University of Maryland Physics Education Research Group

Books in Associated Fields

Education is fundamentally an interdisciplinary field. It requires some knowledge from many fields in the study of human behavior as well as specific knowledge about the discipline that is the subject of instruction. This page contains a list of interdisciplinary books for education researchers. (Selected and annotated by Joe Redish)

• Neuroscience
  Books for the general public
  • O. Sachs, The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales (Touchstone, 1998) --
    A fascinating introduction to the ways the brain can "break," showing that many structures and complex processes are typically unnoticed or taken for granted by owners of healthy brains. Sacks is an excellent writer and many of his dozen or so books of case studies are worth a read.

  • V. S. Ramachandran, Phantoms in the Brain : Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind (Harper Perennial, 1999) --
    Another great read from a neurologist. Ramachandran is a specialist in phantom limbs and other disorders in which a subject misinterprets the real world -- sometimes very badly.

  • R. R. Llinas, I of the Vortex: From Neurons to Self (MIT Press, 2001) --
    This ties our neural development to the evolutionary history of the neural system, giving good insight into how and why the brain came into existence and what it's critical functional elements are. (Goes a bit wildly speculative for my taste in the last chapter.)

  • Larry R. Squire and Eric R. Kandel, Memory: From Mind to Molecules (Scientific American Library, 1999) --
    An introduction to neuroscience at the Scientific American level. Very readable. A good starting point.

  • J. P. Byrnes, Minds, Brains, and Education: Understanding the Psychological and Educational Relevance of Neuroscientific Research (Guilford Press, 2001) --
    An overview of the basics of neuroscience and its implications for education.
  Technical books
  • M. S. Gazzaniga, R. B. Ivry, and G. R. Mangun, Cognitive Neuroscience (W.W. Norton, 1998) --
    An introduction to neuroscience at the introductory undergraduate level.

  • E. R. Kandel, J. H. Schwartz, and T. M. Jessell, Principles of Neural Science, 4th Ed (McGraw Hill, 2000) --
    The "big book" on neuroscience. The standard text on neuroscience for upper division and grad students in the field. Not as unreadable as you might guess, especially the chapters on the basics and on cognition and memory.

  • J. M. Fuster, Memory in the Cerebral Cortex: An empirical approach to neural networks in the human and nonhuman primate (MIT Press, 1999) --
    A technical but good intro the the neuroscience of memory.

  • J. Fuster, Cortex and the Mind (Oxford U. Press, 2002) --
    A technical but readable introduction to what is known about cognition through neuroscience. Emphasis on the relation of perception and motor control and on control structures in the prefrontal cortex.

  • P. S. Churchland and T. J. Sejwnowski, The Computational Brain (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1993) --
    

  • T. Shallice, From Neuropsychology to Mental Structure (Cambridge U. Press, 1988) --
    A technical description of how neuroscientists extract information from studies of patients with brain damage.

  Cognitive Science

  Books for the general public
  • Paul Thagard, Mind: Introduction to Cognitive Sciences (MIT Press, 1998) --
    A short readable overview of some of the baisc ideas in modern cog sci.

  • Howard Gardner, The Mind's New Science: A History of the Cognitive Revolution (Basic Books, 1987) --
    An overview of the history of cognitive science including its relation to philosophy and computer science.
  Technical books
  • John R. Anderson, Cognitive Psychology and Its Implications, 5th Ed. (Worth Publishing, 1999) -- The standard text for an intro cog sci course for majors. An excellent overview and introduction.

  • A. Baddeley, Human Memory: Theory and Practice, Revised Edition (Allyn & Bacon, 1998) --
    A readable introduction to the study of memory at an undergraduate level by one of the leading researchers in the field.

  • H. C. Ellis and R. R. Hunt, Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology, 5th Edition (WCB Brown & Benchmark, 1993) --
    A nice intro text for undergraduate majors in psych. Good focus on mechanism and experiment.

