Adolescence: Cognitive Development

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Part V
Chapter Fifteen

• Adolescence Cognitive Development

Adolescent Thinking Teaching and Learning
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Adolescence Cognitive Development

• adolescence combines ego, logic, and emotions
  ego overwhelms logic sometimes emotions
  overrides both

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Adolescence Cognitive Development

• Adolescent Thinking
• brain maturation, intense conversation,
  additional years of schooling, moral challenges,
  and increased independence occurs between 11 and
  18 years of age

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Adolescence Cognitive Development

• Egocentrism
• adolescent egocentrism
• a characteristic of adolescent thinking that
  leads young people (ages 10-13) to focus on
  themselves to the exclusion of others
• a young person might believe that his or her
  thoughts, feelings, and experiences are unique,
  more wonderful or awful than anyone elses.

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Adolescence Cognitive Development

• The Invincibility Fable
• an adolescents egocentric conviction that he or
  she cannot be overcome or even harmed by anything
  that might defeat a normal mortal
• unprotected sex, drugs,
• or high speed driving

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Adolescence Cognitive Development

• Imaginary Audience
• the other people who, in an adolescents
  egocentric belief, are watching, and taking note
  of, his or her appearance, ideas, and behavior
• this belief makes many teenagers very
  self-conscious

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Adolescence Cognitive Development

• Egocentrism Reassessed
• recent waves of research has found that many
  adolescents do not feel invincible.
• egocentrism may signal growth towards cognitive
  maturity (Vartanian, 2001)

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Adolescence Cognitive Development

• Formal Operational Though
• Piagets theory, the fourth and final stage of
  cognitive development, characterized by more
  systematic logic and the ability to think about
  abstract ideas

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Adolescence Cognitive Development

• Piagets Experiments
• showed that, in contrast to concrete operational
  children, formal operational adolescents imagine
  all possible determinants, and systematically
• varied the factors one by one
• observed the results correctly
• kept track of the results
• drew the appropriate conclusions

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Adolescence Cognitive Development

• Piagets Experiments

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Adolescence Cognitive Development

• Hypothetical-Deductive Though
• formal operational thought is the capacity to
  think of possibility, not just reality
• hypothetical though
• reasoning that includes propositions
  possibilities that may not reflect reality

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Adolescence Cognitive Development

• Abstract Thinking
• deductive reasoning
• reasoning from a general statement, premise, or
  principle, through logical steps, to figure out
  (deduce) specificstop-down thinking
• inductive reasoning
• reasoning from one or more specific experience or
  facts to a general conclusion, may be less
  cognitively advanced than deductionbottom-up
  reasoning

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Adolescence Cognitive Development

• Intuitive, Emotional Thought
• because adolescents can use hypothetical-deductiv
  e reasoning does not mean that they use it
• adolescents find it easier and quicker to forget
  about logic and follow impulse

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Adolescence Cognitive Development

• Two Modes of Thinking
• dual-process model
• the notion that two networks exist within the
  human brain, one for emotions and one for
  analytical processing of stimuli

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Adolescence Cognitive Development

• intuitive thoughts
• thought that arises from an emotion or a hunch,
  beyond rational explanationpast experiences,
  cultural assumptions, and sudden impulses are the
  precursors of intuitive thoughtcontextualized or
  experiential thought
• analytic thought
• thought that results from analysis, such as a
  systematic ranking of pros and cons, risks and
  consequences, possibilities and facts analytic
  thought depends on logic and rationality

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Adolescence Cognitive Development

• Comparing Intuition and Analysis
• sunk cost fallacy
• the belief that if time or money has already been
  invested in something, then more time or money
  should be invested
• because of this fallacy, people spend money
  trying to fix a lemon of a car or sending more
  troops to win a losing war

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Adolescence Cognitive Development

• Better Thinking
• adolescents use their minds with more economy
  than children
• with age thinking is more efficient and less
  likely to go off on a tangent
• analytic mode joins the intuitive mode

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Teaching and Learning

• Given the nature of the adolescent mind, we are
  left with the question to ponder What and how
  should teenagers be taught?

