Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns by Clayton M. Christensen

Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns Reviews

• 
  Leah Sciabarrasi

  This book serves as a map for me- it helps me to see where we have been, where we are, and the path we need to take to get to where we want to be. The authors clearly point out that everyone is wired differently, and we are doing a disservice by not providing students the opportunity to learn through different methods, with different styles, and at different paces. One thing is clear, this doesn't mean that anyone is stupid.
  
  There is one implementation that can help service this model- computer based learning. Now, up until now we haven't been using it correctly- we have only been using it to service a present model. We need to restructure it to service a new model- modular architecture. Basically, students would follow a "Toyota Assembly Line Training" style- they cannot move on until they have mastered the task. And they have to spend the same amount of time they took to learn it to practice it before they can move on.
  
  We need to dump textbooks- they are developed by experts with one intelligence for non-experts with multiple intelligences.They are filled with 100s of pages that will never be read- and they usually don't include multiple perspectives, multimedia, or interactivity.
  
  The authors also discuss the issues that we have to contend with- student mobility, immigrants, low-income families, and how to help heal these issues, not just bandage them up.
• 
  Kate

  Absolutely terrible. The one thing I learned from this book: If you're going to write a book about the American educational system and how to "fix" it, make sure you learn how it currently works. Otherwise, you end up looking like an idiot.
• 
  A.D. Hoang

  Không chỉ Giáo dục Việt Nam, mà Giáo dục toàn cầu đã trở nên bế tắc. Không phải chỉ mấy năm gần đây, mà từ cả trăm, cả ngàn năm rồi. Bất kể ở bán cầu nào của thế giới, bất kể trang thiết bị lạc hậu hay công nghệ tối tân và sự tài trợ như vũ bão, thì người ta vẫn kêu gào về Giáo dục thảm thiết như nhau cả. Nếu không tin rằng đọc câu chuyện ở Mĩ, Phần Lan hay Pháp mà cũng giống như chuyện ở Việt Nam, thì bạn không nên đọc cuốn này.
  
  Clayton M. Christensen là Giáo sư Kinh doanh tại Harvard Business School, người nổi tiếng với học thuyết “Disruptive innovation - đổi mới đột phá” (trong cuốn sách đầu tiên, cùng tên), và sau này là cuốn sách “The Innovator’s Dilemma - Thế lưỡng nan của nhà đổi mới”, được mệnh danh là một trong những tư tưởng có ảnh hưởng nhất tới giới kinh doanh đầu thế kỷ 21.
  
  B.Horn là học giả, diễn giả về chủ đề tương lai của giáo dục. Ông làm việc với nhiều tổ chức để cải thiện cuộc sống học đường của từng đứa trẻ. Curtis W.Johnson là một giáo viên, hiệu trưởng, sau đó là người đứng đầu một cơ quan nghiên cứu về mối quan hệ với các khối công (phục vụ cho việc tư vấn chính sách), và rồi lãnh đạo Education Evolving (Tiến hoá Giáo dục), một mạng lưới của các nhà phân tích chính sách và hoạt động giáo duc.
  
  Kinh nghiệm giáo dục của Horn, Johnson kết hợp với cách tiếp cận của Christensen đã làm nên thành công cho cuốn sách này. Hai tuyệt chiêu của Christensen: Disruptive (đột phá) và Dilemma (lưỡng nan) đã được mở rộng sang sân chơi giáo dục. Cách thức đổi mới giáo dục được gợi ý từ việc vận hành tổ chức một cách hiệu quả nhất. Các nhóm “liên chức năng”, nhóm “hạng nhẹ”, nhóm “hạng nặng”, nhóm tự quản… hay những động thái tái cấu trúc học thuật… đều là sự thực hành những phương thức quản trị tinh gọn và tiên tiến nhất.
  
  Đây xứng đáng là sách gối đầu giường cho mọi nhà giáo dục, đặc biệt là các nhà quản lý giáo dục.
  
