Final Reflection

When I think about how I can use the principles in this book in my teaching, my first question is, “Where do I begin?!” I found this book to be full of wonderful information about how our brains work and how teachers can use this knowledge to our advantage. Often while reading I found that Willingham’s findings contradicted what I thought I knew about how children learn.

The first revelation Willingham revealed is that our brains are not naturally good at thinking and that curiosity is the way in which we turn our minds on to thinking about something new. For me, this means that I need to find a way to spark my students’ natural curiosities in order to get them thinking about the concepts and skills I want to teach them. However, later in the book, the author points out that if teachers use a ‘shock and awe’ demonstration to introduce a new idea; students will often only remember the demonstration and may forget all the meaning behind it. This is something that I believe to be true due to my own experiences as a student and that I will keep in mind as a teacher. Students need us to show them the connections between what they are working on and what they can learn from it; I think this is truly one of the hardest tasks a teacher faces – and yet the most important.

This book also reaffirmed in me the importance of making a personal connection with my students. Willingham states that emotion plays an important role in memory. If my students feel like I truly care about them, and if they see me as a person and not just a teacher, they will feel more connected to what I am trying to teach.

Another idea from the book that surprised me was that Willingham makes a great case for a teaching practice that has become unpopular; drilling. I found that his comments, however, make sense and make a strong case for the use of some drilling (practicing) in school. I agree that students need a strong foundation of knowledge in order to be able to learn more complex ideas later in their education. In order to achieve this, they need repeated practice. Especially in the mathematics area, this is something that I plan to implement. I feel strongly that drilling or repeated practice exercises cannot be my only curriculum, but I now see that it has a place in the classroom.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed this book and found several principles that will help me to be a better teacher.