the regular employees which helping him in planning the work and confidentiality 4. Being a software company I think he should organise some conferences such that his employee will get more latest technical skills 5. As the work hours were longer during the day he has to create work life balance to his employees and for him he. 6. Customer satisfaction should be increased to transform this to a large scale company. Conclusion: Finally I conclude that the environmental factors influence on any organisation is very much crucial and the managerial staff any company should keep an eye on it in order to run the organisation in an admirable way. Various people who are in close relation to the organisation should work together for the mutual benefit of the organisation as well as them.

Arguements For Gun Control Essay - 1325 Words

The violence in today’s world, has become ordinary and common. This violence causes a staggering number of deaths and injuries throughout the world. The main weapon used to engage in violence is the gun. That’s why I want a strict gun control policy that would nearly abolish guns and make the world a safer place. This policy would make it impossible to buy guns and would only allow hunters to â€Å"rent† guns. By doing this, violence, related to guns, would greatly and rapidly decrease. On April 20th, 1999, 2 friends from Columbine, Colorado came to school. They had a diabolical plan to try and kill as many people as possible. They were well prepared and had thought out their plan carefully. Together they had 4 guns with them when they began†¦show more content†¦Another big issue is children and teens getting hurt or killed with guns. One reason why Columbine was so big was because of the killing of so many harmless teenagers. It breaks the hearts of Americans when a child or teenager gets killed by a gun. For example, in a poll done by The Philadelphia Inquirer, 1 out of 5 adults knows or knew a child who was shot by another child, and 12% of adults knows or knew and child who accidentally shot themselves. In another study by â€Å"ABCNEWS.com†, an estimated 34,000 people die of gun related deaths every year. In that same study it says that around 13 children are killed daily, guns kill teenage boys annually than any other cause, and teenagers are twice as likely to commit suicide with a gun accessible to them. All of this has become too common and accepted by today’s world. More often we are seeing gun locks and gun cases, preventing children from playing with the guns. This is a big step in prevent deaths among kids but it won’t be big enough until children are totally safe from finding a loaded gun and decide to play it. 13 children a day is way too many, 1 is too many let alone 13 children. 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This led to all sorts of fights and arguements with each other, and I used to get yelled at and slapped around too. Consequently, by the time I was in elementary school, I myself became a bully. But was it really my fault? I had very little concept of morality, due to my upbringing. I was