Changing the Status Quo

Have you ever wondered where the ever expanding layers of bureaucracy are taking us in the field of education? This book challenges us to think carefully about this question. The status quo in education consists of policies, practices, and power structures impacting the way we teach, and prevent students from learning in meaningful and significant ways. Assessment techniques drive our teaching practices resulting in a learning process that students strongly dislike. Technology like PowerPoint presentations and clickers force students to pay attention to lectures, but the end result is the same-memorizing information for exams. It is causing students to become less focused on comprehending what they read. It is also physically changing the way students read focusing on small sound bites on what they believe is necessary to remember for tests. Discriminating against students of color continues to be a prevalent problem as well. Data show that white educators consist of a huge majority often lacking cultural awareness in our classrooms. Reading this book will inspire you to become a courageous educator and implement meaningful changes in your classroom on how to asses your students, what kind and how much technology to use, and how to sensitively treat educators and students of color.

Scott Wurdinger's new book is a challenge to educators and others who approach education with a “one size fits all” approach to educating our students.  Hopefully we will heed his call for educators to be courageous and confront the status quo in their classrooms to empower their students in ways that allow them to be critical agents in transforming their world., Dr. Wurdinger's latest book, Changing the status quo: Courage to challenge the education system is a must read for educators, leaders and policy makers to better understand the need for transformation in American education.  He addresses some of the primary barriers we face in educational policy and practice that must be solved in order to create the schools our students need. The book clearly defines the current challenges that contribute to stifling the innovative approaches and mindsets that have the potential to engage students and create the conditions for every student to meet their true potential.  The book provides examples and solutions to these barriers and provides us with the vehicles for hope and courage for a better tomorrow., This book forcefully challenges the existing system of assessment in U.S. schools and colleges and the type of instruction it promotes: instruction that limits students' learning and does not speak to their passions, nor prepare them for life beyond school. I hope many educators will heed Scott Wurdinger's call for experiential, active, project-based learning, along with his warnings about the blind use of technology in education and the need for attention to issues of racial equity., Scott Wurdinger’s examination of three conditions that present impediments to many students is a must-read for leaders and faculty across the education spectrum.  Top-down assessment, blind faith in technology, and deeply-rooted racial discrimination limit the success of individual students.  Wurdinger goes on to provide a compelling case for the power of experiential learning and individual perseverance.  Faculty participating in the annual Institute for Pedagogy in the Liberal Arts at Oxford College of Emory University have benefited from Professor Wurdinger's wisdom.

Scott Wurdinger is a professor of experiential education and leadership studies at Minnesota State University in Mankato. His most recent book is The Power of Project-Based Learning published by Rowman and Littlefield.