In the 1960s, Thomas Kuhn proposed a new model for scientific thought, a paradigm. This new model followed the belief that historical factors are no longer refused or underestimated. A paradigm is a general pattern of scientific interpretation of the physical world. He descibed this concept in his book the Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

Kuhn attended Harvard University in the 1940s to pursue a career in math or physics. However, as an editor of the Harvard Crimson he became interested in literature. Still very much a mathematician, he went back to Harvard in 1945 to earn a Ph.D. in physics. In 1947 he was asked to teach an undergraduate course in General Education which would expose humanity majors to science. It was then where he was profoundly changed. “He suddenly realized that Aristotle’s ideas were not “bad Newton” but different ways of looking at the same thing”. This thinking led to the foundation of his book the Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

At the core of this book is the question of paradigms. According to Kuhn: “paradigms are essentially scientific theories or ways of looking at the world that fulfill two requirements: they must be “sufficiently unprecedented to attract an enduring group of adherents away from competing modes of scientific activity, and they must be sufficiently open-miinded to leave all sorts of problems for the redefined group of practitioners to resolve.”

Kuhn coined the term "paradigm shift". His most important contributions are to the concept of change and the need to discard that change ( which is "biased and value-ridden") with time.

According to Kuhn, a scientific discipline can develop in two ways: (1) During normal periods of activity in grows in a cumulative manner, but (2) during extraordinary times, it grows in a geometric manner. We live in such times.

A scientific discipline begins with a prepara-digmatic stage. Then one paradign becomes prominent. A crisis stage destroys this paradign and a new stage must then evolve (the process cycles) with a resolution of old and a creation of a new manner of thinking. Thus, a new equilibrium is established which will in time also be changed. Kuhn was not concerned with quantitative measurements in the "soft" sciences. He believed a true measurement system will evolve in the future, as we better understand these disciplines. What is important is that the evaluator fully understand both the subject and the pace of delivery (a la Elliot Eisner). He believed in getting knowledge out (of) as well as in(to) a student, that is pre-testing to better understand what a student knows and what a student can (again, in a proper time context) assimilate.

Publications

The Structure of Scientific Revolution