Review: Why Don't Students Like School?: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom

Why Don't Students Like School?: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom by Daniel T. Willingham
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was skeptical because the author, a cognitive psychologist, covered many topics that I already knew about. I had gleaned wonderful reminders of why teachers should impart abstract reasoning and problem solving, about how fact-memorisation is not as useful in today’s google age. Indeed we do want our students to be able to apply principles to contexts above and beyond what they are taught in school. In the section about how expert scientists work (Chapter 6), I was encouraged about how the free-spirited me found the Singaporean Education System extremely stifling.

This segment espeically resonated with me:

"High schoolers know that laboratory exercises have predictable outcomes, so their focus is probably not on what the lab is meant to illustrate on whether they 'did it right.' Likewise, historians don't read and memorize textbooks-they work with original sources (birth certificates, diaries, contemporary newspaper accounts and the like) to construct sensible narrative interpretations of historical events. If we're not giving students practice in doing the things that historians and scientists actually do, in what sense are we teaching them history and science?" (pg 98)

Having tried unsuccessfully to conquer the GCE Advanced Levels despite having been retained for my first year (I took three years instead of the regular two). But when I went into Polytechnic, for the first time in a long time, I finally managed to succeed academically when the grading criteria involved the synthesis and study of unpredictable outcomes. Today while most of my peers are holding conventional jobs, at 27 years of age, I'm hunkered down with running my own online business. It's extremely tough, with insane working hours, and with the reality check of earning many times lesser than my peers. Oh, I'm now in year two of a bachelor's (degree) program, also doing rather well in a system that is not just about examinations. And I'm savouring every moment of it! And am seriously considering pursuing a PhD in future!

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