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

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

by Clayton M. Christensen, Curtis Johnson

3.75 · rating details · 248 ratings · 83 reviews

Selected as one of the "Best Books on Innovation, 2008" by "BusinessWeek" magazine

Named the "Best Human-Capital Book of 2008" by "Strategy + Business" magazine

A crash course in the business of learning-from the bestselling author of "The Innovator's Dilemma" and "The Innovator's Solution."..

"Provocatively tit

...more

Selected as one of the "Best Books on Innovation, 2008" by "BusinessWeek" magazine

Named the "Best Human-Capital Book of 2008" by "Strategy + Business" magazine

A crash course in the business of learning-from the bestselling author of "The Innovator's Dilemma" and "The Innovator's Solution."..

"Provocatively titled, "Disrupting Class" is just what America's K-12 education system needs--a well thought-through proposal for using technology to better serve students and bring our schools into the 21st Century. Unlike so many education 'reforms, ' this is not small-bore stuff. For that reason alone, it's likely to be resisted by defenders of the status quo, even though it's necessary and right for our kids.
We owe it to them to make sure this book isn't merely a terrific read; it must become a blueprint for educational transformation."
--Joel Klein, Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education

"A brilliant teacher, Christensen brings clarity to a muddled and chaotic world of education."
--Jim Collins, bestselling author of "Good to Great"

According to recent studies in neuroscience, the way we learn doesn't always match up with the way we are taught. If we hope to stay competitive-academically, economically, and technologically-we need to rethink our understanding of intelligence, reevaluate our educational system, and reinvigorate our commitment to learning. In other words, we need "disruptive innovation."

Now, in his long-awaited new book, Clayton M. Christensen and coauthors Michael B. Horn and Curtis W. Johnson take one of the most important issues of our time-education-and apply Christensen's now-famous theories of "disruptive" change using a wide range of real-life examples. Whether you're a school administrator, government official, business leader, parent, teacher, or entrepreneur, you'll discover surprising new ideas, outside-the-box strategies, and straight-A success stories.

You'll learn how Customized learning will help many more students succeed in schoolStudent-centric classrooms will increase the demand for new technologyComputers must be disruptively deployed to every studentDisruptive innovation can circumvent roadblocks that have prevented other attempts at school reformWe can compete in the global classroom-and get ahead in the global market

Filled with fascinating case studies, scientific findings, and unprecedented insights on how innovation must be managed, "Disrupting Class" will open your eyes to new possibilities, unlock hidden potential, and get you to think differently. Professor Christensen and his coauthors provide a bold new lesson in innovation that will help you make the grade for years to come.

The future is now. Class is in session.

(less)

Hardcover, 238 pages

Published May 14th 2008 by McGraw-Hill (first published 2008)

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Feb 10, 2009

edh rated it

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. ...more

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Dec 30, 2011

Leah Macvie rated it

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Sep 16, 2008

Brent Wilson rated it

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 exam...more

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Aug 05, 2008

Joshua rated it

There is an idea I've been hearing over and over again in many different contexts, and this book brings it up again in the context of education.

It has been said that there is no perfect Pasta Sauce.... For years the companies that produce past sauce had been trying to perfect the single perfect pasta sauce through extensive research and taste testings, and to then market it accordingly. Of course, we not realize that there are, in fact, three! Regular, Spicy, and Extra Chunky. ...moreThere is an idea I've been hearing over and over again in many different contexts, and this book brings it up again in the context of education.

It has been said that there is no perfect Pasta Sauce.... For years the companies that produce past sauce had been trying to perfect the single perfect pasta sauce through extensive research and taste testings, and to then market it accordingly. Of course, we not realize that there are, in fact, three! Regular, Spicy, and Extra Chunky. A full third of the population had been hankering for Extra Chunky pasta sauce for years, and no one had bothered to provide it for them.

One premise of "Disrupting Class" is that this same mistake has been perpetuated through decades of educational research. There are, of course, many different kinds of learners -- yet education research continues to search for the perfect school environment, instructional methodology, etc. Our problem is that we are still, over 100 years after the invention of the local school house, teaching with a one-size-fits-all approach. Each school should be able to accommodate all of its students, we often assume -- but, this is simply never the case.

