The Goldilocks Map: A Classroom Teacher’’s Quest to Evaluate ’’Brain-Based’’ Teaching Advice

In the last 20 years, the cognitive sciences have revealed fresh, surprising, and useful insights into how and why our students learn. Teachers can now draw on psychology and neuroscience research to supplement, reconsider, even overturn our traditions and training. To use this research most wisely, teachers must find our way to an elusive Goldilocks Zone. Instead of resisting all research-based guidance, we should be ready to take it to heart - even when it challenges both our training and conventional wisdom. Instead of accepting all research-based guidance, we should be ready to reject it emphatically - especially the hyped-up edu-fads that exaggerate and misinterpret psychology findings. How can we get this Goldilocks balance ＂just right＂? This book offers a specific, practical quest map to discover just such a balance. By critically examining the source, the research, and ourselves, teachers can develop the skills necessary to be effective research skeptics. Written by a teacher with 18 years in the classroom - and 13 years studying neuroscience and psychology - The Goldilocks Map transforms brain research from a daunting monologue into an approachable, exciting, and lively conversation.

Andrew Watson has been teaching since 1988, studying brains since 2008, and combining those fields since 2012. As a consultant and conference speaker, he works with students and teachers to make learning easier and teaching more effective. He writes frequently on memory, attention, schema theory, and motivation. He used to manage a Beatles tribute band in Prague.
The Goldilocks Map is his third book, his first quest, and his favorite part of 2020.