Daniel t willingham biography for kids
Daniel T. Willingham
American cognitive psychologist
Daniel T. Willingham (born ) is a psychologist at the University of Virginia, where he is a professor in the Department of Psychology. Willingham's research focuses on the application of findings from cognitive psychology and neuroscience to K–12 education.
Willingham earned his BA from Duke University and his PhD under William Kaye Estes and Stephen Kosslyn in cognitive psychology from Harvard University. During the s and into the early s, his research focused on the brain mechanisms supporting learning, the question of whether different forms of memory are independent of one another and how these hypothetical systems might interact.
Since , Willingham has written the "Ask the Cognitive Scientist" column for the American Educator published by the American Federation of Teachers.
In , he published Why Don't Students Like School, which received positive coverage in The Wall Street Journal[1] and The Washington Post.[2]
Willingham is known as a proponent of the use of scientific knowledge in classroom teaching and in education policy. He has sharply criticized learning styles theories as unsupported[3] and has cautioned against the empty application of neuroscience in education.[4] He has advocated for teaching students scientifically proven study habits,[5][6] and for a greater focus on the importance of knowledge in driving reading comprehension.[7]
In his book "Why Don't Students Like School?" he provides nine fundamental principles that can help teachers understand how students' minds work and improve their approach to teaching.
He suggests that it is more useful to view the human species as bad at thinking, rather than cognitively gifted. He argues that the brain is not primarily designed for thinking through decisions; rather, it's designed to save you from having to do that. Because thinking is slow, effortful, and uncertain, we rely on memory for the vast majority of decisions we make.
While memory is not always reliable, on balance it is much more effective than having to stop and think about every step of every decision you need to make (for example, when driving a car). He also suggests that, even though our brains are not very good at thinking, we actually like to think. While humans are naturally curious, the conditions have to be just right for curiosity to take hold (not too easy, not too hard).
This idea is similar to Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (for example, a joke is funnier when you understand it without needing it to be explained).
Daniel t willingham biography for kids pictures On a deeper level, reading comprehension requires an understanding of individual words, what those words mean when they are put together to form a sentence, and how sentences connect to each other. I hold the copyright for none of the other articles. Contents move to sidebar hide. RetrievedHe suggests that this is because of the dopamine released by the brain's natural reward system whenever we solve a problem.
Books
- Cognition: The Thinking Animal (4 editions: , , , Prentice Hall, Cambridge University Press)
- Current Directions in Cognitive Science (Ed., with Barbara Spellman: Prentice Hall)
- Why Don't Students Like School?: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom (2 editions , Jossey-Bass)
- When Can You Trust the Experts?: How to Tell Good Science from Bad in Education ( Jossey-Bass)
- Raising Kids Who Read: What Parents and Teachers Can Do ( Jossey-Bass)
- The Reading Mind: A Cognitive Approach to Understanding How the Mind Reads ( Jossey-Bass)
- Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy ( Gallery Books)
Articles
- Students Remember.
. .
Daniel t willingham biography for kids age Inspired by evidence-based practice? Link to website. In short, pupils need to know lots of facts and know them well; thinking skills cannot be deployed effectively without factual knowledge. Administrator Jobs.What They Think About. American Educator, Summer
- Reframing the Mind. Education Next, Summer
- The Myth of Learning Styles. Change, September–October
- Critical Thinking: Why Is It So Hard to Teach?Daniel t willingham biography for kids Gain insights, strategies, and tools to implement equitable, evidence-based practices; support teacher growth; and drive schoolwide literacy success. Events and Webinars. Read Edit View history. Scientists Say It's Unlikely".
American Educator, Summer
- How educational theories can use neuroscientific data. Mind, Brain, and Education, 1, – (With John Lloyd)
- 21st century skills: The challenges ahead. Educational Leadership, #67, 16– (With Andrew Rotherham)
- Unlocking the Science of How Kids Think.
EducationNext, Summer
References
- ^Chabris, Chris (April 27, ). "How to Wake Up Slumbering Minds". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved
- ^Matthews, Jay (April 11, ). "The Thinking Behind Critical Thinking Courses". The Washington Post. Retrieved
- ^Neighmond, Patti (August 29, ).
Biography for 2nd graders: As college educators, we should apply this to the classroom by continuing to present information in the most appropriate manner for our content and for the level of prior knowledge, ability, and interests of that particular set of students. Sign In Subscribe. Calendar View. Instead, he suggests that the ability to think critically relies on teaching pupils multiple sets of knowledge, so they can apply these different perspectives to various topics and approach problems from a more holistic understanding.
"Think You're An Auditory or Visual Learner? Scientists Say It's Unlikely". National Public Radio. Retrieved
- ^Higgins, John (July 11, ). "Teachers Learn Ways to Keep Students' Attention, But Are Brain Claims Valid?". Akron Beacon. Retrieved
- ^Carey, Benedict (May 12, ). "Less Talk, More Action: Improving Science Learning".
The New York Times.
Online biography for kids Daniel Willingham has long been interested in how learning and memory work. June 13, Scientists Say It's Unlikely". Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Articles with hCards.Retrieved
- ^Belluck, Pam (January 20, ). "To Really Learn, Stop Studying and Take a Test". The New York Times. Retrieved
- ^Hirsch, E.D.; Pondiscio, R. (June 13, ). "There's No Such Thing as a Reading Test". The American Prospect.