write 5 page essay; add 3 pages for title with running head, abstract page, and references.
Kathleen Stassen Berger
Part V
Adolescence: Cognitive Development
Chapter Fifteen
- Neurological Development
- Adolescent Thinking
- Teaching and Learning
Neurological Development
- The limbic system…
- fear, emotional impulse
- matures before the prefrontal cortex.
- planning ahead, emotional regulation
- Uneven Growth
- As in the rest of the teenager’s body, brain growth is uneven.
- The immature prefrontal cortex may allow: “troublesome adolescent behavior.”
- Adolescents are capable of rational thinking.
Adolescent Thinking
- Adolescent egocentrism
- Characteristic of adolescent thinking that leads young people to focus on themselves to the exclusion of others.
- Young person might believe his or her thoughts, feelings, and experiences are unique.
- The Invincibility Fable
- Adolescent’s egocentric conviction he or she cannot be harmed by anything that might defeat a normal mortal.
- unprotected sex
- drugs
- high speed driving
- imaginary audience: Other people who are watching, and taking note of, his or her appearance, ideas, and behavior.
- belief makes many teenagers very self-conscious
Egocentrism Reassessed
- Recent research has found that many adolescents do not feel invincible.
- Egocentrism may signal growth towards cognitive maturity.
Formal Operational Though
- Piaget’s theory, the fourth and final stage of cognitive development.
- Characterized by more systematic logic and the ability to think about abstract ideas.
Piaget’s Experiments
Abstract Thinking
- deductive reasoning: Reasoning from a general statement, premise, or principle, through logical steps, to figure out specifics.
- top-down thinking
- inductive reasoning: Reasoning from one or more specific experience or facts to a general conclusion, may be less cognitively advanced than deduction.
- bottom-up reasoning
Two Modes of Thinking
- dual-process model: notion that two networks exist within the human brain.
- one for emotions and one for analytical processing of stimuli
Two Modes of Thinking
- intuitive thought: Thought that arises from an emotion or a hunch, beyond rational.
- analytic thought: Thought that results from analysis.
- systematic ranking of pros and cons
- risks and consequences
- possibilities and facts
- depends on logic and rationality
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.
- trying to fix a “lemon” of a car
- sending more troops to win a losing war
Teaching and Learning
- What and how should teenagers be taught?
- secondary education: The period after primary education and before tertiary education.
- about age 12 to18
- some variation by school and by nation
- traditionally grades 7 through 12
Middle School
- between elementary and high school
- can begin with 5th grade
- usually ends with 8th grade
- Intermediate middle schools have been established to educate 6th graders with 7th and 8th graders.
- puberty earlier
- 9th graders have been reassigned to high schools.
Technology and Cognition
- 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.
The Digital Divide
- Gap between people who have access to computers and those who do not.
- In the U.S., age is now greatest divider between Internet users and nonusers.
The Transition to a New School
- Changes, even positive ones, are disruptive.
- Transitions difficult
- decrease person’s ability to function and learn.
- Changing schools just when the growth spurt and sexual characteristics develop is bound to create stress.
High School
- Adolescents think:
- abstractly, analytically, hypothetically, logically, personally, emotionally, intuitively and experientially.
- By high school, curriculum and teaching style is often analytic and abstract.
Focus on the College-Bound
- High-stakes test: an evaluation that is critical in determining success or failure.
- Developed nations typically require students to stay in school between 14 and 18.
- In the U.S. and Canada 90% are high school graduates.
- Most dropouts leave at the age of 17.
Student Engagement
- Many students express boredom and unhappiness with school
- Teachers hired for their expertise in one or more academic fields, rather than their ability to relate to adolescents.
- possible improvements:
- keep high schools small
- 200 to 400 students
- encourage extracurricular activities
- reduce harassment
- School 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.