Paradigms are theoretical models used to describe sequences of teaching.

Teacher in Egypt sits on a desk explaining something to her students

Paradigms are also ways of thinking about the purpose of education and the role of teachers and learners.

Example
The following are examples of paradigms
PPP - presentation, production and practice OHE - observation, hypothesis formation, experimentation
ARC - authentic use, restricted use, clarification ESA - engage, study, activate

In the classroom
Paradigms can be useful to describe and identify the stages of a lesson, for example when planning or documenting a class. They often describe similar stages in different ways, for example a PPP lesson can be described as having a CRA staging.

See also:
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/arc
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/initiation-response-feedback-irf
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/ppp
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/test-teach-test

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