The second addition of Willingham’s book came out in 2021, which means he was likely working on the updated version in 2019/2020. How much has technology changed between the time he wrote this text and 2026? Of course part of the answer is that AI exploded and continues to be the driving factor in both…
Willingham, D. (2021). Why don’t students like school? (2nd Ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass. “Children do differ in intelligence, but intelligence can change through sustained hard work. It would be nice if all of our students were equally capable— if the only differences in their performance at school were due to differences in how hard they…
Throughout this year you have heard me say, “Meet them where they are.” Chapter seven is about doing just that. While we need to design lessons (or games) for a group of students targeting their general developmental level, knowledge, and skill, because each child possesses unique qualities and characteristics, contemporary education is focused on meeting…
Do students need to become “experts” in the things they are learning in school? I believe that students do not need to become “experts” in the things they are learning in school. School is the place where students get to learn new and exciting things through many different trials and errors. If teachers and administration…
“These two reasons to practice — to gain competence and to improve — are self-evident and probably not very controversial. Less obvious are the reasons to practice skills when it appears that you have mastered something and it’s not obvious that practice is making you any better. Odd as it may seem, that sort of…
“Abstraction is the goal of schooling. The teacher wants students to be able to apply classroom learning in new contexts, including outside school. The challenge is that the mind seems not to care for abstractions. The mind seems to prefer the concrete. That’s why, when we encounter an abstract principle— for example, mass X acceleration—…
“Memory is the residue of thought…To teach well, you should pay careful attention to what an assignment will actually make students think about (not what you hope they will think about), because that is what they will remember.” (p.58) I think this quote especially applies to what we are trying to do for the children…
Quote 1: “So factual knowledge in long-term memory allows chunking, and chunking increases space in working memory” (page 34). Earlier in the semester our class talked about how people can easily learn around 7 chunks of information. Similarly when reading this chapter I found a quote that talked about chunking. In this case, the author…
Quote 1: “Of course you could make each decision with care and thought. When someone encourages you to “think outside the box” that’s usually what he means – don’t go on autopilot, don’t do what you (or others) have always done. Consider what life would be like if you always strove to think outside the…
Core Beliefs In my mind the purpose of teaching and learning is to give guidance for students so that we help prepare them for their future. The guidance that we give students includes teaching them important social skills, caring for and understanding them, and most importantly shaping them into good human beings. I also believe…
“When little people are overwhelmed with big emotions, it is our job to share our calm, not to join their chaos.”
— L.R. Knost