World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students - Softcover

Zhao, Yong

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1452203989 ISBN 13: 9781452203980

Publisher: Corwin, 2012

Synopsis

Prepare your students for the globalized world!

To succeed in the global economy, students need to function as entrepreneurs: resourceful, flexible and creative. Researcher and Professor Yong Zhao unlocks the secrets to cultivating independent thinkers who are willing and able to create jobs and contribute positively to the globalized society. This book shows how teachers, administrators and even parents can:

• Understand the entrepreneurial spirit and harness it
• Foster student autonomy and leadership
• Champion inventive learners with necessary resources
• Develop global partners and resources

About this title

About the Author

Yong Zhao currently serves as the Presidential Chair and Director of the Institute for Global and Online Education in the College of Education, University of Oregon, where he is also a Professor in the Department of Educational Measurement, Policy, and Leadership. He is also a professorial fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Health and Education Policy, Victoria University. His works focus on the implications of globalization and technology on education. He has published over 100 articles and 20 books, including Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon: Why China has the Best (and Worst) Education System in the World, Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization and World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students. He is a recipient of the Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association and was named one of the 2012 10 most influential people in educational technology by the Tech & Learn Magazine. He is an elected fellow of the International Academy for Education. His latest book World Class Learners has won several awards including the Society of Professors of Education Book Award (2013), Association of Education Publishers’ (AEP) Judges’ Award and Distinguished Achievement Award in Education Leadership(2013).

See flyers for Zhao′s books Never Send a Human to Do a Machine′s Job and the World Class Learners bundle.

Review

"In this important book, Yong Zhao demonstrates persuasively that the race for higher test scores is harmful to our society. It contradicts the need to develop our young people′s creativity and entrepreneurship. If we ignore Yong Zhao′s warning, we risk hurtling back to an industrial model of standardization and conformity. What is needed most now, he reminds us, is freedom to think, freedom to invent, and freedom to differ from bureaucratically devised norms." Author: Diane Ravitch

"Professor Yong Zhao′s latest book, World Class Learners, is unusual, wide-ranging, provocative, and amusing. Dr. Zhao himself exemplifies the creative entrepreneur, someone who roams across disciplines to synthesize new ideas based on insight and research. Having spent his youth in China and his adulthood in the U. S. gives him a clear-eyed view of the strengths and weaknesses of schooling in both the East and the West. His account of the unexpected consequences of well-intentioned policy should be read by every policymaker, from education secretaries to school board members. Teachers and parents will also benefit from his views on educating children to be creative, independent thinkers." Author: Milton Chen, Former Executive Director, The George Lucas Education Foundation Published On: 2012-06-28

"Yong Zhao dares to challenge prevailing "standardized" education policies and practices in favor of more individualized, holistic approaches that tap into and enhance the talents of every child enabling all children to be better prepared to live productively in a globalized society. Zhao′s book portrays a new global entrepreneurship paradigm for teaching and learning in our schools and imparts a sense of urgency and call to action for education policy makers everywhere to shift away from standardization to globalization for the sake of our children and the well-being of our nation. Zhao′s thoughtful and thought-provoking vision will inspire educators and his global entrepreneurship paradigm is bound to intrigue, inform and enhance their practice.
The National Association of Elementary School Principals applauds Yong Zhao′s vision and encourages educators to draw upon his new global entrepreneurship education paradigm for inspiration and practical ideas for engaging students and enhancing their talents and exceptionality." Author: Gail Connelly, Executive Director Published On: 2012-07-03

"Zhao zeroes in on entrepreneurship and the sorts of open-ended learning that produce creative problem-solvers most likely to succeed in the competitive world of business. In spite of the obstacles our mania for test scores have put in the way, Zhao shows us how educators and students are succeeding on this path." Author: Anthony Cody, Writer

“Professor Zhao has provided a different and compelling view of what education can and should be if we want to remain the global, creative, entrepreneurial, innovation nation going forward. Policy makers at every level need to read and act on the ideas in this book as though our future depends on it. Because it does.” Author: Tom Watkins, Former Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction

"Yong Zhao has provided the most compelling case I have read that many (mainly Western) nations are on the wrong track in educational reform. The unrelenting focus on high-stakes testing, the narrowing of the curriculum, and the continuing faith in outdated models of schooling ensure that they are short-changing students and weakening their societies and economies. The good news in this book is that there are outliers of preferred practice in schools around the world. The challenge is to provide schools with the autonomy to innovate with an entrepreneurial spirit and to resist the pressures for more centralized command-and-control approaches to change in schools." Author: Brian Caldwell, Professor, University of Melbourne

"The 21st Century Education movement requires us to be more intentional and purposeful about the outcomes that will help our students become 21st century citizens and be successful in the new global economy. In his latest book, World Class Learners, Yong Zhao has forcefully challenged us to focus on entrepreneurship and innovation. Zhao has established himself as one of the most compelling voices in 21st century education. He is not an ed reformer, trying to improve our performance within the old system. He is truly an ed transformer, trying to articulate the outcomes that will matter most to our 21st century students. Yong Zhao continues to ′lead the way′."
Author: Ken Kay, CEO of EdLeader21, Founding President of Partnership for 21st Century Skills, co-author, The Leader′s Guide to 21st Century Education: 7 Steps for Schools and Districts Published On: 2012-05-17

“Many of us who study innovation struggle with ways to domesticate the unruly habits of creative entrepreneurs into a useful framework for education and learning. Dr. Yong Zhao’s World Class Learners brings the lessons of global entrepreneurs home to the 21st century classroom, at a moment when those lessons are sorely needed. World Class Learners is a timely and important contribution to our understanding of the relationship between practical skills, creativity and technology in preparing young people for an entrepreneurial world.” Author: Rob Salkowitz, Author Published On: 2012-05-17

"Rarely do I read a well written and engaging book that offers a research-based critique of current practices in education with a workable prescription for the future. World Class Learners is such a book. Moreover, its implications for the field of teacher preparation are profound, and the ideas presented in the book should become the basis for significant discussion within our field. As Zhao points out, the world is changing so rapidly, and the context that our schools and institutions of higher education confront is so dynamic that we must embrace the need for change and make adjustments or potentially lose the franchise for preparing the next generation of educators. This book should be required for all those interested in education, but most significantly, those preparing for careers in the field." Author: Rick Ginsberg, Dean of the School of Education Published On: 2012-06-14

"World Class Learners contains a clear call for teacher preparation to begin producing teachers capable of thinking differently about the purposes of schooling. If we ignore our opportunity to do so, our future is, at best, uncertain." Author: Mark Girod, Chair, Division of Teacher Education Published On: 2012-06-14

Edition details

• Publisher: Corwin
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1452203989
• ISBN 13: 9781452203980
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288