Willingham is a UVa cognitive scientist who writes columns for the American
Educator aimed at keeping instructors informed on research on how students
learn. Topics of his columns have included why teaching "critical thinking"
is of limited value, student study strategies supported by research, and the
relationship between factual, procedural, and conceptual knowledge. Nine
of his columns that may be of particular interest to physics and chem
instructors are summarized, with links to the full columns, at the
"Cognition and Chemistry" blog at
It is interesting to compare what he writes to the often very different
views on how the brain works expressed in physics and chemistry education
journals.
For a recent summary of cognitive research on the importance of memorization
in during initial learning of physics and chemistry, see
www.ChemReview.Net/CogSciForChemists.pdf