Student-Centric Learning: Disrupting Class by Clayton Christensen

**Whoops! I was just browsing through my blog and noticed that this post was in the "draft" mode and never published... so here it is!!!**
 
Disruption toward Student-Centric Learning  

What are some alternatives to the current model?  Thinking of this model, could you recommend an alternative for each of the steps in Figure 5.1.

Looking at the public education's current "commercial system" that looks at:

• Subject-matter experts (left-brained learners) to create textbooks that are part of a "scale-intensive value-chain business,
• Curriculum experts at the state and local levels to make decisions about what textbooks to use, and
• Teachers using a method of teaching that they are products of,

we (students at USD in the credential and Master's programs) are  taught to look outside of the box and change the current teaching styles to truly help our students learn.  Now the big question is... how can this be done?  In my Methods & Psychology of Mathematics (which as a Science-focused student is REALLY difficult for me to change my way of thinking "math", but is really allowing me to grow as an educator), we have been given methods of teaching mathematics that are working in other countries like Lesson Study.  Lesson study is a professional development process that Japanese teachers engage in to examine their teaching practice, with the goal of becoming more effective. Teachers collaboratively plan, observe, and analyze actual classroom lessons then draw out implications for the design of the specific lesson, then share their findings with their colleagues.  To provide focus and direction to lesson study, the teachers select an overarching goal or theme that then serves to guide their work on all the lesson studies in their “cycle”.  Currently, Japan is excelling in math scores compared to the United States.  Lesson study includes teacher collaboration and inquiry-based learning, which is lacking in the classrooms in the United States.  On top of this, Japanese lesson study includes an open-classroom environment where observers reflect on classroom lessons as a group to help the teacher improve their practice.

If I had the opportunity to move away from a value-chain business to a facilitated user network, some things that I would change are:

• Textbooks being used as a supplement for learning, not to guide how a teacher teaches lessons;
• Collaboration between teachers across all disciplines;
• Inquiry-based that allows for students to really think and less teacher lecture;
• No standardized testing so that teachers are able to teach to their students needs rather than having to cover every little bit that is on a test;
• Continued teacher professional development;
• Individualized instruction that focuses on the needs of the students;
• More technology in the classroom.