Why Don’t Students Like School?
In his foundational book, Willingham explains cognitive science research in accessible language. In his exploration of working memory, attention, motivation, and the “simple model of learning,” Willingham offers the most-quoted line in this field: “memory is the residue of thought.”
Powerful Teaching
Deep dive into retrieval practice and spaced learning. Translates cognitive science research into practical working memory strategies for classroom use. Essential for teacher professional development workshops on evidence-based education.
make it stick: The Science of Successful Learning
Essential reading for cognitive science for teachers. This book translates research on retrieval practice, spaced learning, and interleaving into practical evidence-based teaching strategies. Perfect for teacher professional development and understanding how brain-based teaching works.
Teaching and Learning Illuminated: The Big Ideas, Illustrated
To make the complexities of cognitive science clear and useful, two psychologists team up with an illustrator to make the most important ideas visually resonant. Teaching and Learning Illuminated clarifies the subtleties of research without oversimplifying.
WalkThru: 5-Step Guides to Build Great Teaching
Sherrington and Caviglioli break complex research down into straightforward classroom guidance — with ideas on everything from classroom behavior to peer-supported retrieval practice to the optimal ways to spend the last ten minutes of class. WalkThru explains both the how and the why for dozens of research-informed strategies.
NeuroTeach: Brain Science and the Future of Education
Glenn Whitman and Ian Kelleher — classroom teachers both — helped found one of the most important organizations that applies the science of learning in schools and classrooms. They also co-wrote Neuroteach: Brain Science and the Future of Education. This book welcomes teachers to the field with both research chops and classroom experience.
The Perpetual Now: A Story of Amnesia, Memory, and Love
Lemonick’s The Perpetual Now tells the story of a famous artist—Lonni Sue Johnson, whose work you’ve seen in the New Yorker—whose hippocampi were destroyed by meningitis. Unable to convert new experience into long-term memory, Johnson—like the famous H. M. before her—lives always in the present. Lemonick tells her story, and the truths about memory that […]
Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain
Blakemore’s Inventing Ourselves rests on this premise: adolescents are not broken adults. They’re doing essential developmental work necessary for the transition from childhood to adulthood. As one of the key researchers in this field, Blakemore knows the essential points thoroughly, and explains them with clarity and humor. She’s reasonable, practical, and wonderfully well-informed.
Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls through the Seven Transitions to Adulthood
Untangled, by Lisa Damour, considers seven transitions from childhood to adulthood: for instance, the ever-popular “Contending with Adult Authority.” (It’s a good thing.) With her experience as a college professor, K-12 school counselor, family therapist, and parent, Damour has all the perspective – and humor – necessary to clarify this subject. Although written for parents […]
Ace That Test: A Student’s Guide to Learning Better
Few teams are better qualified to write a book on studying well than the Learning Scientists. If you know a student (high school or older) looking for such a book, start with Ace That Test