First, we much divide students by their learning modalities, then allow each child to learn in the ways that that child learns best. (And rarely is this method the lecture.) The book proposes the future of computer software as a solution to this differentiation problem -- a point of view I am naturally very fond of -- by allowing the student to guide him/herself through an interactive, online curriculum at their own pace, using the student's preferred methodology, with Teacher as tutor and guide, instead of lecturer.

Secondly, the book (with it's principle author coming from the business world) borrows from the author's previous theory of Disruptive Innovation, applying those ideas to this future of a software-based education system. It says, in a nut shell, that innovation comes from products that first apply to needs that are not met by the entrenched industry. For example (I think I have this example right), the Macintosh began as a personal gaming machine. Had it attempted to directly compete with the existing minicomputers of the age, it would have been crushed, but instead it went after a previously non-existant market. As the Macintosh matured, it expanded its utility until it eventually lead to the destruction of all the mincomputers (which is why most people have probably never heard of a minicomputer).

In the case of education, the idea is that it will never change it's methods regardless of how much technology is thrown at it because it is too institutionally entrenched. No matter how many computers we put in classrooms, they are just a new kind of paper, or a new way to do research -- they do not change the WAY that students learn, or the WAY in which teachers interact with their students (although this is just beginning to change).

The book points out that many high schools throughout the country (especially small rural ones) are using software to provide courses that they simply do not have the teachers to support (AP courses are at the top of this list). It contends that, as the software continues to improve, schools will be using it more and more to augment their curriculum. Eventually, the software will reach a point that educators bring it into their classrooms to replace the existing instruction little by little.

It is a very interesting point of view that the book suggests, one that I'm inclined to hope for. There are various charts and tables of data to support the idea that software is a disruptive innovation in education, and suggestions as to how to encourage this transition. All in all, a very interesting read -- though I find it's predictions a little overly optimistic overall.(less)

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Jan 16, 2011

Vicki Davis rated it

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! Per...more

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Apr 03, 2009

Margaret added it

Some random thoughts:

1) The idea that a disruptive technology begins NOT in competition with the traditional technology, but filling a niche that was previously empty is fascinating and a bit liberating. It is liberating in that it acknowledges that the new technology is not doing, and perhaps at that point, CAN'T do what the traditional one does. Many people criticize online learning because it can't replace real interactivity of a classroom and that many online courses are ju...more

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Jan 04, 2011

Chris Aylott rated it

The author of The Innovator's Dilemma applies his theory of disruptive innovation to education, showing why it's so hard to change the current school system and predicting that a computer-based learning model will break out into mainstream use by 2019.

Christensen's theory makes a lot of sense: he claims that a well-established organization CAN'T successfully change its own fundamentals, because the gain from massive change is always much smaller than the gain from incremental change. ...more

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Apr 16, 2010

Jacqui rated it

Shelves: computer-stuff, teaching

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.

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May 19, 2009

getAbstract rated it

Fascinating look at disruptive innovation in education

The very real value of this useful and, at times, pleasantly surprising book comes from the way the authors apply their expertise in innovation to the field of education. By approaching public education’s crisis with new eyes – and conceptualizing education as a product or service like any other – Clayton M. Christensen (The Innovator’s Dilemma), Michael B. Horn and Curtis W. Johnson provide insights that escape the tired loops of...more

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Jul 09, 2011

Grace O'Keeffe rated it

Shelves: education, nonfiction

Christensen has some genuinely good ideas and places the historical demands of public schools accurately. Everyone learns differently - absolutely. Current models does not allow this to come through - agreed. However, his ideas near the end seem to champion avoid "the problems of democracy" via mayoral control. He cites NYC Bloomberg-Klein fiasco as if their power-wielding "reforms" were successful; moreover, more credit needs to be given to educators. There have been many di...more

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Jan 13, 2009

Glenn added it

According the Christensen, the education system in the US and globally is undergoing a sea change. The move from traditional (schools, paper, teacher/student) to digital (virtual schools, ebooks, user-networks) is growing at an accelerating pace. This book applies theories and models from earlier books INNOVATORS DILEMMA and INNOVATORS SOLUTIONS to education and the business of education to provide a glimpse into the future.

