Unlocking reading: Comprehension strategies vs. knowledge building, with Daniel Willingham, Ph.D.
Meet Our Guest(s):
Daniel Willingham, Ph.D.
Daniel Willingham, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia, where he has taught since 1992. Until about 2000, his research focused solely on the brain basis of learning and memory. Today, all of his research concerns the application of cognitive psychology to K–16 education. He is the author of several books, including the best-selling Why Don’t Students Like School? and, most recently, Outsmart Your Brain. His writing on education has appeared in 23 languages. In 2017 he was appointed by President Barack Obama to the National Board for Education Sciences.
Meet our host, Susan Lambert
Susan Lambert is Chief Academic Officer of Literacy at Amplify and host of Science of Reading: The Podcast. Throughout her career, she has focused on creating high-quality learning environments using evidence-based practices. Lambert is a mom of four, a grandma of four, a world traveler, and a collector of stories.
As the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Lambert explores the increasing body of scientific research around how reading is best taught. A former classroom teacher, administrator, and curriculum developer, she’s dedicated to turning theory into best practices that educators can put right to use in the classroom, and to showcasing national models of reading instruction excellence.
Transcripts and additional resources:
Quotes
“Your brain is really good at only bringing out the information from long-term memory that is relevant for the context. All of that's happening outside of awareness.”
“When reading is really humming, when it's really working well, it's like visual perception. You're just enjoying the view and you're oblivious to all of the cognitive machinery in the background that's letting you see.”
“Expecting that knowledge-rich curriculum is going to solve all problems… that's [not] what a reading program is. No, a reading program is multifaceted and needs to have lots of components.”
“Knowledge accrues slowly and it's going to take a while. You need to be patient.”