  • G. Fauconnier and M. Turner, How We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind's Hidden Complexities (Basic Books, 2003).--
    A generalization of the Lakoff and Johnson theory of metaphor describing much intuitive thinking in terms of the cognitive blending of different mental spaces. Provides tools for fine-grained constructivism.

    F. C. Bartlett, Remembering (Cambridge University Press, 1932) --
    A classic study that revived and sharpened the idea of schemas with careful and interesting experiments.

    B. Inhelder and J. Piaget, The Growth of Logical Thinking from Childhood to Adolescence (Basic Books, New York NY, 1958) --
    One of the most relevant of the huge Piagetian literature for PER. Not easy reading.

  • L. S. Vygotsky, Mind in Society: The development of higher psychological process, M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, and E. Souberman, Eds. (Harvard, 1978) --
    An introduction to Vygotsky's writings on the role of social interactions in psychological development.

  Behavioral Science (anthropology, sociology, linguistics)

  Books for the general public
  • G. Lakoff and M. Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (U. of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1980), --
    A brief and readable discussion of a model of how we build up abstract thinking from concrete experience via metaphor.

  • D. Tannen, I Only Say This Because I Love You (Ballentine Books, 2002) --
    A terrific and useful book on communications within the family. A fun introduction to framing.

  • G. MacLachlan and I. Reid, Framing and Interpretation (Melbourne University Press, 1994) --
    A reasonably non-technical (and brief) intro to framing in a variety of social science contexts.

  • G. A. Moore, Crossing the Chasm (Collins, rev. ed. 2002)
    An introduction to the research on the dissemination of innovation oriented for business and commerce. See the more technical Rogers book below for more general discussions.

  • J. S. Brown and P. Duguid, The Social Life of Information (Harvard Business School Press, 2002)
    An interesting book on the socio-cultural character of information technology. Lots of great research on how information and knowledge distributes through communities.
  Technical books
  • R. D'Andrade, The Development of Cognitive Anthropology (Cambridge U. Press, 1995) --
    A nice overview of the role of cognitive science in anthropology and the history of the subject at the level of an undergraduate course in anthropology.

    I. Goffman, Frame Analysis: An essay on the organization of experience (Northeastern U. Press, 1997).--
    The book on framing. A huge study on how people's tacit judgments on "what is going on here?" affect many human behaviors and activities.

    D. Tannen, editor, Framing in discourse (Oxford University Press, 1993) --
    A collection of articles on the role of framing in communications. Contains some very useful articles.

  • E. M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations (Free Press, 1995)
    The classic book describing the research on diffusion of innovations. The field began with studies in Iowa of the adoption of hybrid grains by farmers. A must for anyone trying to change the world.

  Ethology (animal behavior)

  Books for the general public
  • K. Lorenz, On Agression (Routledge, 2nd ed, 2002) --
    The classic that kick-started the interest in ethology in the 1970's. For me, the most important part is his introduction of the idea of "tool instincts".

    F. de Waal, The Ape and the Sushi Master (Basic Books, 2001) --
    Includes a nice discussion of learning in apes and humans.

  • F. de Waal, Chimpanzee Politics : Power and Sex among Apes (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2nd ed., 2000) --
    A delightful introduction to primate behavior. After reading it, academic politics (and many other things) begin to make more sense.

  Technical books
  • D. J. Povinelli, Folk Physics for Apes: The Chimpanzee's Theory of How the World Works (Oxford University Press, 2000) --
    I haven't read much of this yet but my guess is that it has to have some relevance for us -- maybe? He describes many detailed experiments trying to figure out what the chimps think about the properties of the world. How he does it -- and how he considers non-obvious alternatives seems particularly interesting.

• Network Theory and Complexity
  Books for the general public
  • S. Kauffman, At Home in the Universe: The Search for Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity (Oxford University Press, reprint edition, 1996) --
    

  • A. Barabasi, Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means (Plume, reissue edition, 2003) --
    

  Technical books

Maintained by University of Maryland PERG
Comments and questions may be directed to E. F. Redish
Last modified 14 September 2005