Old and New Paradigm in Education

Today´s education is based on different kinds of paradigms. When we listen to the terms old paradigm and new paradigm what we can understand about them. these two terms have some biggest differences. In which way they vary? In order to give you some answers, we are going to write about them.


The old paradigm in education can be defined by some factors. the first one is the knowledge. it is transferring from teacher to student. Teachers know everything and student just listen to him. Because of that, the students are passive cups to be filled by faculty’s knowledge. And also, they are classified by their marks. according to relationships in the classroom (student-student, teacher-student, i can say that it is impersonal. Another factor is the context, in the old school, the context is based on competition and promote the individualism. and finally, the teachers must be a mastery of their subject and obviously contents.


On the other hand, the new paradigm is totally different, in all of factors. For example, the knowledge is constructed by the students and the teacher. For that reason the students is a constructor, discoverer and transformer of own learning. The purpose is not just getting a good mark but it is developed competences according to their abilities. Learning is a personal transaction among students and between teachers and students as they work together. Ignoring the context of competition and focuses on the cooperation between students. Teaching is assumed to be a complex application of theory and research that requires considerable teacher training and continuous refinement of skills and procedures (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 1998).


The differences are evident and make us think about what paradigm we want to use for teaching. Because we can not stay in the old school. We must make a change in education systems.