From ‘Sage on the Stage’ to ‘Guide on the Side’: A Good Start

While the now-clichéd shift from ‘sage on the stage’ to ‘guide on the side’ that characterizes the changing role of teachers is a good start, it is just that – a start. In this paper, I argue for a detailed look at the concomitant shift in the role of students, as they leave the world of passive recipients and join the ranks of active participants in the teaching-learning nexus. The paper discusses the problematic conflation of the terms ‘information’ and ‘knowledge’ that surfaces in consideration of the shifting roles of teachers and students, and argues that, in addition to defining information and knowledge precisely, we must consider the significance of the processes that transform the former into the latter. And finally, I reiterate the importance of making these distinctions and defining these processes not in the abstract but, rather, in the context of the various disciplines.