Disrupting Class
How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns
By: Clayton M. Christensen, Michael Horn, Curtis W. Johnson
Published: June 6, 2008
ISBN: 9780071592062
Format: Hardcover, 288pp
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional
"Schooling can and should be an intrinsically motivating experience", write authors Clayton M. Christensen, Michael Horn, and Curtis W. Johnson, in their groundbreaking book on the power of disruptive innovation on transforming learning, Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns. The authors apply the business technique of disruptive innovation toward changing the way schools teach and how students learn information.
Clayton M. Christensen, Michael Horn, and Curtis W. Johnson recognize that schools have been assigned many, often conflicting and contradictory roles, by society. As a result of these many demands, schools are forced to apply their uniform teaching techniques to a widely diverse group of students. The authors demonstrate that all students learn information in different ways, and those learning styles are not always compatible with the techniques employed to teach the various school subjects.
Clayton M. Christensen (photo left), Michael Horn, Curtis W. Johnson suggest that the change management system of disruptive innovation be employed, to overcome the deficiencies in teaching techniques, and to provide instruction in courses that are not part of the curriculum. The authors recommend that the power of computers be harnessed as a disruptive technology, in a different way from their current use, in the classroom setting.
Disruptive innovation, according the authors, takes place in a marketplace where no product or service exists. Since there is no competition, in the form of a paid teacher for many less popular subjects or those lacking in smaller schools, computer taught courses can fill that void. Instead of being seen as dislodging teachers, student focused computer driven courses would widen the course options available in a school.
For me, the power of the book was the approach to improving schools and education using the concept of disruptive innovation. Drawn from the world of business, the disruptive technique provides a fresh way of examining how to create better schools, and provide more opportunities for students. The recommendation of using computers in an entirely new way, as online instructors with many different teaching methods, is a powerful one. The concept works very well for pupils, who learn subject material in ways different, from the dominant learning pattern for a given course. Individualized teaching, geared to a student's personal learning style, enhances the ability of that student to master the course.
I highly recommend Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael Horn, and Curtis W. Johnson, to anyone serious about making real and lasting improvement in the field of education. The use of disruptive innovation techniques, in any school setting, can successfully change the dynamic of how students are taught, and how they learn their class material.
Read Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael Horn, and Curtis W. Johnson, and develop a more student centered approach to education, while dispelling the popular myths that hold back innovation in the schools. Instead of talking about educational problems, readers can employ the powerful techniques of disruptive innovation, for facilitating change and creating real innovation in education.
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