• 
  Sherry

  REALLY liked it! And so I remember them in their words, here are their 5 major messages in the book (which they sourced with great stories and studies):
  
  1. Few reforms have address the root cause of students' inability to learn. And most attempts have not been guided by an understanding of the root reasons for why the system functions as it does or how to predictably introduce innovation into it. Without this guidance, we've been destined to struggle. This also means, however, that we now have an opportunity for great progress.
  
  2. School reformers have repeatedly tried to bash the system and confront it head-on. A major lesson from our studies of innovation is that disruptive innovations does not rake root through a direct attack on the existing system. Instead, it must go around and underneath the system. This is how disruption drives affordability, accessibility, capability, and responsiveness.
  
  3. If we acknowledge that all children learn differently, then the way schooling is currently arranged--in a monolithic batch mode system where all students are taught the same things on the same day in the same way--won't ever allow us to educate children in customized ways. We need a modular system.
  
  4. Some of the places with the highest potential to circumvent the system and create a new, modular education system that facilitates customization are emerging online user networks--the equivalent of the autonomous business until we describe in Chapter 9. When the decision-making process for what is adopted in schools is centralized, as it currently is, there are so many powerful political and other forces at play that it makes change and customization nearly impossible. But user networks will democratize development and purchase decisions to the end users in the system--students, parents, and teachers. Smart people will do smart things if we just enable them to do so.
  
  5. Finally, to the extent administrators and school leaders want to implement these changes, they have to use the tools of power and separation. Using these tools is easiest in the chartered and private school sectors. This means that school committees and government officials need to view themselves as not being responsible for the specific schools that exist in their jurisdictions; rather they are responsible for educating the children in those areas. Systemic reform requires a systemic view--one that includes all schools. If indeed the charter for educators is to eliminate poverty by leaving no child behind, the homes in which children's fundamental learning capacities are forged are critical as well.
  
  I love their emphasis on student-centric learning and on how technology can power it--if we both get out of the way and shape the way!
• 
  Duong Tan

  Christensen có hai từ khóa làm thành thương hiệu: Đột phá (Disrupt) và Lưỡng nan (Dilema). Ông đã mang hiểu biết của mình về hai từ khóa này khai sáng không biết bao nhiêu nhà đổi mới, nhà kinh doanh, nhà lãnh đạo khắp nơi bốn biển. Nay đến lượt giáo dục.
  Giáo dục toàn cầu lâm vào khủng hoảng, không riêng gì Việt Nam. Ngay cả ở một nơi đầy rẫy các sáng kiến, các công nghệ tối tân, các nhà khoa học sáng chói, các sáng chế có thể bán tỉ tiền, các nhà cải cách với đầy đủ đam mê, với đầy đủ các mạnh thường quân sẵn sàng rót tỉ đô để làm lợi cho quốc gia, dân tộc, thì giáo dục vẫn cứ là lĩnh vực thường xuyên hát bài "vũ như cẫn".
  Chương 9 là một chương đặc sắc. Không phải vì nó là chương cuối cùng (final) mà là chương tận cùng của quan điểm(utlimate). Đó là chương có giá trị toàn cầu. Đọc chuyện ở Mĩ như là kể chuyện Việt Nam, chuyện Phần Lan mới nổi, hay chuyện Pháp già nua. Các nhà giáo, các nhà đổi mới năng nổ đến mấy, uyên bác cỡ nào rồi cuối cùng đều va phải cái thứ mà mỗi nơi gọi tên một kiểu, chỗ thì "tổ chức", chỗ thì "cơ chế", chỗ thì "hệ thống". Mọi ý tưởng đều tắc ở đấy.
  Christensen, một lần nữa, chỉ ra những sáng kiến từ cách thức vận hành các tổ chức hiệu quả bậc nhất, từ những lí thuyết tổ chức sáng giá nhất hiện nay để mong góp phần thiết lập những "hạ tầng" cho đổi mới. Từ các ý tưởng về nhóm "liên-chức-năng", các "nhóm hạng nhẹ", "nhóm hạng nặng", light-weight manager, đến việc tái cấu trúc học thuật, các nhóm tự quản. Tác giả không che giấu ý định mang những tư duy của những Guru quản trị như Immelt, Welch hay những thực tiễn hay từ Toyota để công phá vào bức tường kiên cố nhất của sự trì trệ trong giáo dục.
  Sách gối đầu giường của các nhà cải cách giáo dục và các nhà giáo mọi cấp.
  Sách tham khảo đặc biệt cho cộng đồng công nghệ và đặc biệt là những người đang nỗ lực truyền bá Agile. Chương 9 là một chương quảng cáo cho Agile rất nhiệt thành, dù không nhắc đến 1 lần cái tên đó. :-)
• 
  Vicki Davis

