Feed your curiosity
Recommended Books
These are our favorite books we recommend for learning about current research related to the brain, learning, education, and leadership. Get your gears turning!
Learning and the Brain
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Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning
By Judy Willis and Malana Willis
This book uniquely provides both the brain science behind learning and behavior, as well as concrete strategies to use in K-12 lessons across disciplines.
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Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain
By Zaretta Hammond
Learn how to engage learners of all identities with culturally responsive pedagogy, and the neuroscience that underpins these strategies.
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Trust Factor
By Paul Zak
Learn the neuroscience research behind why trust is a necessary factor in success, creativity, and collaboration both in schools and in professional work.
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The Teenage Brain
By Frances Jensen
Understand the inner workings of the brain during adolescence, including a range of topics like learning, media, sleep, drugs, and alcohol.
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Empower
By John Spencer & A.J. Juliani
See what it looks like to move a culture of learning from compliance to empowerment! Excellent practical and graphical guide to creating agency through student-driven learning.
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Brain Rules
By John Medina
Explore key truths about how our brains work that can improve how we learn, work, and live. Topics include sleep, stress, attention, exercise, and more.
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Grit: The Power of Passion & Perseverance
By Angela Duckworth
Learn about the science behind what makes people gritty, through the cultivation of passion which drives the ability to persevere through challenge.
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How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School
By National Research Council
Exceptional collection of decades of important research across the field of learning sciences. Series includes volumes with research about specific content areas.
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Uncommon Sense Teaching
By Barbara Oakley et al.
Understand how learning and memory works, from an expert communicator of neuroscience for educators.
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Powerful Teaching
By Pooja Agarwal & Patrice Bain
Learn high-powered cognitive science strategies that boost memory and learning for students, including retrieval practice, spaced practice, interleaving, and feedback.
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7 1/2 Lessons About the Brain
By Lisa Feldman Barrett
This is a short read that packs a powerful punch of brain science. Explore fundamental truths about how our brains evolved and ways we can leverage that in today’s world.
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Made to Stick
By Chip Heath & Dan Heath
Learn essential characteristics of memorable messages and experiences, that transfer to any context personally and professionally.
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The Learning Game
By Ana Lorena Fábrega
Let’s change the game of school into a space for authentic learning and purpose-driven exploration. Feel energized by this clearly envisioned reimagination of US education, prioritizing meaning and engagement for students.
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Motivated Teaching
by Peps McCrea
Quick and powerful read about five high-impact strategies to boost intrinsic motivation for students.
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Belonging
By Geoffrey Cohen
Explore the science behind why humans need to feel belonging at all ages, in order to learn, perform, and succeed.
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Five Big Ideas for Effective Teaching
By Donna Wilson & Marcus Conyers
Understand how key changes in learning sciences directly impact teaching, including neural plasticity, intelligence, and metacognition.
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The Self-Driven Child
By William Stixrud & Ned Johnson
Understand the science behind why it’s so important to give kids choice in their school and home lives.
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Why We Remember
By Charan Ranganath
Explore the fascinating research on memory as it applies to our daily lives, education, and work. Several common conceptions about memory are turned upside down. A must-read for anyone who loves to learn about memory!
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How People Learn: Learners, Contexts, & Cultures
By National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Updated findings from important learning science research, including culturally responsive pedagogy and design.
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The Extended Mind
By Annie Murphy Paul
Learn about the ways our bodies, space, and other people help us construct knowledge in ways that extend and enhance what happens in our brains.
Technology & the Brain
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Rewired: Protecting your Brain in the Digital Age
by Carl D. Marci
Explore the compelling research which shows how our brains are being rewired by using mobile devices, at all ages. This book explores impacts of technology on attention, learning, well-being, and more.
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The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World
By Adam Gazzaley & Larry D. Rosen
Learn how excessive use of internet, smart phones, and social media have changed the way we interact at school, work, and home. Have our brains become permanently distracted?
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How to Break Up with Your Phone
For a quicker read about the impacts of cell phones on our brains and lives, and strategies to reclaim in person connections, this is the book for you!
Leadership and Innovation
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Drive
by Daniel Pink
Excellent summary of research showing how the field of motivation has change from carrots and sticks (extrinsic) to purposeful and autonomous work (intrinsic).
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Fearless Schools
By Douglas Reeves
Creating a sense of trust in schools is paramount for success and well-being. Learn how to establish stability for students and staff by leaning away from fear and toward your community.
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HBR Guide to Motivating People
By Harvard Business Review
Learn research-based strategies for motivating staff from leading experts across a variety of fields.
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Deep Work
by Cal Newport
Want to learn the secrets to regaining focus and minimizing distractions? Cal Newport is the expert on breaking away from our overly connected culture to achieve truly deep work.
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Switch
By Chip Heath & Dan Heath
What does research say about how to make change when people or systems feel stuck in old ways of doing things? Learn about creative strategies for how to advance change.
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Subtract
By Leidy Klotz
Explore the untapped science of less. Learn about the ways our brains default to adding when solving problems, and the ways we can achieve more meaningful outcomes through the process of subtraction.
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Eight Paradoxes of Great Leadership
By Tim Elmore
Learn about the paradoxical skills that effective leaders demonstrate, including having clear vision while also recognizing blind spots. Another is balancing visibility and invisibility.
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Start with Why
By Simon Sinek
Thinking about why your organization does what it does allows you to be more effective in your communication and decision-making as a leader and professional.
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Upstream
By Dan Heath
What if we could prevent problems before they begin? Thinking upstream encourages leaders to zoom out from daily emergencies, to engineer smarter systemic solutions.
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The Infinte Game
By Simon Sinek
An excellent resource for leaders and educators to re-think how we design our systems to motivate long-lasting learning and growth, rather than short finite “wins” that don’t advance our deeper “just cause”.
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Dare to Lead
By Brene Brown
Learn about the science behind why and how to build trust with teams, through embracing vulnerability and courageous conversations.
Want more?
Here’s more of our favorite reads, for understanding how to create meaningful learning and cultures among students and professional teams.
The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle
The Power of Giving Away Power by Matthew Barzun
Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity by Floyd Cobb & John Krownapple
When: The Science of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink
How We Learn: The Surprising Truth about When, Where, and Why it Happens by Benedict Carey
Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott
Reality-Based Leadership: Ditch the Drama, Restore Sanity to the Workplace, and Turn Excuses into Results by Cy Wakeman
Work Rules! Insights from Inside Google that Will Transform How You Live and Lead by Laszlo Block
The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Chip Heath & Dan Heath