20 essential pedagogical books (manuals, texts and guides)

April 2, 2024

The educational community is numerous and as active as it is decisive . The work of teachers, psycho-pedagogues and other specialists depends on whether or not there is the possibility that a generation of young or not-so-young people can become well-informed and easily able to think critically.

This selection of books of pedagogy can be useful to face the challenges of education and the changes that have occurred in this area in the best possible way.

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The best books for educators

Here you can see a series of works especially indicated for professionals in the field of education.

1. How to teach better (M. Ponce)

From a constructivist perspective, in this book Proposals are made on ways to facilitate the emergence of autonomous learning dynamics on the part of the students: to reinforce the strong points of the students, to know how to adequately recognize the feedback of the teaching measures, etc.

If you are interested in this work, you can read more about it by clicking here.

2. Mobile digital devices in Education (E. Vázquez-Cano and M. Luisa Sevillano)

The emergence of mobile digital devices has come strongly to the world of education , and in this book they explore both their risks and their associated opportunities. One of the most recommended books of pedagogy to be up to date on these topics.

To see more information about the book, consult here.

3. Pedagogy of autonomy (P. Freire)

Paulo Freire was one of the most influential educators in history , and in this book he expresses a good part of the principles that structured his work. Especially important is the way in which Freire defines good education, understood not as a transmission of knowledge that should be memorized but as an aid so that students can get to develop areas of interest and the ability to educate on their own.

On this page you can read more about the book.

4. Psychology and Pedagogy (J. Piaget)

One of the great classics of Educational Psychology by the father of Evolutionary Psychology . A small gem that, despite not being up to date on the advances in this matter (it was published in the year 1970), lays the theoretical foundations and points to the main problems that the educational systems have been facing at the end of the century XX and principles of the XX.

You can order it here.

5. The high capacities in the inclusive school (M. Sánchez Dauder)

In this book they are explained, in the form of a story, different proposals to make the educational needs of students with high abilities and those of the rest of the students can come to fit without breaking the harmony in the classroom.

If you are interested in the book, you can get it here.

6. Educate with co-reason (J. M. Toro Ales)

A book whose main function is to inspire . Its pages talk about what education is, what it could be, and the way in which teachers and students live in the classroom. One of the most literary pedagogy books.

For more information about the book, see this page.

7. Pedagogy of the oppressed (P. Freire)

Another of the great classics of this Brazilian educator. In "Pedagogy of the oppressed", Freire proposes a critical pedagogy that makes it possible to make social change easier towards a more egalitarian society , empowering students' critical thinking and giving them the tools to combat confused manipulation such as acculturation.

If you are interested in this work, here you will see more information.

8. Educate Today (P. Bronson and A. Merryman)

A book based on surprising discoveries about how young people think and act . Its pages talk about important issues such as aggression in boys and girls, when they begin to lie and why they do it, scuffles between siblings, etc. It can be useful both for fathers and mothers and for education professionals.

You can get him here.

9. Be a teacher (Naughty S. and Lieutenant)

This is not a theoretical book on how to get to the world of education, but a small and simple emergency manual for those people who have started teaching in a classroom . The subtitle of the book says everything: "what I would like to have been told when I started teaching".

On this page there is more information about the book.

10. Create tomorrow's school today (R. Gerver)

Proposals and theoretical and practical foundations on the paradigm shift in education . One of the books for teachers that point to the development of teaching models based on innovation.

You can download it from this Amazon page.

eleven.rEDUvolution (M. Acaso)

María acaso, the author of this book, is a professor of Art Education at the Complutense University of Madrid , and in this work she shows several of the challenges that teachers must face if they want to transform education into a tool for personal and social change.

Here is more information about the book.

12. The pedagogy against Frankenstein (M. A. Santos Guerra)

A selection of texts about the need to understand the content taught in class in a global way , as a system that, as a whole, of a base for students to be trained in all areas.

Click here to read more.

13. Cooperative learning in the classroom (J. C. Torrego and A. Negro)

Cooperative learning is one of the great untapped potentials of education systems , often totally focused on an environment of individualistic and competitive study. In this book, information extracted from the theorization and implementation of cooperative learning programs over the last years is collected.

You can read more about this book by clicking on this link.

14. The joy of educating (J. M. Marrasé)

Keys and strategies to transform the classroom in which teaching can flow through creativity and, why not, also fun. One of those books for teachers in which the objective focuses not only on the need to transmit knowledge, but also on doing this so that those lessons mean something to the students.

If you're interested in getting it, you can do it here.

15. Resources to educate emotions (R. González and L. Villanueva)

In this book The main questions about emotions that must be addressed from education are posed and methods are proposed to recognize them effectively and help others to know how to manage them in the classroom.

If you are interested, you can learn more about the book by clicking here.

16. The Well-trained mind: a guide to classical education at home (Susan Wise Bauer)

A guide full of guidelines to follow to educate children at home, give them the personalized treatment they need and learn to respond to their needs.

You can read more about this work here.

17. Teaching community: a pedagogy of hope (Bell Hooks)

How to combine education and freedom to choose which paths of knowledge to follow and which do not take or leave for later? Here we talk about what educational strategies work and which do not, how to avoid discrimination in the classrooms how to motivate students ... All this, from the personal and experienced point of view of the author.

If you want to know more about this work, click here.

18. Pedagogy and politics of hope (Henry A. Giroux)

This excellent book explores the power relations that are established in the classroom and the way in which the conflicts that can occur in it are resolved and, on the other hand, how they should be resolved. Schools are microcosms in which forms of oppression, racism, etc. can be reproduced. Knowing how to understand this fact and act accordingly is necessary.

To read more about this work, click here.

19. Education in the 21st century (L. Bartolomé and other authors)

An interesting proposal to learn about the challenges and possibilities that are emerging in education in recent years.

If you are interested in getting this book or know more about it, click here.

20. Educational equality and cultural difference (Henry A. Giroux)

How promote equality and offer a fair treatment to a group of students in which there are people from different cultures? Faced with this apparent paradox, Henry A. Giroux offers one of his most acute pedagogical books.