Paradigm shifts ideas

Paradigm Shift 1: Universities no longer making SATs, ACTs, or any other exam mandatory for college applications.

• What background knowledge will be most necessary and relevant to your audience about this idea and its history?
  • What are exams?

Exams or examinations are standardized ways to test a student’s knowledge in a particular subject. These tests can come in several forms. They can be individually done or in a group. They can have multiple options, short answers, essays, etc. 

• Who invented exams? 

According to Great Assignment Help, 2022, by Smith, the modern western standardized exam was built by Henry Fischel. However, the idea is much more ancient with traces going back to China in 600 A.D. 

• The reason behind why tests came into place?

Henry Fischel’s idea was that using examination, a student’s understanding of the material could be known and the teacher and the students would get an indicator of whether the course is effective or not. 

• What used to be there before?

“Universities offered places based on recommendations.  If one could impress one’s teachers for a few years, one might be invited to audition for the right to be granted a degree. In medieval universities, for instance, one obtained a degree once one was capable of giving lectures or credibly arguing a particular position in a debate format (the disputatio).” Usher, 2016

• Who are the key players in shaping this idea over time? What are some key moments and texts that changed how people understood this idea?
  • There was no one person behind causing the moment, but in fact it was a pandemic that brought this paradigm shift. During the heights of Covid, many universities made previously required exam scores either optional or not part of their application. They rather used other methods to judge a students thinking like asking analytical and philosophical questions that the student has time until the deadline of the application to write essays on. This way the thinking of the student is straight up seen to the universities, instead of some exam score reflecting it for the student. 

• What makes this idea complicated? What might people misunderstand about this idea if they do not dig deeply into its history, context, or multiple meanings?
  • There is one thing that makes this idea complicated, which is how can a university tell whether it is the student that wrote the essay or someone else wrote it for them? There isn’t any system in place that can make sure of this other than trusting the student. It is also difficult to apply this in the field of mathematics. 
  • Many people misunderstand this as an easy way to get into big universities for students, but all it is doing is removing the test between the university and the student and allowing the university to judge the student directly based on their capabilities.
• What does your audience have to learn from your analysis?
  • It isn’t necessary to think of the first thing that comes to a person’s mind as the best solution. Of course tests seem as the most logical way to check a person’s understanding of a subject, but there are other methods that can do the task also with a more fair standpoint. If a person messes one test up, it doesn’t mean that the student isn’t what the university is looking for. 
• Where might future conversations about this idea be headed?
  • What are ways to make processes other than tests standardized and usable across many platforms and areas where this paradigm shift hasn’t yet occurred. 

 

Paradigm Shift 2: Rise of veganism in the U.S.

• What background knowledge will be most necessary and relevant to your audience about this idea and its history?
  • What is veganism?

It is a diet in which animal and animal products are both prohibited. 

• • The U.S is the third largest meat consumer in the world according to an article by Peter, a reporter at Atlas and Boots, 2019. 
  • According to a New York Times article by Lisa Friedman, Kendra Pierre-Louis and Somini Sengupta, 2018,  the meat industry in the U.S is responsible for 42% of the carbon emission in the agriculture sector. 
  • According to Gordon, an author at Atmos, 2021, the modern wave of veganism is quite old in the U.S, with the moment starting with the formation of the Vegan Society in 1951. 
  • Who are the key players in shaping this idea over time? What are some key moments and texts that changed how people understood this idea?
  • According to an article by Pointing, an author at Live Kindly, though the wave itself started with the Vegan Society, its real push through came in with new innovations in making vegan food, rise in awareness about the climate and environment, and unethicality behind the meat industry.
• What makes this idea complicated? What might people misunderstand about this idea if they do not dig deeply into its history, context, or multiple meanings?
  • What makes this idea complicated is the sudden change in diet. For many it is impossible to let go of eating meat, not even because of health reasons, but simply because they are too used to it. It would be difficult to bring a psychological change that can trigger a person to willingly quit on meat. 
  • People misunderstand this movement as just a personal choice if they don’t look into the reasons why people change their diets. People aren’t just becoming vegetarians and vegans because it is a new trend, but because of the harmful impacts that the meat industry has on the society and the environment it is in. 

• What does your audience have to learn from your analysis?
  • The background behind the vegan movement is much older than people think and that there are many reasons that make this movement a sort of necessity to reduce carbon emissions from the agriculture sector. 

• Where might future conversations about this idea be headed?
  • How can we make the transition from meat to veganism as easy as possible for people with new innovations and technology? 

 

Paradigm Shift 3: Change from physical shopping to online shopping

• What background knowledge will be most necessary and relevant to your audience about this idea and its history?
  • What is online shopping? 

It is purchasing or selling a good or service virtually through the internet. Buying and selling online is called Ecommerce.

• When did it start?

According to Miva, 2020, “Online shopping was pioneered in 1979 by entrepreneur Michael Aldrich in the United Kingdom. Aldrich was able to connect a modified domestic television to a real-time multi-user transaction processing computer via a telephone line. The system was marketed in 1980 and offered as business-to-business systems that were then sold in the UK, Ireland, and Spain.”

• Currently the largest ecommerce companies are: Amazon, Alibaba, and Mietuan according to The Global Ranking.
• Who are the key players in shaping this idea over time? What are some key moments and texts that changed how people understood this idea?
• • The biggest boom in online shopping came in thanks to Amazon and its large ecosystem which made delivery of packages to home much safer and economical. 
  • The Covid pandemic which started in 2019 up to now also started to make transactions much more virtual to avoid the spread of the virus. 

• What makes this idea complicated? What might people misunderstand about this idea if they do not dig deeply into its history, context, or multiple meanings?
  • Though online shopping does offer a lot of convenience and in some cases due to price competitiveness on the platforms even a cheaper price, it does lead to absurdly large companies with monopolistic behaviors that can harm the consumer in the end. 
  • It also leads to loss of jobs for many retail store owners.
  • Pulls us away from everyday social interactions to isolated lifestyles. 

• What does your audience have to learn from your analysis?
  • Though the paradigm shift does come with its benefits, there are several losses to the process as well. From an economic standpoint it might just seem as another breakthrough, but this breakthrough does have some societal consequences. 

• Where might future conversations about this idea be headed?
  • Where is the right balance between online shopping and physical shopping so that online shopping is simply a tool for us and not a change in our whole lifestyle as social beings.