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Why don't students like school? : A cognitive scientist answers questions about how the mind works and what it means for your classroom.
Reviewed by Jeff Greene, Assistant Professor, School of Education
Willingham, D. T. (2009). Why don't students like school? : A cognitive scientist answers questions about how the mind works and what it means for your classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Price $18.95 | 240 pages.
Daniel Willingham distills learning research into actionable implications for educational practice in his book, “Why Don’t Students Like School? A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How The Mind Works and What It Means For the Classroom.” However, his success only highlights the vast complexities of education, and the importance of seeing educators as professionals.
Willingham, clearly writing in a non-academic style for professional educators, has produced a succinct and lucid review of nine cognitive principles of learning that are (a) supported by ample empirical evidence from cognitive psychology, (b) applicable in most educational contexts, (c) likely to have sizable effects upon student performance, and (d) directly translatable to teaching practice. Many of these principles contradict common educational wisdom. For example, despite the current backlash against “standardized testing” and the desire to “teach students how to think,” Willingham shows how factual knowledge is in fact prerequisite to all other kinds of cognitive performance, including problem-solving and conceptual understanding. Likewise, while no educator wishes to subject students to the endless repetition of menial tasks (delightfully called the “drill and kill” method), the evidence is conclusive that a great deal of focused, deliberative practice time with informative feedback is needed to develop expertise in any domain.
Willingham also debunks popular educational myths that have intuitive appeal but no empirical evidence to support them, including the idea of “learning styles,” and the need to teach to “multiple intelligences.” Even praise comes under scrutiny, as Willingham draws upon research into learners’ beliefs about intelligence to demonstrate how teachers’ and parents’ frequent use of well-meaning comments such as “You’re so smart” can ultimately create students who avoid academic challenges and view learning as a threat, rather than an opportunity. I found myself nodding my head throughout this book, as much of it is an accurate and useful distillation of educational and cognitive research.
While I have various quibbles with certain details of the text, my major concern is that Willingham did not sufficiently emphasize the professional nature of teaching. Many laypeople, and some teachers, believe that there are or should be a finite, fixed set of principles or procedures for education, and the lack of such edicts represents a failure on the part of the educational research and practice communities. Willingham’s review of the literature, and recommendations for practice, provide ample evidence that while science can identify the variables relevant to effective teaching, and dismiss the practices unlikely to promote learning, ultimately educators must depend upon their knowledge, experience, and professional judgment to know how and when to implement these findings.
Teaching is no less a complex act than any other profession, and no set of principles will ever be able to fully codify the expertise necessary to be an effective educator. Willingham’s book does an excellent job of outlining our current understanding of the cognitive aspects of education, but it would be unwise to look for algorithms where there are only heuristics.