It's tempting for those invested in the current system to di...more

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Apr 18, 2011

Janet rated it

In this Clayton M. Christensen book, Bro. Christensen and his co-authors tackle how we learn and how education is going to change in the next decade or so. Technology disrupts learning, just as it has business and health care. I'm not sure I like all the possible changes, but I do know that our nation's schools are broken and many people are not learning by the methods of the past. Reading this made me think a lot about my own education, my own curiosity to learn, and how/if my grandchildren ...more

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Apr 23, 2009

Valerie rated it

Shelves: 2008-2009-dc, social-critique

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 te...more

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May 18, 2009

MCOH rated it

I strongly agree with Clayton Christensen's central thesis - that students should be taught individually, based on their individual strengths, learning styles, and interests. They should be able to start at their own level and proceed at their own pace, for optimum learning. I was grateful to experience a learning environment like that at my elementary Montessori school, but most public schools can't replicate the incredibly low teacher-student ratios we had (about 7:1). How can a teacher wit...moreI strongly agree with Clayton Christensen's central thesis - that students should be taught individually, based on their individual strengths, learning styles, and interests. They should be able to start at their own level and proceed at their own pace, for optimum learning. I was grateful to experience a learning environment like that at my elementary Montessori school, but most public schools can't replicate the incredibly low teacher-student ratios we had (about 7:1). How can a teacher with 30 or more students tailor the curriculum to each student? Christensen proposes that computers will enable students to work independently (with varying subject matter, level, etc.), and achieve better results than we're getting under our current one-size-fits-all system.

Bro. Christensen was my bishop while I was an undergraduate at Harvard, and he is one of the people I admire most in the world - kind, wise, loving, gentle, and brilliant. I'm excited to go hear him speak on this book later this week while he's in town.

I would have loved to have more detail in this book about how, exactly, this computerized learning will work. Bro. Christensen's background is in business, not education (he's a Harvard Business School professor), and that background is reflected in this book. He has become well-known for his model of disruptive innovation, in which an established business is threatened by a competitor who offers a similar, lower quality, but cheaper product. It's not a good enough product to market to the existing customers of the original company, but it attracts new customers, who deem the quality (at the reduced price) adequate for their needs. Gradually, the disruptive competitor is able to improve their product and increase their market share, until the original business is unable to compete. (The original business has been meanwhile hampered by its need to create a high-end product for its established customer base). Most of the anecdotes in this book are taken from businesses, rather than educational institutions. By analogy, he predicts that computerized, personalized curricula will begin as a method of teaching home-schooled students, rural students, students with unique interests (e.g. Arabic language), etc., and will gradually spread, 'til more and more subjects are available, the quality of the programs improve, and this method of learning spreads throughout the educational system.

If you're passionate about business, with a passing interest in education, you would probably love this book. [And if you're passionate about business, you might want to check out Christensen's other books on disruptive innovation - including The Innovator's Dilemma, and The Innovator's Solution:]. If (like me) you're passionate about education, with very little interest in business, you might be a little disappointed by this book. (less)

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Aug 17, 2009

LNimz rated it

Recommended to LNimz by: willrich via Twitter

Shelves: education

Strange to be reading this book, whose theme is built on the foundation that instruction needs to be highly individualized because students learn differently, right after Why Students Don't Like School which makes it clear that everyone learns in basically the same way. In Disrupting Class, Christensen briefly cites Gardner, and moves on. In the latter book author Daniel Willingham, a cognitive psychologist, thoroughly backs up the statement that we all learn in essentially the same way, debunki...moreStrange to be reading this book, whose theme is built on the foundation that instruction needs to be highly individualized because students learn differently, right after Why Students Don't Like School which makes it clear that everyone learns in basically the same way. In Disrupting Class, Christensen briefly cites Gardner, and moves on. In the latter book author Daniel Willingham, a cognitive psychologist, thoroughly backs up the statement that we all learn in essentially the same way, debunking some of Gardner's work.

While I have subscribed to the idea that we all learn differently during all of my teaching career, Willingham's argument is the stronger of the two--by far.

Christensen's attitude makes this book difficult to tolerate. He comes off as a maverick-y outsider who had a brilliant vision that no one else saw. He wrote that his colleagues came to him and asked him to use his business superpowers to analyze the problems in education. And Christensen thinks he has the answer.

