Fix the Past or Invent the Future:  Moving Beyond One-Size-Fits-All Education, 2025

Fix the Past or Invent the Future: Moving Beyond One-Size-Fits-All Education, 2025

In Fix the Past or Invent the Future, acclaimed education expert Yong Zhao exposes the deep flaws in the one-size-fits-all policies and practices that have dominated classrooms for decades and left countless students behind.

Zhao takes on some of the most popular and seemingly scientific practices and beliefs in education and shows that no intervention, not even the most powerful, works for all students all the time. In Part I ,"Fix the Past," he explains
• Why probability research doesn't help classrooms.
• Why blindly applying the growth mindset can be misguided.
• Why SEL doesn't solve students' social and emotional problems in school.
• Why short-term wins in educational interventions can be long-term losses.
• Why AI doesn’t help in the traditional classroom.

But Zhao doesn't stop there. Arguing that incremental fixes to inherited practices will never be enough, he offers a bold, hopeful vision of what education could be in the age of AI: a personalized, flexible system that embraces individuality, fosters creativity, and prepares students to thrive in an ever-changing world. In Part II, "Invent the Future," Zhao explores
• How true personalization must be done by students instead of for students.
• How to help students find and solve problems.
• How human interdependence is the foundation of global competence.
• How educators can approach educational transformation with the school-within-a-school model.
• How to move forward from where we are today. (Amazon)

Read some additional reviews

Leading While Female:  A Culturally Proficient Response for Gender Equity, 2020
Leading While Female: A Culturally Proficient Response for Gender Equity, 2020

Authors:  Trudy T. Arriaga, Stacie L. Stanley, Delores B. Lindsey

Read the Review
An Education Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste:  How Radical Changes Can Spark Student Excitement and Success, 2020
An Education Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste: How Radical Changes Can Spark Student Excitement and Success, 2020

Authors: Yong Zhao, Trina E. Emler, Anthony Snethen, and Danquing Yin

Read the Review