NEW PARADIGM
A curated collection of academic works by Yong Zhao and Ruojun Zhong, exploring transformative ideas in education — from curriculum reform and the purpose of schooling to the revolutionary impact of artificial intelligence on learning.
The Double-Helix Logic of Curriculum: Reframing Universality and Personalization in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
March 2026
This article examines how education systems should redefine what and how students learn in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). It critiques the persistence of universalist frameworks that prescribe a single profile of the “ideal graduate” and argues for a double-helix logic of curriculum that balances universality with personalization. The article synthesizes insights from multiple disciplines and draws on cases from multiple countries, integrating multiple conceptual frameworks to evaluate the limitations of one-size-fits-all approaches and illustrate a more dynamic and integrated framework. Analysis reveals that prevailing reforms continue to reinforce uniformity. Instead, what we need is a curriculum logic that ensures that all students acquire societal and ethical foundations while enabling them to pursue personalizable strengths, passions, and real-world applications.
The Death and Rebirth of Research in Education in the Age of AI: Problems and Promises
August 2025
This article critically examines the enduring problems and emerging possibilities of educational research in light of rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI). It seeks to understand why educational research has struggled to influence practice and policy meaningfully and explores how AI necessitates a fundamental rethinking of research purposes, methods, and epistemologies. The article identifies and analyzes seven major problems in traditional educational research, including flaws in peer review, quantification bias, methodological fragmentation, overgeneralization, neglect of individual learner diversity, limited educational imagination, and narrow outcome measures. It then explores how AI technologies challenge and reshape core assumptions about knowledge production and educational inquiry.
From Meritocracy to Human Interdependence: Redefining the Purpose of Education
July 2025
This paper critiques meritocracy’s foundational assumptions, arguing that its focus on ranking individuals according to flawed metrics fosters unhealthy competition, overlooks diverse human talents, fails to account for unequal starting points, and ultimately hinders both individual fulfillment and societal progress. We propose an alternative framework, the Human Interdependence Paradigm, which redefines the purpose of education. HIP emphasizes cultivating unique individual greatness. It posits that the value of this greatness is realized through applying it to solve meaningful real-world problems for others, fostering a sense of purpose and mutual reliance.
Yong Zhao, Trilogy of AI and Education Revolution
February 2025
This collection brings together a trilogy of groundbreaking works exploring AI’s transformative impact on education. Featuring contributions from leading scholars, the series examines why international borrowing is no longer sufficient for improving education in China, tackles the challenge of measuring what truly matters in education, and investigates the side effects of large-scale assessments. The trilogy also addresses rethinking education amid and after the COVID-19 pandemic, educating for a technology-transformed world, and ending the grammar of schooling through artificial intelligence. Together, these works chart a bold new course for educational reform in the age of AI.
Paradigm Shifts in Education: An Ecological Analysis
October 2024
This collection presents an ecological analysis of paradigm shifts in education, bringing together a comprehensive series of articles that examine the fundamental transformations reshaping learning and teaching. From shifting the education paradigm beyond international borrowing to rethinking what we measure and value in education, these works explore how large-scale assessments, technology, and artificial intelligence are driving a reconceptualization of schooling. The collection culminates with a spatiotemporal analysis of how education paradigm shifts are unfolding in the age of AI, offering a systemic view of the forces reshaping education worldwide.
Artificial Intelligence and Education: End the Grammar of Schooling
August 2024
This article explores how artificial intelligence can fundamentally transform the structures and practices of education that have persisted for over a century — what has been called the “grammar of schooling.” It examines why these deeply entrenched patterns of age-graded classrooms, standardized curricula, and uniform assessments have resisted change despite decades of reform efforts. The article argues that AI presents a unique opportunity to finally disrupt these patterns by enabling truly personalized learning experiences, reimagining the role of teachers, and creating new possibilities for how, when, and where learning occurs.