With its focus on good teaching practice and the learning styles of pupils, this book will make for interesting reading for teachers and other educational professionals keen to examine the best ways to help pupils learn.
Why don't students like school?: a cognitive scientist answers questions about how the mind works and what it means for the classroom
Synopsis
In his 2009 book, Professor Dan Willingham sets out to explain how teaching in schools can better tailor itself to pupils’ learning habits by changing schooling into an activity rather than a chore. Over the course of his book Willingham looks at nine basic cognitive principles that should inform good teaching practice in order to help pupils get the most out of school.
Amongst these nine he highlights the importance of learning in the context of things we already know; that proficiency requires practice; that ‘intelligence’ can be changed through sustained hard work; and that teaching, like any complex cognitive skill, must be practiced to be improved.
His book will help teachers improve their teaching by explaining how they and their pupils think and learn. He reveals the importance of story, emotion, memory, context, and routine in building core knowledge, and creating lasting learning experiences.