eXtreme Teaching-Learning Paradigm: A pedagogical framework for higher education Manoj Joseph D’Souza Department of Computer Science and Engineering DMI College of Engineering Chennai, India frmanoj@gmail.com Paul Rodrigues Department of Computer Science and Engineering DMI College of Engineering Chennai, India drpaulprof@gmail.com Abstract— Educators in the recent past have been innovating new methods of teaching-learning to enhance quality of higher education. Extreme Teaching-Learning paradigm (XTLP) (or Extreme Pedagogy) is a novel student-centered pedagogy designed by the authors for higher education to increase learning outcomes. XTLP is an agile educational framework that derives its philosophy from Extreme Programming (XP), an agile software developmental methodology. As opposed to the traditional paradigm in which, the course structure is rigid, assessment of learning is over-emphasized, learning is individualistic and there is limited scope for faculty-student interactions, the XTLP framework, aims at continuous enhancement of student performance by addressing the limitations of traditional teacher-centered pedagogy. This paper describes the XTLP, a conceptual framework with its characteristics, practices, values and discusses its applicability in the higher education. Keywords— teaching and learning; higher education; pedagogy; extreme programming; XTLP. I. INTRODUCTION Students in higher education are increasingly demanding quality education which could prepare them for suitable career after their graduation. However due to falling standards in teaching and learning, many graduates who come out of universities with certificates in hand and approach industries for placements, are disappointed to get a common reply: “You are not selected!” Academic institutions, at the input end, have student and at the output end, industry. However there is frustration at both ends as there is little collaboration between academia and industry. The university curriculum fails to prepare students in employability skills. There is too little effort taken by the teaching faculty, to assess student needs, aptitude, personality types, to make teaching relevant, interesting and flexible. In the globalized world today, educational institutions have to compete with other institutions, for their survival. Students, parents, employers, sponsors who are the customers of educational institutions are becoming increasingly conscious of the money spent and demand commensurate returns for their money. Accreditation agencies are pushing hard for accountability from these institutions to demonstrate means and methods taken, for quality assurance in education. Funding agencies too, are becoming selective in funding those institutions that have maintained high standards and engage in quality research. Of the many factors that lead to decreased quality in higher education, a dominant factor is the traditional teacher-centered transmittal model of teaching and learning [1].The teacher is portrayed ‘as a sage on the stage’, who has the knowledge and transmits this knowledge to students. Much of the teaching is didactic and students turn out to be passive learners [2]. Students are assessed on their capacity to memorize and reproduce what they are taught during the course in the exams [3]. There is limited scope for students to interact, discuss issues and ideas, analyze and apply concepts to real life situations. Student learning is individualistic and competitive. Adherence to curriculum and completion of syllabus before the exams appears to be the overriding concern of the faculty. Extreme Programming (XP) is a type of agile software development methodology, which has been successful in the software industry, producing high quality software in response to the changing requirements of the customer. It uses many simple practices based on the core values: simplicity, communication, feedback, courage and respect to deliver the software product iteratively and incrementally [4]. The core practices of XP can very well be adapted to higher education to overcome many of the deficiencies of traditional teaching- learning methods. This paper proposes an eXtreme Teaching- Learning Paradigm (XTLP), a conceptual framework based on XP philosophy to improve quality of teaching and learning in higher education. II. EXTREME TEACHING-LEARNING PRACTICES Extreme Programming advocates twelve practices for successful software development. From the twelve practices of Extreme Programming, the authors translate four practices namely, Planning Game, Test-Driven Development, Pair Programming, and Short Releases into four educational practices of the XTLP framework. They are: Instructor- Student Interaction, Goal-Driven Teaching, Pair Learning, and International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, ISSN 0973-4562 Vol. 10 No.69 (2015) © Research India Publications; httpwww.ripublication.comijaer.htm 153