Paradigm Shift
Quick reference
Six paradigm shifts in teaching
| From | To |
|---|---|
| Things | People |
| Product | Process |
| Teacher | Student |
| Standardising | Managing diversity |
| Replication | Inspiration |
| Controlling | Managing change and uncertainty |
Three loops of learning
| Loop | What it does |
|---|---|
| Single-loop | Follow rules better; fix deviations |
| Double-loop | Question whether the rules themselves should change |
| Triple-loop | Learn how we learn; search for meaning |
A paradigm shift is bigger than a new method or even a new concept. It is a change in the underlying set of concepts that the teacher uses to understand the whole job. The reflective practitioner sits in the middle of several such shifts that have moved through education over the past few decades.
Six shifts that mark the new paradigm
The new paradigm for the reflective teacher involves a set of related moves. Each one is a shift in what counts as the centre of the work.
From things to people
The older paradigm centred on objects: textbooks, syllabi, equipment, classroom layouts. The newer paradigm centres on the people in the room. The same textbook in front of two different students produces two different lessons. Teaching is now a relational activity, not a delivery of objects.
From product to process
The older paradigm asked what the student produced at the end. A finished assignment. A test score. The newer paradigm asks how the learning happens, what process the student went through, and what the process tells us about how to teach next time.
From teacher to student
The older paradigm saw the teacher as the active agent and the student as the recipient. The newer paradigm sees the student as the agent of their own learning, with the teacher as the designer of conditions for that agency to operate.
From standardising to managing diversity
The older paradigm treated diversity as a problem to be flattened. Same lesson, same pace, same assessment. The newer paradigm treats diversity as the starting condition. The teacher’s job is to design for it, not to suppress it.
From replication to inspiration
The older paradigm valued the lesson that could be repeated identically the next year and the year after. The newer paradigm values lessons that respond to the actual class in front of the teacher and that move students to think for themselves.
From controlling to managing change and uncertainty
The older paradigm gave the teacher tight control of the lesson and tried to remove uncertainty. The newer paradigm accepts that real classrooms are uncertain and treats managing that uncertainty as part of the skill, not a failure of preparation.
These six shifts are not the only ones. They are common in writing about reflective teacher development, and they often appear together.
What a paradigm shift produces
A paradigm shift brings new concepts, new questions, and new ways of working. For the reflective practitioner, three results follow.
- New understanding leads to a paradigm shift. Conceptual innovation in many small areas eventually adds up to a change in the whole frame.
- The paradigm shift produces emergent knowing. Knowledge that was not available before becomes available, because the new frame asks questions that the old frame could not.
- Different kinds of learning become possible. This last point connects to the three loops of learning.
Three loops of learning
A useful way to picture the depth of learning is to think of loops. Each deeper loop questions more of what was previously taken for granted.
Single-loop learning
Single-loop learning sits inside the existing rules. The learner notices a deviation from the expected outcome and corrects the action.
It uses rigid strategies. Time goes into detecting and correcting deviations from the rules. The rules themselves are not in question.
A teacher in single-loop mode notices that students did not finish the worksheet on time and adjusts the time given. The worksheet, the topic, the goal, and the method stay the same.
Double-loop learning
Double-loop learning questions the rules themselves. It asks whether the rules need to change.
It requires thinking outside the box. The teacher reflects not only on whether the action followed the rule but on whether the rule was right in the first place.
A teacher in double-loop mode notices that students did not finish the worksheet and asks why a worksheet was the right tool for this objective at all. Maybe the worksheet design assumes a kind of attention these students do not have. The fix may be to abandon the worksheet, not just to give more time.
Triple-loop learning
Triple-loop learning is learning about learning itself. It asks how we know what we know, what process is producing our beliefs, and whether that process is sound.
It is a search for meaning and understanding rather than a search for solutions to specific problems.
A teacher in triple-loop mode notices that they have been picking the same kind of teaching task for years, asks why their thinking keeps producing similar choices, and examines the assumptions that drive their planning at a deep level.
Single: follow the rules better. Double: change the rules. Triple: examine how we learn at all.
Single-loop fixes deviations within existing rules. Double-loop asks whether the rules themselves should change and requires thinking outside the box. Triple-loop is learning about learning, searching for the meaning and assumptions behind our patterns of action.
How the loops relate to the paradigm shifts
The two ideas connect. The shifts described earlier are mostly the result of double-loop and triple-loop learning across a profession over time.
Single-loop learning, on its own, cannot move from the old paradigm to the new one. It can only run the old paradigm more efficiently. To get from “controlling” to “managing change”, or from “standardising” to “managing diversity”, the rules themselves have to be questioned.
This is why a teacher who only does single-loop learning gets better at the old paradigm and stays trapped inside it.