Distance Education in Transition - Master of Distance Education ...

The Educational Paradigm Shifts
professors in our tradition-bound universities and have caused them to produce CD-
ROMs carrying their lectures. These technical innovations alone would not have induced
governments to invest money for the application of these new technical media in
schools and universities alike. Nor would it have caused so many experts to look into
the future of university education in order to design possible scenarios structured in
quite a new way. In fact, looking closer at the phenomenon we certainly become aware
of a great number of paradigm shifts which have driven us into the situation we are in
today. They can be identified in the economic, social, political and cultural prerequisites
or conditions of education already as well as in the very important field of curriculum
development and in the very process of learning and teaching. I should like to refer to
these three fields in order to clarify my thesis.
Socio-Economic Conditions of Education
According to a Task Force of the International Council for Open and Distance Education
(Hall, 1996) there were more than 20 changes which have caused educational paradigm
shifts. The following have been detected:
� A definite shift from the education of children and juveniles to the education of
adults. The much-propagated concept of lifelong learning is the result of this shift,
which gave rise to continuing education.
� An overwhelming shift from the admission of relatively restricted numbers of
students to very large numbers of students. This can be best exemplified by the
emergence of open schools and open universities, of mega-universities and by the
trend toward mass higher education. More and more an elitist paradigm is being
substituted by an egalitarian one.
� A shift in the age and status of students. Many are older, some are senior citizens,
most of them work for a living, and many of them have children and are married.
� A shift from the university as an autonomous and self-sufficient institution towards
an institution co-operating with industry. Public-private projects are at a premium.
� A shift of emphasis with regard to the goals of education. Whereas the traditional
university provided a more general and all-round education, even in professional
training, because this was usually of general educational value, university education
became more and more specific and specialised in order to meet professional
requirements.
� A shift in the meaning of university education. Previously it was only a preparation
for professional careers, but now it is beginning to be an important asset of a
person in his or her struggle for social survival. The links between the length and
quality of a person's education and his or her acquired social status are well known.
But now the length of schooling is becoming an important indicator with regard to
employment and unemployment.
� A general shift of the function of education in industrialised countries. There have
been three production factors: physical power, capital power, and mind power. Mind
power is now assuming quite a new degree of importance because it is successfully
in the process of replacing physical power. Education, however, produces mind
power and increases the value of human capital. It has become a basic resource
for developing and maintaining national industries, especially in order to make
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