  This is a very good book until the last chapter where it seems to draw a conclusion that the only way to fix education is with charter school type approaches. For example, we could all have a perfect house with an unlimited budget to build a new one but eventually it would show faults! We can't just build new houses. Although Hercules cleaned out the Agean stables- if they didn't remedy their ways it would fill up with filth again. Sometimes we don't step out of the box- we create new boxes! Perhaps all of the education options should learn to collaborate? Use technology to link up.
  
  So, great book, I just disagree with conclusion.
• 
  Maliza 4cambodia

  
  My notes while reading parts of the book.
  The book gave a great chapter preview that helped me understand the book.
  
  Chapter 1- gave Gardner’s multiple intelligences - I am linguistic and intrapersonal. And talked about project based learning as highly motivating because students can synthesize what they are learning .
  The chapter talked about the challenges with standardization that was inspired by efficient factory systems that emerged in industrial america. As well as teachers who desire to teach to their MI strengths and preferences.
  
  In the next chapters, it talks about the disruption from monolithic instruction to a modular, student centric approach by using software as an important delivery vehicle.
  
  Chapter 7 - most school reforms , the focus is on the schools. Why aren’t schools performing as they should? When we ask why aren’t students learning? We might see things others have yet to perceive. The challenge is student motivation is a problematic barrier to improving student learning. Teachers and parents “offer” education but many students aren’t buying what is being offered. The problem of motivation customers to buy what companies are selling is not a problem unique to education. Over 75 percent of all new products launched into their markets fail.
  
  What jobs are students trying to do? They want to feel successful and make progress and they want to have fun with friends. Activities such as drama or athletic teams which are mechanisms for making progress and feeling successful are considered extra-curricular instead or curricular.
  
  
  Providing FEEDBACK. To students is often delayed because exams are every couple of weeks. However this is essential!!
  
  I finished my study by taking photos of the summary pages- which restated 5 major points from the book.
  
• 
  Maren

  I read this book about ten years ago and I think much more of it went over my head the first time. It helps that some of the predictions have played out and I've seen them in real life, and I've learned more about these concepts from other sources, so this was a good way to summarize again in my own head what I've learned and experienced.
  
  I skimmed the cheesy stories at the beginning of each chapter and most of the business examples because I'm already familiar with Clayton's disruptive innovation theory. Maybe it's just me, but the authors are in business applying their theories to education, but as an educator I actually understood the business example better after I'd read the education counterpart, so the organization of the book didn't really fit my framework.
  
  It was also heavy on education administration/policy and I'm a classroom teacher at heart so it was more meta than practical for me.
  
  Maybe I should disclose he is my cousin, and I have always thought he is amazing, so that probably biases my review. ;-)
• 
  Jacqui

  Clayton Christensen offers a believable and intuitive approach to fixing our staggering American educational system. In a nutshell: people learn in different ways (no surprise here; it's a well-documented theory). Teachers too often teach one way (or two or three--the point being, teachers standardize. I understand. I've been a teacher most of my life. One of us and many of them in a classroom). His solution: Use 21st century technology and Web 2.0 to individualize lessons to suit needs.
  
  That's where the problem starts according to Christensen. Schools throw technology at their problems in hopes software, hardware, internet websites, will fix their shrinking test scores. Every technology teacher I know agrees with the author that this approach is flawed and frustrates both students and teachers. Technology is a tool, to be wielded with a skilled hand.
  
