Traditional Paradigm

Emerging Paradigm

Emphasis on teaching

Emphasis on learning

Emphasis on parts

Emphasis on the whole

Isolated knowledge and skills

Integrated knowledge and skills

Student as passive recipient

Student as active constructor of meaning

Teacher as information giver

Teacher as co-learner & facilitator

Limited view of intelligence

Teaching to multiple learning styles

Sorting and weeding out of students

Equal access to instruction and content for all

Learning as an individual activity

Learning as a social activity – collaboration enhances learning

Only teacher-directed learning

Also student-directed learning

Homogeneous grouping

Heterogeneous learning

Emphasis on product and content

Emphasis on process, metacognition – learning how to learn

Primary emphasis on form

Primary emphasis on meaning

Learning decontextualized

Learning grounded in "real world" contexts

Language as separate skill – covered only in L. A. {English]

Reading, writing, thinking, communicating across the curriculum

One-answer – one way, correctness

Open-ended, non-routine multiple solutions

Western bias

Multicultural, global views

Criteria, goals, given by teacher; not explicit or public before instruction

Shared development of goals and criteria for performance

Test that test

Tests that teach