What Is the Learning Paradigm?
At least since Terry O’Banion’s 1999 article merged concern for learner and learning, it is probably best to consider that the Learning Paradigm includes the so-called Teaching Paradigm. The best faculty move comfortably and seamlessly from one set of practices to another, depending on their students’ characteristics, motivation, abilities. This assumption accounts for the “not only…but also” structure of the statements below, which are an attempt to summarize the Learning Paradigm. Although this articles focuses on faculty planning for their courses, the Learning Paradigm is first and foremost a movement of more than a decade old aimed at changing how colleges and universities respond as institutions to individual students. As Barr and Tagg suggest, “In other words, the Learning Paradigm envisions the institution itself as a learnerover time, it continuously learns how to produce more learning with each graduating class, each entering student.