  Christensen gives teachers permission to disrupt class--shake it up! See what's going on. Here are some of my favorite ideas:
  1) If the addition of computers to classrooms were a cure, there would be evidence of it by now. There is not. Test scores have barely budged. 2) Why haven't schools (with so much emphasis on technology) been able to march down this path (of student-centric learning)? ...because they have crammed the new technologies into their existing structure... 3) The world of education is one in which there is little agreement on what the goals are, let alone the methods that are best-suited to achieve them. 4) Public schools have been improving steadily, since 1900, but society moved the goal posts ...changed the definition of improvement...
  
  I'd recommend this to any teacher intent upon integrating technology into their core curriculum.
• 
  Brent Wilson

  Good exposition of Christensen's "disruptive innovation" theory - explaining how initially annoying products grow to take over markets and throw out older established companies. This book applies the theory to schools and education, with mixed success.
  
  I got the clear impression that these authors were outsiders to the culture and complexity of schools and educational theory. So it's great to have their theory applied to the problem, but a little shaky in the details. For example, they say that "online" learning will soon come to dominate school curriculum - within fifteen years or so. They talk about flexible, self-paced online learning, but their data and projections are mostly based on fixed-paced courses offered online. So exactly what they're advocating and prognosticating isn't very clear. Kind of fuzzy.
  
  The first four chapters are very clear and compelling, because that's where the authors are on their firmest footing, introducing the basics of their theory. Chapter six is another strong one, talking about the importance of the first months and years of children's lives. Chapter 7 was all but incomprehensible - talking about causal and correlation research and "descriptive" versus "prescriptive" research. I'm a professor and expert in this area, and Christensen strikes me as idiosyncratic and somewhat naive about what research and inquiry are all about. He's a Harvard professor, so I must be wrong!
  
  I am using this text right now with a mixed group of K12 educators and corporate trainers. Our response has been positive - with both sides learning more about how the other side views things. Good text for discussion and exchange of ideas.
• 
  Christiane

  I heard him speak on this issue in March 2012 and he made me see teaching in a new way. Some of his most memorable insights are:
  
  "Online learning is a technological core that can take education into a higher market"
  
  “In higher ed, there wasn't disruption until now because colleges moving up emulated those above. Online learning changes this."
  
  “What's going on in the low end of education today (online learning) is tomorrow's (system of) education."
  
  "If you're trying to deploy a new technology in the main market, then you got to combine the best of the old and the best of the new."
  
  "We need faculty members who do great research AND change lives."
  
  "Motivation is a common problem. How do we motivate?"
  
  "The job of children is to feel successful. That's their motivation. Schools don't all do that."
  
  "The lower end of teaching is delivering content. If that's online, teachers can tutor, engage, and go up-market."
  
  "God didn't say that it should take four years to complete a degree."
• 
  Valerie

  I'd actually give this book a 3 because it's business-speak, a style of writing I loathe; but if I do that, no one will read it. Full of useful, common-sensical observations and some excellent suggestions for radically altering US schools (they use the word "revolutionize," though I refuse to; their ideas are good but not THAT good), they advocate school change through computer technology and, more importantly, by applying the lessons of change in the computer industry. What I can't tell is whether their book is actually too late--as in, they are only reporting what is already happening, rather than recommending new strategies, in which case the title should read "How Disruptive Innovation HAS Changed the Way the World Learns." Nevertheless, the closing chapters are must reads for anyone who still supports teachers unions.
• 
  edh

  The authors posit that the reason why traditional schooling fails so many is that by nature, the structure of schools encourage standardization rather than customization (and customization is what produces truly effective learning environments). Using available data, they predict that in the next 10-12 years fully half of all high schoolers will attend classes online in order to maximize the marketplace's ability to offer them opportunities not available in the traditional face-to-face format. They predict that this move will accelerate in response to tightening budgets and teacher scarcity - most likely, core courses in math and reading will continue to be taught locally in person... but most "elective" type courses will be begin to be taken online.
• 
  Josh Steimle

