Paradigm Shifts

in Science and Technology

Lesson 03 – Chapter 1 (Science, Technology, & Society)
 • Define a Paradigm Shift

• Explain paradigm shifts in

Objectives Science and Technology

• Value the idea of change in

terms of S&T
Do you believe that
Scientific theories
and principles are
absolute and final?
Scientific Paradigm
- is a framework containing all commonly accepted views
about a subject.
Paradigm Shift
— happens when scientific activity and
experimentation begins to contradict premises that
experts previously considered unshakable. As a
result, a new and different paradigm replaces the
dominant paradigm of its day.
Paradigm Shift
- is also called a revolutionary science.
- It is a transformation from one organizing
theoretical perspective to another like a change from
one way of thinking to another.
 a twentieth-century
physicist and
philosopher of science,
coined the phrase
“paradigm shift” and
extrapolated upon it in
his book, The Structure
of Scientific Revolutions

Thomas Khun
How does a
paradigm shift
occur?
How does a
paradigm shift
occur?
EXAMPLES OF
PARADIGM SHIFTS
(1) Germs

Effective
Pre-modern
Miasma (Germ Treatments and
Scientists on
Theory) Containment of
Epidemics
Disease
(2) Systems of
the Universe
PARADIGM SHIFT IN
TECHNOLOGY
- The Printing Press, the making
of books and the use of
vernacular language.

- Masses of people acquired

direct access to the scriptures
“With the birth of television and new technologies,
mediating factors such as church, family and school
began to lose their traditional socializing role for many
people”. It has therefore become increasingly difficult
to ignore the media and its increasing influence.

~ This is referred to as “The All Powerful Media Revisited as

named by Okunna (1999).
Nothing is permanent in
this world except change.
Questions?