Old Paradigm Definitions |
New Paradigm Definitions |
||
| student | someone who learns at the direction of another usually in the context of a directed course and defined curriculum | learner | someone who learns through the process of living, realizing that life is about learning through noticing what is happening in experience and making improvements and changes to increase the quality of one's life in relationship with others |
| teacher | an adult that is assigned to "teach" a student a given course or curriculum, usually within a classroom context | learning consultant | an individual who is chosen by a learner to enter into a mutually agreed relationship focused on a learning process that is meaningful to both |
| mentor | an individual who is chosen by a learner to enter into a learning relationship whereby the mentor demonstrates excellence in some field that the mentor is willing to have the learner model | ||
| school |
a building where students are assigned to classrooms, teachers and courses and where teachers are hired by the government to deliver to the students a government prescribed
curriculum
the model for modern schooling an industrial metaphor using the assembly-line for efficiency of production |
learning community |
ultimately both a global and an experiential context that is not defined by time and space as much as it is defined by the quality of interaction between people a context of intimate friendly interactions facilitating mutual learning and growth |
| learning relationship | is a mutually chosen and mutually beneficial relationship between any two or more people that can take place face to face or occur over various communication and information media | ||
| curriculum | a course, usually a written text that is followed from beginning to end within a defined timeframe | curriculum | a process of ongoing and lifelong living, where the experience of an individual is one's curriculum |
| learning | a formal task of remembering rote information based on a taught curriculum prescribed by a government
|
learning | an informal heuristic process that emerges from living and the natural desire of an individual to engage with and understand oneself in the world |
| evaluation | external measurement through the testing of one's ability to memorize the facts and content from course material | evaluation | a subjective and interpretive analysis of a comprehensive set of results relevant to the kind of skills and tasks learned o a documented conversation between learner and mentor whereby the understanding of the learner is evaluated in comparison to the stated goal or plan relevant to comprehensive criteria of excellence in the field |
| success | a set of grades based on an arbitrary criteria of comparative success of entire group in achieving passing marks on a given set of tests | success | an agreement between mentor and learner that the goal of a chosen task, as defined and understood by both, has been achieved to a standard of proficiency appropriate for the task |
| Model |
Public Schooling |
Natural Learning |
(Old Paradigm) |
(New Paradigm) |
|
| factory and worker (industrial) | family, community (traditional) | |
| Scale |
large, with 20 to 40 children in each classroom and from 300 to 3000 in each building
parents are only occasionally involved in a local process that is controlled by a centralized government bureaucracy |
small with 10 to 12 children in a group in a building (house)
community of 20 to 24 parents, 1 learning consultant and up to 12 mentors per group high school equivalent program up to 144 students (12 x 12) integrated, networked groups |
| Learning Mode |
teacher directed
subject based children learn facts and are tested in memorization and ability to represent details |
enthusiasm based Natural Learning, project-based tasks,
entrepreneurial, local relevance children imitate experts directly through modeling |
| Expression | paper and pencil, auditory | experiential, interpersonal, electronic, relational |
| Basic Peer Relationship | competitive (win / lose) | cooperative (win / win) |
| Learner/Educator Relationship | teacher, who has subject knowledge, transmit details to students in classroom setting |
learning consultant is a mentor to learners in community setting
acts as an advisor to learner in designing an optimum, personally relevant, lifelong learning process |
| Rewards and Motivation | extrinsic - grades are assigned to measurable behaviors that are managed by educators to maintain motivation collectively and incrementally | intrinsic - integrated with realization of self-generated goals relevant to interests associated with curiosity and a need to know and understand |
| Learning Objectives | government controlled with performance reduced to measurable criteria (test scores) |
created by children in consultation with the Learning Consultant, with guidance from parents and
mentors
objectives are self-expressed, generated and evaluated |
| Educator Skills |
subject specialist
classroom management skills lecturing skills information delivery and testing |
thinking process specialist
cooperative communication skills subject generalist skills in modeling the learning process and in managing family and group process point of view flexibility skills entrepreneur and management skills |
| Organization | hierarchy emphasizing authority |
horizontal emphasizing equality
ungraded, 8 to 12 year long term relationship with Learning Consultant |
| Purpose |
to transfer values and beliefs of the culture to the students
to ensure a homogenous knowledge base to establish respect for authority and order |
to support the natural development of individual potential
to provide models of excellence and congruence for children to emulate to provide students with insight into human process and provide a comprehensive and positive model towards global harmony |
| Ethic | rights of majority and authority determine right, and conformity brings opportunity for advancement |
enfranchise the child with equal rights of choice
provide a positive context for individual excellence |
| Curriculum | subject based, predetermined by educational experts intending to provide basic skills and information | experiential, emerging, and generated by enthusiasm to understand by students and mentors in consultation |
| Goal | future potential of job security, economic achievement and citizenship |
fulfillment moment by moment
optimizing the present and living from one's balance |
| Underlying Assumptions |
learning needs to be managed and directed towards social ends
children are lacking knowledge and therefore cannot make informed educational decisions about their own learning process |
learning is a natural process
the human unconscious is a wealth of information about being human natural learning is an unfolding on infinite resources in balance with acquiring information as needed human creativity and love can generate solutions that sustain or create a sense of fulfillment |
| Orientation | closed, limited and directed predetermined outcomes | open opportunity for enhancement through negotiation and mutual discovery |
|
|
Old Paradigm |
New Paradigm |
|
(generalizations include exceptions) |
||
| metaphor |
Industrial - factory model production / profit machine / mechanical absolutist / Newtonian institution - organization focus on external world - things |
Informational
- networking model growth / proportional organism / biological relativistic / Einstein community - family context of internal world - process |
| educational |
instructional prescribed and tested authoritarian / hierarchy culturally determined / citizenship bureaucratic / management |
constructionist emerging and evaluated democracy / consensus self-actualization / individuation heuristic / discovery |
| psychological |
behavioral rational / linear reactive cause and effect fear based / doubt negative language / don't forget separate / objective / fragmented conscious / colonial / dominating |
developmental eidetic / holographic creative relational trust based / love positive language / remember inclusive / subjective / holistic unconscious / ancient / holistic |
| relationship frame |
adult > child (rights) dominance / authority other-deferring / other controlled competitive |
adult = child (rights) ecological / balance self reliant / self design cooperative |
| time frame - process frame |
future oriented outside - towards, not including inside about the world |
present oriented inside - towards and including outside in the world / of the world |
| learning process |
expectation driven content / facts and memorization extrinsic motivation artifacts of behavior coercive learning / reward - punishment |
nurturing context process / events and understanding intrinsic motivation experiential natural learning / enthusiasm |
Brent Cameron M.A.
Wondertree Foundation for Natural Learning
Box 38083, Vancouver, BC, V0B 2C0, Canada
office
(604) 224-3663 cell (604) 831-5200 home (250) 866-5341
www.wondertree.org