  This book isn't just about fixing the educational system, it's about how the educational system will be fixed. It's not so much a question of if, but when, because it's inevitable. The question is whether you want to fight the transition or ride the wave and help it along, because although people will be fighting it, thinking that it's a bad thing, in the long run it's going to be good for teachers, administrators, politicians, entrepreneurs, parents, and especially students. If you're involved in the educational system, which almost everyone is somehow or other, this book is a must-read, except that they just came out with an updated version so read that one instead.
• 
  Anapilar

  Long time ago, when I was in the credential program my main professor advised my class to never substitute and not to read anything to do with education. She believed that we were all able to get employment therefore we should not settle for a substitute job. When it came to reading educational related materials, she said that for the most part we would be disappointed in the reading, mad about the reading but most of all dishearten because most writers on education paint a dark picture that would just leave us feeling like we either don’t know what we are doing, or that we are doing a terrible job. The Disrupting Class by Clayton Christensen, Curtis W. Johnson & Michael B. Horn, has done basically what my professor said it would. The book has left me feeling like I don’t matter, my career does not matter, and that I have failed every student that has come thru my classroom door.
  Clayton M. Christensen is a professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School, who is the architect of Disruptive Innovation Theory that is used in marketing. He is also a religious leader in the Mormon Church. Curtis W. Johnson is a Senior Fellow at education evolving a Minnesota-based group for education reform for open enrollment for public school choice or Charter Schools. Michael Horn; “speaks and writes about the future of education and works with education organizations to improve the life of each and every student”, an interesting quote from his biography at aeispeakers.com. Especially when he earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he meet Christensen, and has no teaching experience. Christensen states at the beginning of the book that his parents were both teacher, but that he has no dealings with public school/education until he was approached by Charter School pioneers Graba, Wolk, Johnson and Kolderie, furthermore Christensen states that these men “have dedicated their lives to the improvement of our schools” (p.26). Unlike most “education” books that are written from an insider’s perspective this book is written from outsider’s perspective. They use all of their “business” modalities to criticize and try to propose a fix to the educational system.
  The book begins by stating the usual things that everyone discusses about what is wrong with our educational system. Such as lack of money, but he then points out that the U.S.A. spends more money per student on average than other countries, but our student often perform at or below the level of other countries. Another culprit is not enough computers but that is not the case, districts have been purchasing computers more and more. They also point to Unions, but these are not present across the country so no they are not the problem either. They do mention poverty and increase in ESL students and these are increasing across the spectrum, and they never again discuss this, which I think it is a very important factor. Their thesis for the book is “to expose more fundamental root causes for why schools struggle to improve” (p.67).
  Their main focus throughout the book is that the educational system is too generalized and standardized in the way we teach and test. But they never state that the only way to get into Harvard from High School is to have a very high score on your SAT, at least a score of 1540. The book is all about customizing learning, thru computer modules. In these modules students would learn at their own rate, moving from a “monolithic” model to “student-centric” model. Teacher’s become the professional learning coaches that monitor and help students as they move along in these computer modules.
  “If student-centric technology remains on this trajectory, what might the classroom of the future look like? Students filter into their room. Chemistry workbenches, complete with such things as test tubes, reagents, pH meters, and a bomb calorimeter, greet them. The students conduct experiments in which they measure the effect of changes in the pressure, volume, and temperature of gases. They record their experiments in their lab workbook, and the teacher grades them and returns the workbook to the students.
  This might not sound too different from the everyday happenings many of us recall from chemistry class, but there is a big difference. This all takes place in the Virtual ChemLab. The classroom of the future is, in this case, present and accounted for.”
  Excerpt From: Clayton Christensen, Curtis W. Johnson & Michael B. Horn. “Disrupting Class, Expanded Edition: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns.” iBooks.
  https://itun.es/us/QSDTD.l
  
