Effect of Cohabitation on Marriage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Effect of Cohabitation on Marriage - Essay Example A number of evidences support these arguments for cohabitation and they were promptly included. Formal marriage is the traditional form of union in the United States, and certainly the most common. This trend, however, is slowly being displaced as more and more adults enter into informal cohabitational unions. (Brown et al. 2005, p. 3) A number of research has shown that these cohabitational relationships are formed initially, lasting with a half-life of only about one year and the majority of the unions proceeding to marriages. (Laumann et al., p. 205) With this initial fact, the aim of this paper is to argue that cohabitation for adults have good effects on marriage, improving the odds for the eventual happy relationship which could lead to a lower risk of divorce. Fundamentally, I believe that premarital cohabitation is a good preparation for marriage before entering into a lifelong contract and acquiring shared responsibility of parenting. The main advantage of premarital cohabitation is that it allows couples to learn more about each other, particularly about ones habits and idiosyncrasies and hence, mature in their relationship. According to Janell Caroll (2009), this setup allows partners to smoothen the rough spots in their relationship and see whether they would be able to take their relationship to the next level. (p. 224) In this context, one sees that cohabitation is a transitional stage – one that is between the stage of being single and marriage. It allows partners to have intimate co-residential union and other similarities to married life without the social and legal contract that bind marriage. It recognizes, wrote Thornton, Axinn and, Xie (2007), the contemporary norms about sex and living arrangements in America and provide an alternative for a single man and woman who find themselves in love and wanting to share each other’s lives more fully before marriage by starting to

Personal reflection on learning Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Personal reflection on learning - Term Paper Example This paper explores my reflection on this particular aspect. The traditional method of teaching, which calls for a passive role from the part of the learners, has already been outdated and no longer considered the norm or the standard for best teaching practices. What this means is that in the classroom setting such as in my Marketing class, students are expected to participate and be part of the learning process. Gone were the days when learners wait to be spoon-fed with the subject's contents. That is widely accepted as ineffective. There are evidences that could attest to this fact and that the conventional demagoguery has been exchanged for the current more progressive approach in a logical progression of evolution in education. The prevailing idea is that learning should be experiential. The student, together with the teacher, explores and discovers concept and issues, which underpins a framework that is both engaging and effective especially in terms of achieving learning objec tives. Learning a marketing concept, for instance, is not about the assimilation of a conceptual explanation of the teacher but the assimilation through the discovery of such concept, as facilitated by the instructor. This is particularly more pronounced in the case of teaching or learning the marketing field. Marketing is all about relationships; it is all about persuasion, information and experience. Our class learned this indirectly by simulating those processes. Such simulation could not have transpired without the contribution of each student. For example, in doing activities like group works, I discovered that being able to play assigned tasks and roles are crucial in achieving positive learning outcomes. First, there was the structure: we assign leaders and followers. Then, there was the negotiation. Say, I provide some inputs why this student will be better in this task or this role, so the assignments are revised. Because of respect for other people’s opinion, we wer e able to avoid conflicts that could have resulted to poor outcome. Instead, we effectively harnessed diverse perspectives. So it is imperative for students learning this field to be able to navigate through the learning issues and the socialization process involved and should not entirely rely on the source of knowledge or of an expertise. I also would like to cite the benefit of being curious. This worked for me especially when students are encouraged to ask questions, engage in a dialogue and discuss issues. There are times when lectures could be so silent, however participative the teacher encourages it to be. Then I ask a question or raise something thought provoking. And it contributes to making the discussion livelier and more engaging. Other students also do this and I found that we could only ask and raise issues, and participate better if we came to school prepared or knowledgeable. If I assumed a passive position in the learning process, I would have contributed nothing t o the manner by which knowledge is gained and internalized. More importantly, I would have encouraged an ineffectual learning environment. I would like to cite a theory we have learned as an example. The law of supply and demand is a pretty straightforward concept we have learned and a notion that is widely