The digested read: Why Don't Students Like School? by Daniel Willingham
Education Sense4 Jun 2025

The digested read: Why Don't Students Like School? by Daniel Willingham

Welcome to Education Sense, a new podcast from the team behind The Rest is Education!

This week's episode is brought to you by David Marshall and Isabel Rich. Together with teacher, Steph Vega, we'll be discussing Daniel Willingham's seminal education text Why Don't Students Like School? We will summarise what the book is about and also tease out some of the practical tips about how we can all become better classroom teachers. It's an episode that covers theory about how the brain learns but also some usable strategies for all.

Resources:

The first edition of Why Don't Students Like School? came out in 2009 with a new updated edition published in 2021: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55874986-why-don-t-students-like-school

Brief mention is also made of Daniel Willingham's new book, Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy. We recommend this book as a great resource for FE students and those studying for higher level exams: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59366180-outsmart-your-brain

In this episode, we use a Thinking Routine from Harvard Project Zero to guide the discussion and enable us to get to the heart of some of the cognitive principles raised in the book. We chose CONNECT, EXTEND, CHALLENGE as our Thinking Routine: https://pz.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Connect%20Extend%20Challenge_0.pdf

Steph is EDIJ coordinator and Head of Constructive Thinking at a primary school in North London. You can find out more about Harvard Project Zero, beloved of Steph and our teacher learning community: https://pz.harvard.edu/

Episoder(32)

How do we build a culture of learning in schools?

How do we build a culture of learning in schools?

For our final episode of the year, David interviews Shane Leaning, Head of Teaching Development at Nord Anglia, China. Shane is responsible for professional development at eleven bilingual schools acr...

14 Des 202258min

How do teachers become better teachers?

How do teachers become better teachers?

Teachers are lifelong learners. Like many professions, CPD sits at the heart of the career and is an essential aspect of personal growth and pupil impact. But what actually is effective CPD and how do...

8 Des 20221h 8min

How can we use the World Cup as a teachable moment?

How can we use the World Cup as a teachable moment?

This week, Aaron attempts to persuade David to use the Qatar Football World Cup as a teaching opportunity. Tune in to find out whether he was successful and for some ideas as to how you could begin th...

30 Nov 202234min

How do we teach for a sustainable future?

How do we teach for a sustainable future?

Following the interview in E04, Aaron, David and Ross discuss ways in which the Sustainable Development Goals can be taught in a variety of settings.As promised in the episode, here is a list of resou...

23 Nov 202246min

How are we teaching the Sustainable Development Goals?

How are we teaching the Sustainable Development Goals?

With COP27 taking place this week, Ross invites fellow sustainable development enthusiasts Helen Sundaram and Eve Jardine-Young onto the pod to discuss the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals...

16 Nov 20221h 14min

Why are teachers staying in the profession?

Why are teachers staying in the profession?

With the majority of new entrant teachers leaving the profession within five years, Aaron, Ross and David explore the reasons why and where teachers are remaining in the profession.

9 Nov 202229min

Why are teachers leaving the profession?

Why are teachers leaving the profession?

With teachers fleeing the profession like never before, Ross, Aaron and David discuss the factors driving this mounting problem. Is it pay, working conditions, lifestyle change, the aftermath of Covid...

2 Nov 202232min

What is Gamification?

What is Gamification?

There can be little doubt that children enjoy playing games and gamification appears to be taking the world of education by storm. Gamifying the classroom has become so accepted over the last decade b...

8 Okt 202232min

Populært innen Fakta

fastlegen
dine-penger-pengeradet
relasjonspodden-med-dora-thorhallsdottir-kjersti-idem
foreldreradet
treningspodden
rss-strid-de-norske-borgerkrigene
mikkels-paskenotter
jakt-og-fiskepodden
sinnsyn
takk-og-lov-med-anine-kierulf
hverdagspsyken
rss-sunn-okonomi
gravid-uke-for-uke
rss-kunsten-a-leve
rss-bisarr-historie
tomprat-med-gunnar-tjomlid
rss-kull
hagespiren-podcast
rss-var-forste-kaffe
fryktlos