  Although they propose such scenario for “resource-constrained schools in isolated rural areas or impoverished urban ones” (p.408). I don’t see how this would be a solution for those students aspiring to become Doctors/Nurses and other health professionals.
  “If children are motivated to learn, and if we enable each one to learn effectively, we will have an education system with a great performance record.”
  Excerpt From: Clayton Christensen, Curtis W. Johnson & Michael B. Horn. “Disrupting Class, Expanded Edition: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns.” iBooks.
  https://itun.es/us/QSDTD.l
  
  Having computer modules for students to learn at their pace and motivation, won’t solve the dilemma of motivation for all students. Their concept is based on industry and how to motivate adults that their livelihood depends on their paycheck. On adults that have for the most part matured and others depend on their success. Our students have not learned all these skills. They are also going on the assumption that somehow computers are the answer to all the problems in education. This may be the case, and for many such as us in this course, computer learning works. But is best suited for college level courses and even then the student has to be intrinsic motivated. Having computer courses in High School for courses that are not offer with a teacher, or because there is no high demand makes sense and they work because those students are intrinsic motivated.
  “While new and different schools scramble to serve students who were never the ideal customers for the traditional public schools, most educators find themselves at an intersection of unprecedented change and necessary choices. It is their dilemma to resolve.”
  Excerpt From: Clayton Christensen, Curtis W. Johnson & Michael B. Horn. “Disrupting Class, Expanded Edition: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns.” iBooks.
  https://itun.es/us/QSDTD.l
  
  In conclusion they spend way too much time talking about disruptive innovations in industry, but they never give straight answer to their thesis of solving the educational disarray that we have according to them. The above quote is from the final chapter of the book, and the problem was ours at the beginning of the book and by the end its still ours. I personally think that they need to step into the classrooms and see the disruptive innovations that are happening in the trenches.
  
• 
  Arfan Ismail

  For those of us who have spent time working in the private sector there's always the question of how relevant standard industry business concepts are to the education sector. Well this book tries to present at answer. Clayton Christensen is well known for his work on innovation and disruptive technology. His basic thesis is that disruption occurs in every industry so education should be no different. There are a number of reservations with this approach. First and foremost education generally serves as more than a product, it is a fundamental constituent of society. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, it is outcome related. This is where the real challenge is, since determining improved outcomes in education requires a deep and profound understanding of education itself and this is what Christensen is lacking. A central part of the book is based on Howard Gardners theory of mulitple intelligences. Gardner's theory, in it's widespread and not the more nuanced reading, has been widely disredited. Christensen's appears to take the disrecredited version of Gardner's theory and makes it the central pillar of a drive for innovation in education. This doesn't work, and he misreads the literature and presents what is a very superficial reading of classroom pedagogy.
  
  This book was first published in 2008 and it feels dated as you read it. The technology it references are now old and it lacks any overarching prinicples that could present and a more timeless reading.
  
  Given the changes that are resulting as a result of the Covid-19 crisis, disruption in education appears necessary. It can only come though if one understand how people learn and what effective and outstanding teaching and learning looks like. This requires a deeper understanding of education that Christensen can offer in this text. Whilst I think one can benefit from reading this book, it's not a game changer.
• 
  Jeni Enjaian

  I have many thoughts and opinions about this book related to Christensen's view of education and his overall knowledge of education but I will limit myself since such a rant would likely exceed the character limit.
  It is clear from the beginning that Christensen knows almost nothing about how a classroom operates much less an entire educational system. He spends the majority of the book waxing eloquent about the benefit of disruptive innovations, supplementing this eloquence with examples from the business world that do not quite explain how the innovation disrupted the current system. He lacks examples that actually explain the point he attempts to prove.
  He also sets great store by technology as the be-all-end-all, even claiming in 2008 that by 2019, 50% of all high school classes would be online. In 2018, one reads that claim and snorts in derisive laughter.
  To top it all off, Christensen spends a great quantity of the book declaring that computers and other digital technology will be the thing that completely and finally disrupts the educational system creating personalized, individualized learning. Then, at the end of the book when he describes some schools that have implemented technology in innovative ways, as he describes in the beginning of the book, he goes out of his way to say that these schools are examples of sustaining innovation, not disrupting innovation which disproves his whole theory.
  