It's important to note that chapter 2 is definitely worth reading. He describes the history of education in this country in a unique and worthwhile way. He also explains the disruptive innovation theory. I learned a great deal.

However, I've just finished Chapter 4 and am feeling like no other part of the book is worth the time to read. I'm not ready to quit the book yet, but I don't know how much more of this ride I can sit down for. The state of best practice instruction today is not as he describes it: monolithic. And his understanding of assessment in schools is not accurate. We don't test after the unit and shrug if students don't do well. We test before, during, and after a unit of study. Our assessments are variable and frequent. And with RtI, we are able to provide support for students who struggle.

Learning is a social activity. It is best done with people--classmates and teachers--not computers. "No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship." I agree with this idea of James Comer, but I don't think he had the HAL 9000 in mind.(less)

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Sep 13, 2009

Debbie (Readerbuzz) Nance rated it

Shelves: problems-ideas, learning

We need to find ways to help people learn better.

Everyone agrees with that statement.

Who doesn’t remember hours, days, years really, wasted listening to the drone of an instructor relating information one has already acquired? And an equal amount of time attempting to comprehend information an instructor is sharing that is so beyond one that there is no hope of understanding it?

I hoped this book would have powerful ideas for action leading to change. Instead...more

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Mar 19, 2009

Dereck Rhoads rated it

Just finished the "disrupting class" book. I think Wikinomics or Friedman's work hits the issue more directly. However, I think Christensen et al. did paint a good picture for the need of using computers to do new things. Not just "shove paper down wire" as Richardson and November put it.

Two good discussion quotes:

p. 84 "Teachers have implemented computers in the most common-sense way-to sustain their existing practices and pedagogies rather than...more

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Jan 19, 2012

Katherine rated it

Shelves: education-books, education-technology, 12-in-2012

Incredibly interesting book detailing the ways that technology can best be utilized in education. Specifically, it talks about using disruptive innovations that brings to the market a product or service that is different and competes against nothing. The overall goal is to improve student-centric learning under the philosophy that students have wildly different learning styles and our current (monolithic) education system teaches a one-style-fits-all approach when it should have a more modular a...more

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May 07, 2011

Lara rated it

I really liked the first 4 chapters of this book. I would give those chapters 5 stars. The problem with this book is the last chapter. I like the research and the ideas. I even think it is plausible that online education has a very definite place in education. It would certainly allow for very talented teachers to be in many places at once (i.e. the Khan Academy). Secondly, if you had a kid with a learning disability they could get their lessons from a teacher with that specialty. Or if the scho...more

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Aug 06, 2011

Corin added it

If education needs to be more individualized, then how can computer-based learning be the only solution? Different programs can only go so far if some children learn best by movement or collaboration or...

IOW the author undermines a good premise by using his own preferred method (flexible as it is, it's not flexible enough) as a one size fits all -- and right after he argues against one size fits all!

I was disappointed by this book.

I also disliked the use of footnotes at the end of each chapte...more

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Sep 25, 2009

Heather Burns rated it

I found this book to be OK. I have a feeling it might become the "next big thing" in education world for awhile. Many of the authors ideas made me think: "whatever". Without funding they simply cannot happen. It isn't that they aren't good ideas, having started a charter school in 2000, I've actually used some of them in practice...but they do go against the status quo in education...and are likely going to be slow to develop if they develop at all.
The author spent...more

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Jul 29, 2011

Laurie added it

There are some good ideas in the book, but it's a struggle to read because of jargon and business terminology. I wouldn't have finished it if I hadn't been reading it for a book club at work. It is true that computer-assisted instruction is better than no instruction at all, and may even work better for some students. But for my discipline, foreign languages, it's sad to contemplate people learning online in isolation, or twittering on their phones, rather than getting together with people wh...more

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Oct 01, 2011

Andrew rated it

Very interesting application of Christensen's theory of disruptive innovation to the school system. I think he does a good job of listing many of the reasons the structure of the school system makes progress, adaptation, and individualization difficult. He has identified online learning as a potential disruptive innovation that could fulfill a need that the traditional school system cannot, and he had strong arguments and some innovative ideas for how it could become more pervasive. It will be i...more

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Jul 31, 2011

Ed Ingman rated it

So, this is an interesting book. If you're wondering about the movement of education in the last 10+ years, the metanarrative if you will, then this book would definitely interest you. If you're curious about what reforms work and why, then this book would provide some interesting details. I find myself, often, in both of these situations, so I really enjoyed this book. I did wonder, throughout, how much the borrowed from the much heralded economic title, 'The Innovator's Dilemma'. This boo...more

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Aug 28, 2010

4th-8th rated it

http://www.edutopia.org/stw-online-learn...

