FROM TEACHING TO LEARNING--A NEW PARADIGM FOR 从教学的学习——一个新范式.doc

FROM TEACHING TO LEARNING--A NEW PARADIGM FOR UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION By ROBERT B. BARR AND JOHN TAGG Robert B. Barr is director of institutional research and planning and John Tagg is associate professor of English at Palomar College, San Marcos, California. The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. ALBERT EINSTEIN A paradigm shift is taking hold in American higher education. In its briefest form, the paradigm that has governed our colleges is this: A college is an institution that exists to provide instruction. Subtly but profoundly we are shifting to a new paradigm: A college is an institution that exists to produce learning. This shift changes everything. It is both needed and wanted. We call the traditional, dominant paradigm the Instruction Paradigm. Under it, colleges have created complex structures to provide for the activity of teaching conceived primarily as delivering 50-minute lectures--the mission of a college is to deliver instruction. Now, however, we are beginning to recognize that our dominant paradigm mistakes a means for an end. It takes the means or method--called instruction or teaching--and makes it the colleges end or purpose. To say that the purpose of colleges is to provide instruction is like saying that General Motors business is to operate assembly lines or that the purpose of medical care is to fill hospital beds. We now see that our mission is not instruction but rather that of producing learning with every student by whatever means work best. The shift to a Learning Paradigm liberates institutions from a set of difficult constraints. Today it is virtually impossible for them to respond effectively to the challenge of stable or declining budgets while meeting the increasing demand for postsecondary education from increasingly diverse students. Under the logic of the Instruction Paradigm, colleges suffer from a serious design flaw: it is not possible to increase