  Christensen should stick to business which it is clear that he knows and leave education to people who know a thing or two about education.
• 
  Amanda

  Two stars is generous.
  Christensen starts out by talking about Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences, and posits that the next big thing in education will be software that can give each student a learning experience that is tailored to their individual learning styles. He makes some big assumptions about where that kind of technology and breadth of curriculum will come from. In fact, he doesn't have any guesses about where those things will come from. He is just confident that they will show up shortly.
  
  If anything, I think this book has done a lot of damage to the field of education. Christensen envisions schools where the computers do all the content delivery, and teachers are just there to act as tutors or coaches. It makes me wonder how much experience the author has with children or teens (or people in general). Some people think this method would be awesome, because schools could just hire nice people to do the tutoring/coaching job. Actual trained professional teachers would no longer be necessary. And we could pack a lot more kids into a classroom. Lots of money to save!!
  
  I came away from this with big questions about the author's experience with people, with students, with technology, and with education and learning theory in general. He was just way out of his element with this one. He should have stuck with actual business, rather than getting into a state run system that is free to everyone.
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  Vincent Tsao

  Christensen applies the learnings from Innovator's Dilemma to the education system in the US. Overall, the book does a good job of laying out 1) the history of education that has led us to the current emphasis on standardization, 2) the structural challenges against reform, 3) differences in learning styles, 4) how to drive disruption, and 5) why innovation in other industries provides a roadmap for education. Driving student-centered learning is at the crux of the proposed disruption, and technology has been an underutilized tool. Computer-based learning can customize content for individual students and offer access to content that isn't available in schools. In the future, students should be able to find the exact content they want, delivered in the way they learn best. Teachers will be guides and mentors, instead of being the primary channel of delivering content.
  
  However, content is somewhat repetitive by way of overlapping topics. The fictional example of a school that made up 20% of the book wasn't value-adding. In general, there seemed to be a lack of specificity in the text. Everything is fairly high-level, and there aren't specific strategies or solutions. Nor is there a deeper discussion on what is working or has worked so far. The book is a good overview of how and why we can disrupt education, but not necessarily a toolkit for actually doing so.
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  Mark Gazica

  This is one of those books that has a bunch of words but not much to say. Publishers need to stop publishing books that could just have easily (and often more effectively) been a long form paper or article. The authors of this book have a valid premise (i.e. not all children learn the same way, technology is not being properly applied to education, the market economy can't permeate the barriers of education, etc.) but it gets lost in a bunch of business jargon repurposed from one of the author's older works on business structuring. The resulting book is a hodgepodge of random information that only seems to hit around the topic at hand instead of addressing it head on.
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  Trent Mikesell

  I'm distrustful of people in business who want to provide solutions to education. We already get plenty of ideas and solutions from people who have never worked in education. And, no, despite popular belief, having attended high school does not give you any knowledge about how to improve education. That said, I think he has some good ideas here. He is also very complimentary to teachers and acknowledges labeling them as the problem will only backfire. I actually see a lot of this disruptive education in my online work with BYU Idaho and BYU Pathway. Our problem in public education is having the freedom to break out of a long tradition.
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  Amanda

  Interesting thoughts about student-centric learning and the future of technology in classes. One shocking thought was that with a “flipped classroom” as students learn in videos online at home and review with peers/teachers at school, there is actually a possibility of much larger classes as schools take advantage of the blended learning model. Other topics included leadership tools to create change, explicitly teaching students the habits and systems they need to be successful, and educational research. Thought provoking and a good read for my teacher friends!
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  CatReader

  This book was first published in 2008, and I read in 2022 after the COVID-19 pandemic definitely disrupted education and shifted more learning online. So in a way, this book was prescient.
  
  At the same time, while I generally enjoy Christensen's books and the concept of disruptive innovation, I don't know that we can solve education through the "what problem are students hiring schools to solve?" framework that is central to so many of Christensen's ideas. The consumer of education is more so the future society that children will grow up to be the drivers of, for better or for worse.