The summary of what schools need to work on is perfect.
The author believes that the computers that fill the schools have not been utilized beyond word processing. Unless high schools do something different I believe he is correct.
The author speaks of sustaining innovation and disruptive innovation and noncomsumables and a large number of failed business ventures and how this realtes to schools not embracing the possiblities of ...more

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Jul 29, 2009

Christopher rated it

Shelves: for-the-teacher

The authors make a compelling case to support their claims that computer and web-based learning will inevitably change the nature of education in the next ten years. This change will be for the better as learning can become more student-centric with the teacher functioning as a learning facilitator.

Some acute observations are those regarding "intellectual cliques" (p. 37), which highlight how various subjects tend to cater to particular intelligence types/learning styles; ...more

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Oct 20, 2008

Rick rated it

Shelves: non-fiction, education

Clayton Christensen, the author of The Innovator’s Dilemma, makes a compelling argument for how innovation, almost always by definition disruptive, could bring profound change to the resistant world of public education. Christensen argues that education finally needs to solve the problem of how to reach every student in terms of his or her individual interests, needs, and learning styles and paces. Historically that has proved impossible. Schools are designed to deliver a monolithic instructiona...moreClayton Christensen, the author of The Innovator’s Dilemma, makes a compelling argument for how innovation, almost always by definition disruptive, could bring profound change to the resistant world of public education. Christensen argues that education finally needs to solve the problem of how to reach every student in terms of his or her individual interests, needs, and learning styles and paces. Historically that has proved impossible. Schools are designed to deliver a monolithic instructional program, says Christensen, that appeals to the dominant learning style of experts who succeeded learning the content that way. He goes on to argue that prevailing structures that resist change to individualized instruction won’t be adjusted in any radical way and for good reason, they’ve largely worked, even with the bar being continually raised and with new bars added. However, in business disruptive change happens in industries where new consumers are the vehicles for the change. Transistor radios couldn’t compete for quality of sound with big vacuum tube-based radios. They were cheap in every sense of the word. No adult listener would replace their magnificent living room radios with a plastic box that struggled to hold a signal. They came into the marketplace via new consumers, buyers who would value portability even if it came in a static-prone, tinny sounding box. Teenagers. The success in this new market rapidly funded additional innovations and eventually transistor-driven radios took the place of vacuum-tubed radios, not because they were cheaper but because they were better. Christensen uses several examples of disruptive change coming in the unguarded back door where it doesn’t compete with entrenched competence. In education he sees a new way of teaching and learning coming via computer technology, entering first in markets where there is an absence—pre-kindergarten, say, or via high school courses for students who schools have no capacity to teach students what they want to learn or high school students who are no longer in the system or on the verge of leaving if they don’t get individual attention that the system can’t provide them easily, dropouts and students in need of credit recovery. The kinds of engaged, interactive, multiple pathway instructional software, networking and monitoring programs necessary to truly transform teaching and learning will take years to develop. They will not be able to compete off the start with quality traditional curriculum and teachers at first because they will be more expensive and not as good. But then again they won’t have to because they will be reaching new or lost consumers. As the quality improves and the resources accumulate and advance the innovation will begin to disrupt traditional ways of doing school, transforming education. Christensen’s analysis and recommendations are well-presented and persuasive. After a couple hundred years of education looking more or less as it always has, in the not-too-distant future, should reason and passion and judgment rule, it will look substantively different and better.(less)

