English homework help...what's a paradigm?

[melk]

DH is taking some courses through work towards a degree and had to take English Comp.I (no, he is not happy! ). Anyway, this week's assignment is to write a paradigm about his work. He said his teacher described it as a contrast. I looked it up in the dictionary and it said an example. He is confused as to what this paper should be about. Any help would certainly be appreciated! (Can you tell we've been out of school for 15+ years??? )

 

[TennVolTony]

Isn't that like....2 shovels?? Pair-a-digem??

 

[snoopy]

Hmmmm, well, I can tell you what a paradigm is from a corporate world standpoint.

A paradigm is a pattern of thought, or possibly a habit (the way we've always done it, so its right!). Having paradigms is a real no-no around the corporate world, one is supposed to not let their paradigms stand in the way of moving forward.

I guess a better way to describe it would be a train of thought that does not allow you to open your mind to other possibilities.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Any help here, melk??

http://www.powa.org/

 

[tkd lisa]

It's a difficult thing to define. Sometimes it's a stereotype (like women can't be strong enough to be ......fill in the blank....) but it's often more like business as usual. For example, say your business has a normal practice that all purchase orders have to be signed in hard copy. Breaking the paradigm would be to authorize "electronic" signatures for that process.

Hope this helps!

 

[Pooh Girl 71]

Boy this is all we've been talking about in my Multicultural Counseling class!

The others gave some good examples. We watched a video about changing paradigms. It was essentially about changing your viewpoint on something. The opposite of a paradigm would be "thinking outside the box".