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

Clayton Christensen has gained fame in researching how disruptive technologies are best brought to market in the world of business. He applies the results of this research to hypothesize how education methods uniquely tailored to each student through the use of computer led education are likely to be adopted.

The key observation that Professor Christensen makes is that each student has different intellegences, including linguistic, logical-methematical, spatial, kinesthetic, etc. The classroom, by being forced to standardize on a teaching method for a particular subject, cannot appropriately adapt the teaching of each subject to the learning and intelligence patterns of each student. Computer-based education can overcome the standardized approach, however. He argues that the adoption of computer-based education as a supplement to the teacher led classroom is not the likely path of successful adoption.

The book is written for government officials, teachers, administrators, parents and entrepreneurs. It is probably most valuable to entrepreneurs who are exploring the market for user generated educational content.

Christensen approaches improving the education system from the broad lens of innovation, rather than focusing solely on examining the school system itself. The result: a powerful perspective on how disruptive innovation outside the mainstream curriculum can ultimately transform the techniques and results of the public school system in general.

Disrupting Class outlines a thorough argument for how to dramatically improve the U.S. educational system including:

* The shortcomings of previous approaches to improving education, and therefore what needs to be different in the future

* The importance of adapting teaching techniques to different learning styles (building on previous work Gardner and others); I can particularly relate to this as I have a family member with dyslexia who became an avid reader after receiving a different approach to reading instruction rather than the standard public school curriculum.

* The potential for computers and more modularization of teaching to deliver individualized learning in the context of the school system; Christensen is quick to point out that more computers are not the solution, it is the way in which computers are used that are critical.

* The barriers to change in the current system; Having studied numerous organizations within and outside the educational system, Christensen presents a valuable framework for how to drive change in organizations with different characteristics. The challenge is that the public school system has one of the most complicating set of features. Through understanding these factors, administrators and educators must employ different approaches to creating change which are outlined in the book.

* The need for innovation in areas outside the mainstream elements of the educational system (the book draws on the principles from Christensen's previous work, The Innovator's Dilemma); He cites examples from outside and within the educational system and illustrates how "disruptive innovation" around the fringes can ultimately redefine the public school system as we know it today.

In addition to having a compelling thesis, Disrupting Class is also an easy read. Christensen makes it come alive through weaving a narrative throughout the book of a public school principal struggling to make a greater difference in her students' development.

While the book overall is excellent, there are two sections which could have been shortened without detracting from the overall story. The first is Chapter 6 which makes the case, largely based on the research of others, of the importance of learning in the first 36 months of development. While I found it compelling and causing me to wonder if I had done enough for my own children at that age, I did not find it added much to the overall thesis. Similarly, Chapter 7 discusses the need to change the research approach in the field of education improvement. While it may be useful to some educators as they evaluate options in the future, I found it less engaging than the other chapters.

Overall, Disrupting Class is a must read for those interested in education from any perspective - parent, educator, administrator, politician or non-profit organization. As someone who is a parent and involved in a non-profit in the education arena, I find this book incredibly energizing - it has given me some ideas for innovations to test in the non-profit context alongside the public school system. I encourage you to read it and find ways to apply the lessons in your environment as well!

I thought this book was an academic waste of time. Like sure when we use computers things are going to be disrutive, like in other industries. This book provides little in the way of what is being done well now, and the sub disruction. They use abstract examples from other industries where they sould be focused on education.

Rocket Builders most influential author, Christensen, with his co authors has taken his theory of disruptive innovation and focused on the education sector. The authors do not lay blame but with Christensen's laser sharp analysis, peel back all the root causes of public perception and changing goal posts for education and what it has done to the institution over time. He then goes on to explain how classic disruption theory - which starts with non consumers and then slowly moves up the competency level as the incumbents are forced to retreat to higher value activities is already progressing in education. He predicts that by 2020, disruptive innovation will hit that 50% mark to turn the tables on other methods (monolithic education in this case) . They show how trying to bring the disruption inside present institutions can not succeed due to the constraints that are already in place. His statements ring true as we have seen the impact of disruption on public and private sector already.

