CHRISTENSEN

HOME Christensen, C.M., Horn, M.B., & Johnson, C.W. (2008). //Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns. //Chicago: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishers. 

//Disrupting Class // by  Clayton M. Christensen was a very powerful book. Christensen provides a promising outlook on how the educational system can insight change within itself. He noted how schools have done well while dealing with societies changing requirements over the years. Even today progress is being made. However, Christensen does see that schools are not making the full use of the technological options that are available to them. He sees that school need to “customize” the learning experience to every individual student based on their unique learning style. He understands that more computers “crammed “into classrooms will not produce the desired results. He feels software must be created to create a more “student-centric” environment. The problems that stand in the way of this change coming to the forefront are results of inaccurate research and a bureaucracy that is not linked to the teachers in the classroom and not enough powerful people coming together to create the necessary change.

I found this book very interesting. Christensen provided comparisons of businesses facing change and innovative business methods seeking a foothold in a new market and how they compared to the problems facing education. What seemed to be a neutral stance from the authors was very refreshing and a major selling point for me. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

While I enjoyed the comparisons of the business world this also created the skepticism I had of “disruption” taking place. I just feel businesses facing change are driven by making money and more people can arrive at the same conclusion when the end of the road is that clear. While education is a much more complicated issue and the top level law makers are so far removed from the teachers in the classroom I feel change is still a long way away.

In closing, while I enjoyed the reading very much the theory of disruption in education I feel faces an uphill battle. Until that truly innovative software comes along that creates the truly “student-centric” scenario that opens the eyes of the upper level law makers we teachers will keep on fighting the good fight.

Ray A. Sanchez 