Learning Grows: The Science of Motivation for the Classroom Teacher

Combining a lively voice with scientific research, Learning Grows explores the fascinating and useful world of student motivation.

Written for teachers—and everyone interested in teaching and learning—Learning Grows helps classrooms flourish by fostering students’ intrinsic motivation.

Part I delves into Mindset. Although seemingly well known, this theory is often oversimplified and widely misunderstood. By exploring its step-by-step historical development, we can use it more flexibly and effectively to help learners ‘charge!’ when they might otherwise ‘retreat.’

Part II enters the paradoxical world of Stereotype Threat. A surprising cascade of counter-intuitive effects can cause students to struggle in school—not because they don’t care, but because they work too hard. The right classroom strategies block this demotivational pathway, and thereby foster student learning.

By interleaving psychology and neuroscience research with dozens of practical classroom examples, Learning Grows makes these two theories both clear and immediately useful.

Learning Grows is the second book in the series “A Teacher’s Guide to the Learning Brain.” The first book, Learning Begins, studies the science of working memory and attention.