Why Don't Students Like School?

This insightful book explores effective learning strategies, helping educators understand why students struggle and how to improve their teaching methods. Why Don't Students Like School? offers practical solutions.

In the latest edition of Why Don't Students Like School?, cognitive psychologist Daniel Willingham offers research-based insights that combine the biological and cognitive foundations of learning with practical teaching strategies. This book serves as an essential guide for educators looking to enhance their teaching practices by understanding how both they and their students think and learn. Willingham emphasizes the significance of storytelling, emotion, memory, context, and routine in the learning process, all of which contribute to building knowledge and fostering enduring educational experiences.

This edition is enriched with updated material and draws inspiration from the most common inquiries featured in Willingham's Ask the Cognitive Scientist column in the American Educator. It tackles pressing questions such as how to equip students with necessary skills when standardized tests predominantly assess factual knowledge, why students tend to remember television content while forgetting classroom lectures, and how to adapt teaching methods to accommodate diverse learning styles. Readers will find practical solutions to these challenges within the pages of Why Don't Students Like School?.

Educators will appreciate the straightforward, evidence-based principles presented in this book, which offer clear applications for the classroom. The text encourages teachers to familiarize themselves with the latest cognitive science research and introduces effective, teacher-tested pedagogical tools. Willingham's findings reveal surprising insights, such as the necessity of factual knowledge for developing critical thinking skills, making this book a valuable resource for both new and experienced educators, as well as administrators and staff development professionals.