I made a claim about a book being in my top five favorite books on learning and education earlier today on twitter. To which, my former colleague Teresa DeFlitch asked to know what the other four books were. Now, I should mention that by favorite I mean that these are the 5 books I keep thinking about and talking about and will frequently revisit. I needed more than 140 characters. So, in no particular order here we go.
- Experience and Education by John Dewey – Completely amazed at how much depth you can find in such a little book. As far as I’m concerned it’s Dewey’s best book.
- Supersizing the Mind: Embodiment, Action, and Cognitive Extension by Andy Clark – The examples of how people use their environment as part of thought are fantastic. Worth reading many times over.
- What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy by James Gee – More than a great book on games it is one of the best primers on an array of principles for learning.
- Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention by Stanislas Deheane – Best synthesis I have seen so far for taking neuroscience research and putting it in dialog with an array of other work on learning and education. Also, the idea of neurological recycling is awesome.
- The Educated Mind: How Cognitive Tools Shape Our Understanding by Kieran Egan – I have returned to this work several times. It opens with one of the best descriptions of differences between major schools of thought on learning and cognition and puts forward a fascinating alternative.
What would your top five books about learning and education be and why?