Influential Education Books and Podcasts (last revised 09/2025)

Note: Authors listed by last name only on second reference.

K-12 Learning:

  1. Daniel T. Willingham – Why Don’t Students Like School, 2nd edition
  2. Dylan Wiliam – Leadership for Teacher Learning
  3. Zach Groshell – Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching
  4. Yana Weinstein & Megan Sumeracki with Oliver Caviglioli – Understanding How We Learn
  5. Eric Kalenze – Education is Upside Down 
  6. Graham Nuthall – The Hidden Lives of Learners
  7. Daisy Christodoulou – Teachers vs. Tech, Daisy’s Substack 
  8. Oliver Lovell – Sweller’s Cognitive Load Theory in Action
  9. Stanislas Dehaene – How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better...
  10. Paul Kirschner and Carl Hendrick – How Learning Happens
  11. Kalenze – What the Academy Taught Us 
  12. Jo Facer – Simplicity Rules: How Simplifying What We Do...
  13. Nimish Lad – Shimura’s MARGE Model of Learning in Action 

Instruction/Classroom:

  1. Tom Sherrington – The Learning Rainforest
  2. Sherrington – Rosenshine’s Principles in Action
  3. Sherrington and Caviglioli – WalkThrus (Volumes 1-3 books and online resource bank)
  4. Wiliam – Embedded Formative Assessment 
  5. Hendrick & Robin Macpherson with Caviglioli – What Does This Look Like in The Classroom? Bridging the Gap between Research and Practice
  6. Craig Barton – How I Wish I’d Taught Maths
  7. Harry Fletcher-Wood – Responsive Teaching 
  8. Doug Lemov – Practice Perfect: 42 Rules for Getting Better at Getting Better
  9. Tom Bennett – Running the Room: The Teacher’s Guide to Behaviour 
  10. Bennett – The Behaviour Guru: Behaviour Management Solutions for Teachers
  11. D. Christodoulou – Making Good Progress, Teachers vs Tech, NoMoreMarking blog
  12. Lemov – Teach Like a Champion also teachlikeachampion.org
  13. Clare Sealy (editor) – researchED Guide to The Curriculum
  14. Pooja Agarwal and Patrice Bain – Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning
  15. Kirschner, Hendrick & Jim Heal – How Teaching Happens: Seminal Works in Teaching and Teacher Effectiveness and What They Mean in Practice 

Reading/Writing:

  1. Willingham – The Reading Mind: A Cognitive Approach… 
  2. Lemov – Reading Reconsidered: A Practical Guide to Rigorous Literacy Instruction
  3. Lindsey Kemeny – 7 Mighty Moves..Ensure K-3 Reading Success
  4. Maryann Wolf – Reader Come Home and Proust and the Squid
  5. Dehaene – Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read 
  6. Mark Seidenberg – Language at the Speed of Sight: How We Read…
  7. Sharon Walpole – How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction 
  8. Alex Quigley – Closing the Vocabulary Gap and Closing the Reading Gap
  9. James and Dianne Murphy – Thinking Reading: What Every Secondary Teacher… 
  10. James Murphy (editor) – researchED Guide to Literacy
  11. Judith Hochman and Natalie Wexler – The Writing Revolution
  12. Wexler – The Knowledge Gap
  13. E.D. Hirsch – The Knowledge Deficit
  14. The Logic of English

Improving Teaching

  1. Elizabeth City and Richard Elmore – Instructional Rounds in Education
  2. Adam Boxer (editor) – researchED Guide to Explicit and Direct Instruction 
  3. Anita Archer – Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching
  4. Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen – Thanks for the Feedback
  5. William Saphier – The Skillful Teacher
  6. Barbara Wendling and Nancy Mather – Essentials of Evidence-Based Academic Interventions
  7. Peps McCrea – Motivated Teaching 

Podcasts:

  1. Education Research Reading Room (E-triple-R) with Ollie Lovell
  2. Progressively Incorrect with Zach Groshell
  3. Chalk & Talk with Anna Stokke
  4. Educate – APM Reports (see Emily Hanford work)
  5. Amplify – The Science of Reading 
  6. Evidence Based Education 
  7. The Reading League