Reflection on "Why Don't Students Like School."

Reflection on Daniel T. Willingham’s Book
“Why Don’t Students Like School?”

As a cognitive scientist Mr. Wellington spent the majority of the book helping his readers understand how students think and how we can use that information to help our teaching. He fooled me into thinking that’s what the book was really about. When you reach Chapter 9 you begin to realize where he is leading us. A teacher’s mind is exactly like those of his/her students. His statement on page 189 says “Teaching, like any complex cognitive skill, must be practiced to be improved.” Wellington wanted us to understand how a person’s mind works so we can put this information to work helping our own brain work better as we teach.

When he explained that we most often retrieve from our memory what we have done in the past, working on “autopilot,” it hit a nerve. After teaching for over 30 years I know how often I do just that. It is simply easier. Like my students I’m curious, but I’d rather avoid thinking (page 3.) The fact that I’m taking this class, though, is a good example of my curiosity getting me to think about wanting to improve my teaching. It is easy to see that I’m not a digital native. But I do want to use 21st century skills to improve my teaching. I’m out of my comfort zone, but I want to be a teacher that uses current best practices and tools. This class is also helping me get that practice Willington says we must have.

To help our teaching improve we must: consciously try to improve; seek feedback on our own teaching; and undertake activities for the sake of improvement, even when it doesn’t directly contribute to our own classroom (page 197.) Again, I find that our class assignments don’t always directly relate to my kindergarten classroom, but they are important for me to see the whole picture and how similar things can improve my own teaching. Relating our class to this final chapter made me feel a little better about my teaching. I have strived to keep current and even find solutions to problems that were difficult and time-consuming. Mr. Willingham’s step-by-step suggestions at the end of the book (pages 195 to 201) are the gold standard for self-improvement. I appreciated that he gave some smaller steps (pages 202-204) to take and respected the business of the world we live in. Since taking this class adds to my commitments I feel it could be considered one of those smaller steps. Eventually, though, I want to use his original suggestion to find a partner to work with and do the taping, commenting and following up. Daniel Willingham accomplished his mission. He got me to think about my own thinking and how I can use it to improve my teaching, so that my students will learn and enjoy school more!