Daniel T. Willingham (born 1961) is a

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

, where he is a professor in the Department of Psychology. Willingham's research focuses on the application of findings from

cognitive psychology Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and reasoning. Cognitive psychology originated in the 1960s in a break from behaviorism, which ...

and

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, development ...

to K–12 education. Willingham earned his BA from

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

and his PhD under William Kaye Estes and Stephen Kosslyn in

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. During the 1990s and into the early 2000s, his research focused on the brain mechanisms supporting

learning Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, value (personal and cultural), values, attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some machine learning, machines ...

, the question of whether different forms of

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...

are independent of one another and how these hypothetical systems might interact. Since 2002, Willingham has written th
"Ask the Cognitive Scientist" column
for the '' American Educator'' published by the American Federation of Teachers. In 2009, he published ''Why Don't Students Like School'', which received positive coverage in ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' and ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''. 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 and has cautioned against the empty application of neuroscience in education. He has advocated for teaching students scientifically proven study habits, and for a greater focus on the importance of knowledge in driving

reading comprehension Reading comprehension is the ability to process text, understand its meaning, and to integrate with what the reader already knows. Fundamental skills required in efficient reading comprehension are knowing meaning of words, ability to understand ...

. In his book ''"Why Don't Students Like School?"'' he provides nine fundamental principles that can effectively be applied to classroom use by teachers in an effort to help them understand how students' minds work, and to show how to use that knowledge to be a better teacher. He suggests it is more useful to view the human species as bad at thinking rather than as cognitively gifted. He argues the brain is not designed for thinking, it's designed to save you from having to think. He states in his book that this is because thinking is slow, effortful, and uncertain. Instead, we often rely on memory for the vast majority of decisions we make, and while

is not always reliable, it is much more reliable than having to stop and think about every single step of every decision you need to make (for example, driving a car). He also suggests, despite the fact that our brains are not very good at thinking, we actually ''like'' to think. He reaffirms the well known idea that humans are naturally curious. However, the conditions have to be just right for curiosity to take hold (not too easy, not too hard) similar to Vygotsky's zone of proximal development. For example, a joke is always funnier when you get it without needing it to be explained. He suggests this is because of the

dopamine Dopamine (DA, a contraction of 3,4-dihydroxyphenethylamine) is a neuromodulatory molecule that plays several important roles in cells. It is an organic compound, organic chemical of the catecholamine and phenethylamine families. Dopamine const ...

released by the brain's natural

reward system The reward system (the mesocorticolimbic circuit) is a group of neural structures responsible for incentive salience (i.e., "wanting"; desire or craving for a reward and motivation), associative learning (primarily positive reinforcement and class ...

whenever we solve a problem.

Books

*''Cognition: The Thinking Animal'' (4 editions: 2001, 2004, 2007, 2019: Prentice Hall, Cambridge University Press) *''Current Directions in Cognitive Science'' (Ed., with

Barbara Spellman Barbara Anne ("Bobbie") Spellman is a professor of law and professor of psychology at the University of Virginia. Trained first as a lawyer, then as a cognitive psychologist, her work spans the two fields. As an academic psychologist, Spellman's ...

: 2005: 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 2009, 2020: Jossey-Bass) *''When Can You Trust the Experts?: How to Tell Good Science from Bad in Education'' (2012: Jossey-Bass) *''Raising Kids Who Read: What Parents and Teachers Can Do'' (2015: Jossey-Bass) *''The Reading Mind: A Cognitive Approach to Understanding How the Mind Reads'' (2017: Jossey-Bass) *''Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy'' (2023: Gallery Books)

Articles

Students Remember. . . What They Think About. ''American Educator'', Summer 2003.

Reframing the Mind. ''Education Next'', Summer 2004.

* ttp://www.readingrockets.org/article/21409/ Critical Thinking: Why Is It So Hard to Teach? ''American Educator'', Summer 2007.
How educational theories can use neuroscientific data. ''Mind, Brain, and Education, 1'', 140–149. (With John Lloyd)

21st century skills: The challenges ahead. ''Educational Leadership'', #67, 16–21. (With Andrew Rotherham)

Unlocking the Science of How Kids Think. ''EducationNext'', Summer 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Willingham, Daniel T. 1961 births American cognitive scientists Living people University of Virginia faculty Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Duke University alumni