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Teaching and Learning

• secondary education
• the period after primary education and before
  tertiary education.it usually occurs from about
  age 12 to18, although there is some variation by
  school and by nation
• traditionally grades 7th through 12th

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Teaching and Learning

• separate schools have been created for children
  who have outgrown primary school
• once called high school, with younger students
  put in separate schools called junior high
  (7th,8th,9th grades)

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Teaching and Learning

• middle school
• a school for the grades between elementary and
  high school...middle school can begin with 5th
  grade or and usually ends with 8th grade
• with puberty occurring earlier than in years
  pastoften at age 11 many intermediate middle
  schools have been established to educate 6th
  graders with 7th and 8th graders
• 9th graders have been reassigned to high schools

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Teaching and Learning

• middle school
• academic achievement often slows down and
  behavioral problems become more commonplace
• the first year of middle school is called the
  low ebb of learning
• many teachers feel ineffective
• long term academic trajectories are strongly
  influenced by experienced in grades 6th-8th

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Teaching and Learning

• middle school
• middle school scheduling means teachers have
  many students
• bonding between students and teachers is key to
  learningyet, doesnt always occur do to
  scheduling
• students relationships with one another
  deteriorate... due to the numbers of people they
  come in contact with in schools

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Teaching and Learning

• middle school
• answers are not clear adolescent egocentrism is
  particularly strong in early adolescence and the
  intuitive thought generally overwhelms logic
• research finds that egocentrism, intuitive
  thought, and logic coexist in every classroom

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Teaching and Learning

• Technology and Cognition
• is no longer limited only to developed nations
• teenagers worldwide use the Internet
• adults hope that computers will be a boon to
  learning
• some fear that technology will undercut respect
  for adults and schools

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Teaching and Learning

• Technology and Cognition
• it is easy to see egocentrism and intuitive
  thought in adolescent use of technology it is
  easy to see the educational possibilities
  however, it is not obvious how adults can guide
  teenagers through the current maze of technology.

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Teaching and Learning

• Transitions and Translations
• students find that changes, even positive ones,
  are disruptive
• transitions from one school to another are
  difficult, decreasing a persons ability to
  function and learn
• changing schools just when the growth spurt and
  sexual characteristics develop is bound to create
  stress

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Teaching and Learning

• Transitions and Translations
• hormones, body shape, sexual impulses, family and
  culture contribute to disorders in transition

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Teaching and Learning

• Teaching and Learning in High School
• adolescents think abstractly, analytically,
  hypothetically, logically personally,
  emotionally, intuitively and experientially
• by high school, the curriculum and teaching style
  is often analytic and abstract
• adolescents can use logic to override the biases
  that not only preserve existing beliefs but also
  perpetuate stereotypes and inhibit development.

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Teaching and Learning

• Focus on the Brightest
• an evaluation that is critical in determining
  success or failure if a single test determines
  whether a student will graduate or be promoted,
  that is a high-stakes test

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Teaching and Learning

• Focus on the Dropouts
• not every student who begins secondary school
  stays until finished
• developed nations typically require students to
  stay in school between 14 and 18, with age 16
  being the average
• in the U.S. and Canada 90 are high school
  graduates
• most dropouts leave at the age of 17

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Teaching and Learning

• Student Engagement
• students who are capable of passing classes are
  as likely to drop out as those with learning
  disabilities
• persistence, diligence, and motivation play more
  crucial roles than intellectual ability when it
  comes to earning a high school diploma

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Teaching and Learning

• Student Engagement
• many students express boredom and unhappiness
  with school
• honor students and delinquents have high rates
  of boredom, alienation, and disconnection from
  the meaningful challenge of school

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Teaching and Learning

• Student Engagement
• students are often disengaged
• usual because formal operational thought is
  promoted
• egocentric and intuitive thought, are more
  rational and social, and are usually excluded

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Teaching and Learning

• Student Engagement
• students are often disengaged
• teachers are hired for their expertise in one or
  more academic fields, rather than their ability
  to relate to adolescents

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Teaching and Learning

• Student Engagement
• possible improvements
• keep high schools small
• 200 to 400 students
• encourage extracurricular activities

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Teaching and Learning

• School violence
• The same practices that foster
• motivation and education can also
• prevent violence.
• students are less likely to be destructive or
  afraid if
• they are engaged in learning
• bond with teachers and fellow students
• are involved in school activities

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Teaching and Learning

• School violence
• studies also show that metal detectors, and
  strict punishment, are more likely to increase
  violence than decrease violence

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Teaching and Learning

• School violence
• primary prevention to improve school climate
• increase friendships
• strengthen teacher-student relationships
• promote student involvement
• programs that teach conflict resolution have also
  had some success