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Jun 20, 2008

Tracy rated it

i forced my poor travel companion to engage me in numerous discussions as i teased out the very interesting theories and predictions in this book (thank you rtw). definitely not the light and fluffy writing that books on education can sometimes be; instead, it is filled with interesting anecdotes/analogies to business which i appreciated and enjoyed learning about in their own right. makes me want to reconsider a career in education...
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I was inspired to write a longer review for ...morei forced my poor travel companion to engage me in numerous discussions as i teased out the very interesting theories and predictions in this book (thank you rtw). definitely not the light and fluffy writing that books on education can sometimes be; instead, it is filled with interesting anecdotes/analogies to business which i appreciated and enjoyed learning about in their own right. makes me want to reconsider a career in education...
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I was inspired to write a longer review for Amazon as I think this is an important book to read so I am posting it here too:

As someone who enjoyed her twelve years in the American public education system and believes that there is no higher calling than becoming a teacher (and does not work in education), I found this book to be fascinating - it challenged my long-held views about learning and teaching - and encouraging - which I was not expecting, given the current dismal state of so much of the American public education system. Yet Disrupting Class was a refreshing read and it has created a new discourse on a familiar topic: how to improve the American public education system.

Professor Christensen's theories of disruptive innovation are cogently explained for the unfamiliar and for those who need a refresher (like myself). The theories and their corresponding case studies are fascinating in and of themselves (think a cliff notes version of Christensen's previous books). The breadth of industries they cover creates a compelling argument to not only allow for but to encourage disruption in public education.

The authors' scholarship in innovation is evident; their prediction of when student-centric technologies (the disruptive innovation) will take hold is not conditional, rather, it is absolute: "by 2019, 50 percent of high school courses will be delivered online." I admired the authors for their willingness to walk the reader through the s-curves and logarithmic axes needed to reach this conclusion - to me, it was one of many instances in which the authors, an eclectic trio, bridge the often unnecessarily wide gap between the "business world" and the "education world." I was left wanting more detail about these "student-centric" technologies that would teach to Gardner's different intelligences but also appreciated that the authors kept to the bounds of their expertise and research.

America has struggled for years to improve public education from the top via government policy. Allowing for change from the bottom presents less risk and a lower cost of failure to the existing system. A solid understanding of Christensen's theories has brought great success to its adopters (and failure to those who have ignored it) in such a wide range of sectors that it seems almost irresponsible for anyone who cares about education to not read this book.

Disrupting Class doesn't have all the solutions, nor does it claim to. What this book does offer is a new framework within which to think about creating positive, lasting change on the type of scale needed to be meaningful and suggestions on how to realize this.

Read this book and learn the language of disruption and why simply buying more computers, aka "cramming" doesn't work. Be inspired by the work of companies such as Apex Learning, Florida Virtual School, and K12, and start your own dialogues about new student-centric technologies that will revolutionize the way the next generation learns.(less)

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Oct 20, 2010

Adam Brill rated it

Very interesting. Basically the take the principles from Innovator's Dilema (a business school classic) and apply them to improving the education system. The book is extremely well researched, entertaining, and full of well thought out ideas. I like that they don't just explain the problem , but they actually provide step-by-step solutions that are backed up by data. If you're at all interested in education or innovation in general you would probably enjoy this.

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Aug 19, 2009

Lori rated it

Okay, I will admit that this was not bad. I still have a hard time taking advice about teaching and education from someone who has never taught. Anyway, there is some valid stuff in here, mostly about how online courses are going to improve and start to be used more often. Books like this always have motivational material for teachers, but this was seriously bogged down with lame business metaphors. If you like business and teaching, this is for you! I really liked the ideas, but I'm not th...more

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About Clayton M. Christensen

Clayton M Christensen is the Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, with a joint appointment in the Technology & Operations Management and General Management faculty groups. He is best known for his study of innovation in commercial enterprises. His first book, The Innovator's Dilemma (ISBN 0-06-052199-6), articulated his theory of disruptive tec...more

More about Clayton M. Christensen...

Books by Clayton M. Christensen

The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business

The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth

Seeing What's Next: Using the Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change

The Innovator's Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care

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title link	preview: Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns
avg rating	preview: Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns Goodreads rating: 3.75 (248 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2546421.Disrupting_Class?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255675310m/2546421.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2546421.Disrupting_Class?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns by Clayton M. Christensen[/url]

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

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