Why Don't Students Like School?: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom

Easy-to-apply, scientifically-based approaches for engaging students in the classroom Cognitive scientist Dan Willingham focuses his acclaimed research on the biological and cognitive basis of learning. His book will help teachers improve their practice by explaining how they and their students think and learn. It reveals-the importance of story, emotion, memory, context, and routine in building knowledge and creating lasting learning experiences. Nine, easy-to-understand principles with clear applications for the classroom Includes surprising findings, such as that intelligence is malleable, and that you cannot develop "thinking skills" without facts How an understanding of the brain's workings can help teachers hone their teaching skills "Mr. Willingham's answers apply just as well outside the classroom. Corporate trainers, marketers and, not least, parents -anyone who cares about how we learn-should find his book valuable reading." ?Wall Street Journal

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments v The Author ix Introduction 1 CHAPTER 1 Why Don?t Students Like School? 3 CHAPTER 2 How Can I Teach Students the Skills They Need When Standardized Tests Require Only Facts? 25 CHAPTER 3 Why Do Students Remember Everything That?s on Television and Forget Everything I Say? 53 CHAPTER 4 Why Is It So Hard for Students to Understand Abstract Ideas? 87 CHAPTER 5 Is Drilling Worth It?  107 CHAPTER 6 What?s the Secret to Getting Students to Think Like Real Scientists, Mathematicians, and Historians? 127 CHAPTER 7 How Should I Adjust My Teaching for Different Types of Learners? 147 CHAPTER 8 How Can I Help Slow Learners? 169 CHAPTER 9 What About My Mind? 189 Conclusion 207 End Notes 214 Index 217 Credit Lines 225

About the Author :
Daniel T. Willingham is professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, where he has taught since 1992. He writes the popular Ask the Cognitive Scientist column for American Educator magazine.

Review :
"I love the way Willingham acknowledges how hard it is to build abstract understanding while also giving very clear guidance as to where to focus our energies. That sense of being grounded in teachers' realities helps him to communicate his thoughts." (researchED, October 2018) "Drilling often conjures up images of late-19th-century schoolhouses, with students singsonging state capitals in unison without much comprehension of what they have learned," (New York Times, 2010) "But Mr. Willingham's answers apply just as well outside the classroom. Corporate trainers, marketers and, not least, parents — anyone who cares about how we learn — should find his book valuable reading." (Wall Street Journal, April 29, 2009) "Dan Willingham, rare among cognitive scientists for also being a wonderful writer, has produced a book about learning in school that reads like a trip through a wild and thrilling new country. For teachers and parents, even students, there are surprises on every page. Did you know, for instance, that our brains are not really made for thinking?" —Jay Mathews, education columnist, The Washington Post