To ask an odd question about degree learning...

[DilemmaDelilah]

First of all - I am autistic so I don't necessarily think the same way as everyone else and I get very anxious if I don't understand things
Secondly - I went into my degree as a mature student, having done an HND at a local FE college which counted as the first 2 years of my degree, so just did the final year at University, so I didn't have the benefit of the previous 2 years of university level education. (I was top of my year with Distinctions in every subject, so not stupid).

My question is - was it odd that I asked what a certain sentence meant in one of my first lectures in university? Most, if not all, of the other students had probably come across it in their first two years at university, but the FE college I was at used fairly dumbed down language I think and the HND is very much more of a practical rather than a theoretical way of studying so it wasn't something I had come across before. The sentence was about 'changing paradigms'. I had no idea what a paradigm was, so I asked. Was that a weird thing to do? It was 25 years ago now, so no point in worrying about it... I just wondered.

I am a nurse and I hate the word paradigm, constantly thrown into nursing study... I still don't have a scooby what it means

I'm a lecturer. I asked when I started when it came up in a workshop. I think my research based colleague was horrified and thought I was stupid. It's academic language. It has it's place but it's understandable in your background and mine (practical subject area and non research based role at that time) that we were unsure of it's meaning.

No, it's a good question. I'd bet most of the other students had no clue either, but were just scared to ask. Loads of people love to throw around phrases like "paradigm shift", without being able to explain what they mean.

Absolutely not unreasonable to ask, hope you got a decent explanation.
But why is this in your mind now when it was so long ago? Did the speaker react negatively?

Same here!

@penelopelady it's just a typical example of something, an accepted norm.

I didn’t really understand what it meant until I did my MSc, where we used it a lot. Perfectly reasonable to ask what it means.

Absolutely not unreasonable.

I only knew what it meant as there's a US talent agency called Paradigm who represented an actor I was crushing on - I had to Google for the pronunciation and meaning! And I'm fairly well educated.

I do find myself getting annoyed at wanky unneccessarily complicated language being used when there are other perfectly good ways of saying things that mean the same. And don't get me started on corporate bollock-speak! I don't think it is clever to say things in such a way that means that it needs to be translated into real words before it can be understood.

And no particular reason for thinking about it this evening... I've spent quite a lot of time not doing much today so I'm just mulling over a few things. Nothing particularly angst-worthy (if that isn't too wanky a way of saying it)

Asking questions is one of the best ways to learn. You did exactly the right thing.

I think it's understandable that you appreciate plainer language as someone with autism. Anything that obscures meaning is frustrating.

I quite enjoy a bit of academic bollocks (luckily) in my job but it's almost like the enjoyment of cryptic crosswords. If I can make sense of it and use that language or translate it for my students, it feels quite satisfying.

The nursing is interesting. Not my subject but it's obviously got a specific meaning in nursing. So it's more trains of philosophical thought/accepted norms that influence how practice develops. This article was good (I'm such a nerd). https://rn-journal.com/journal-of-nursing/nursing-paradigms-nursing-theories

There should be no 'stupid questions' in education. I'd be willing to bet you were asking a question other people wanted an answer to as well. That phrase is a but of jargon and explanation was necessary.

bit of jargon