Since his team always does their homework, you are exposed to fascinating research on the impact of verbalization on new borns up to 3 years old. They explain how that is an academic headstart any parent can give their child now. He posits that early kindergarten (after 3 yrs old) and other high priced interventions are doomed to a limited success rate. As well he quickly exposes the paucity (weak techniques and theory) of real research in education since it all to often stops short of causality ( I can certainly testify to that) . Then he explains how computer based education methods are already changing and adapting to the needs of a student centric model. He illustrates how Howard Gardners multiple modes of learning could be accomodated in the disruptive model.

Once again there is a second book within the book with copious research notes in every chapter. I am one of those professional educators who packed it in based on what I experienced as the overall futility of real change in education. Now this book has reawakened my interest in change in the education market - moving to a student centric model. If you have children or grandchildren - you need to buy and read this book. If you are in the e-learning market - it is required reading. Thank you McGraw Hill! I really liked it and it is as always an easy read with loads of detail if you want it.

"Disrupting Class" is a very interesting read for people interested in improving education here in the U.S. Dr. Christensen argues that the main problem with traditional schools is that they cannot provide individualized instruction that best meets each student's needs. As a home educator, I couldn't agree with him more. He sees computer-based learning as a "disruptive innovation" that will solve the problem of how to provide this type of "student-centric" learning to the masses (since not everyone can homeschool or hire a tutor for their offspring).

Dr. Christensen revisits the argument from his earlier book "The Innovator's Dilemma" that "disruptive innovations" don't initially compete directly against the current market leader's product but rather against nonconsumption. For example, in the '70's Digital had a very successful market for $200k minicomputers. Apple couldn't directly compete with DEC's minicomputers because their personal computers weren't good enough at the time to solve the problems that DEC's customers had. So Apple marketed its IIe PC as a relatively affordable toy for kids. Kids were nonconsumers so it didn't matter to them that the Apple wasn't as powerful as the existing DEC minicomputers. A few years down the road, however, improvements in PC technology rendered DEC's minicomputers obsolete.

Dr. Christensen argues that the traditional government-run education system will in the near future be "disrupted" by the innovation of computer-based learning. At first, online learning will compete against nonconsumption by offering classes in subjects where there isn't enough demand in any given school to justify offering a traditional course (such as a very advanced math one or an unusual foreign language). But eventually, He believes that the technology will improve such that computer-based learning will render the traditional model of education obsolete.

In "Disrupting Class", he postulates that demand for computer-based high school classes will follow an S-curve that will start to "flip" (significantly accelerate) in the year 2012. In the years between 2012 and 2018, Dr. Christensen projects that the share of online courses will grow from 5% to 50% of all high school courses. That timetable seems a bit ambitious to me personally, but I believe he's got the basic right idea about the growth in the demand for online classes.

The main problem I had with "Disrupting Class" is with the way it is written. It reads like a management consultant's report filled with buzzwords and jargon (not surprisingly Dr. Christensen used to work for BCG). It would've been much better had someone else gone through the authors' draft and re-written it in plain English. I found it very tiresome to have to stop constantly to figure out what exactly the authors actually meant by all their convoluted gobbledygook. Throwing buzzwords and jargon into nearly every sentence doesn't make the authors look smarter, just much less coherent!

The other thing I would've liked to have seen discussed in "Disrupting Class" is the question of whether or not it is good for children's brains for schooling to be mostly computer-based. Dr. Jane Healey wrote a very interesting book about a decade ago called "Failure to Connect" about some worrisome research findings on the negative impact of computer use on children. Has more recent research allayed or deepened those concerns? Before our society makes the shift predicted in "Disruptive Class", shouldn't we be examining this very important question?