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

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Uncommon Sense Teaching

    By Barbara Oakley et al.

    Understand how learning and memory works, from an expert communicator of neuroscience for educators.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Made to Stick

    By Chip Heath & Dan Heath

    Learn essential characteristics of memorable messages and experiences, that transfer to any context personally and professionally.

  • 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.

  • Motivated Teaching

    by Peps McCrea

    Quick and powerful read about five high-impact strategies to boost intrinsic motivation for students.

  • Belonging

    By Geoffrey Cohen

    Explore the science behind why humans need to feel belonging at all ages, in order to learn, perform, and succeed.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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!

  • 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.

  • 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

  • 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.

  • 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?

  • 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

  • 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).

  • 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.

  • HBR Guide to Motivating People

    By Harvard Business Review

    Learn research-based strategies for motivating staff from leading experts across a variety of fields.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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”.

  • 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.

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