Daniel T. Willingham

Daniel T. Willingham (born 1961) is a psychologist at the University of Virginia, where he is a professor in the Department of Psychology. Willingham's research focuses on the application of findings from cognitive psychology and neuroscience to K-12 education.
Willingham earned his B.A. from Duke University and his Ph.D. under William Kaye Estes and Stephen Kosslyn in Cognitive Psychology from Harvard University. During the 1990s and into the early 2000s his research focused on the brain mechanisms supporting learning, the question of whether different forms of memory are independent of one another and how these hypothetical systems might interact.
Since 2002 Willingham has written the "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 and Washington Post.
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 unsupportedand has cautioned against the empty application of neuroscience in educationHe has advocated for teaching students scientifically proven study habits, and for a greater focus on the importance of knowledge in driving reading comprehension.

• Cognition: The Thinking Animal (3 editions: 2001, 2004, 2007: Prentice Hall)
• Current Directions in Cognitive Science (Ed., with Barbara Spellman: 2004: Prentice Hall)
• Why Don't Students Like School? (2009: Jossey-Bass)
• When Can You Trust the Experts? (2012: Jossey-Bass)

• Students Remember. . . What They Think About. American Educator, Summer 2003.
• Reframing the Mind. Education Next, Summer 2004.
• The Myth of Learning Styles. Change, September-October 2010.
• 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)