Cognitive Development

What I knew

Believe it or not I was a teenager too…long time ago. But I can still remember the weird way of my thoughts. I’m at the age where I look myself in the past and ask “what was I thinking?” why reacted in that way or why I was so rebel? I never thought that the answer of these questions will be finally revealed in the Teaching Practicum II. The answer: I was normal. I knew that adolescence is just a stage where your hormones take control of you and that people call you “immature” because you cannot handle situations like an adult. I also knew that in somehow my brain needed to change and that I was in the perfect age to learn and acquire information that could help me in the future. These ideas were just the point of the ice berg. There is a huge amount of information about how the stages in adolescence make an internal change, in this case the cognitive development. The only thing I knew it was that adolescents cannot think and make decisions as an adult, just because they had not lived and stored experiences.

What I learned

 Cognitive development involves neurons, brain structure, cognition and emotions. Jhon Santrock (2010) stated that “Neurons are nerve cells, which are the nervous system’s basic units” (p. 91). Neurons allow a process called Myelination (the speed of how information travels, resulting in a higher quality of thinking). Adolescents’ reactions are very slow; however, they will react faster until their brain has been completely developed.

Also, neurons are connected to the brain’s structure. The most important structural changes in the brain during adolescence are found in the prefrontal cortex, corpus callosum and the amygdala. The prefrontal cortex helps us to make decisions, judgments and the control of our feelings.  Is it possible to say that adolescents are competent at making decisions? They have the skill to do it; however, they are not perfect decision makers as adults. It is totally normal because they are not using the prefrontal cortex yet. They are using what we called Limbic Area of the brain. Teenagers react without thinking, make excuses, they do not have control of their emotions like anger, anxiety, sadness, and so on. This is caused by the amygdala located in the limbic area that is the seat of emotions (p. 92-93).

Furthermore, in the cognitive development is necessary to emphasize the Pruning process. This is a natural process where the brain eliminates unused information. It is not teenagers fault if they do not remember what they have learned in previous lessons. They are forgetfulness not because they want; it is only that their brains are in the transition of short-term memory to long-term memory.

 What I will do as a teacher

Knowledge is a powerful tool and as a teacher I need to take advantage of what I have learned, it is not necessary to memorize some technical words but I need to understand them and apply it in my classroom. As a teacher, I know that I have to be patient with teenagers. I do not have to be frustrated if they are struggling with the productive skill.

·     If I have students who have difficulty remembering what they did the previous class. Games are a fantastic idea for them. For example: “The Race Board” I can divide my class in two different groups. They need to write as many words as possible (depending on the topic you want to reinforce) in three minutes. As the game it says, it is a race where the first group who has more written words will be the winner. This activity will help my students who are still in the short-term memory. Through games the learning process will be more meaningful for them.

·         Adolescents hate homework. If I am in this scenario I have to ask them to complete a worksheet where the tasks motivate them to learn. For example, students need to create a video where they need to express likes and dislikes about pop culture, or students need to write a paragraph expressing their opinions about “Drug Legalization”. It does not matter the topic you use to catch their attention, what it really matters is that they will be attracted to the topic and they will be forced to use any grammatical structure to express their opinion.

·         If I have a “misbehave teenager” I will not isolate him/her. On the contrary, if you put that teen as an example or you delegate a role for him/her, trust me, this teen will change because he/she will feel part of the class.  As a teacher, I do not have to isolate any student or label them as lazy, rude, or dummy. They may have troubles at home and they do not need to be treated bad in the class too. My suggestion is that we know why and how teenagers behave, and if we want to be a great teacher, our job needs to be reflected in how well we treat our students.   


Reference

Physical and Cognitive Development in Adolescence. Student Edition. Chapter 11. 2016. Rretrieve from: http://highered.mheducation.com/sites/0073133809/student_view0/chapter11/index.html

Santrock, J. (2010). Adolescence. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Psychosocial Development in Adolescence

What I knew

Friendship and emotions were the two words that better describe this stage. I knew that the people you are surrounded by will make an influence on your decisions, whether are bad or good. Everything was related to friendship and be accepted in a group. Unconsciously you asked yourself “Who am I? What do I want to study? What am I going to do in the future?” this is the stage where you do not have any idea of how to answer these questions.

I knew that not all teenagers react in the same way when they feel peer pressure. Thank God when I was a teen my parents taught me to say NO. I wanted to do the same as my classmates but I never had my parents’ approval, so I decided to look for a group that could share the same values and opinions as me. Amazingly it worked. I found myself in my group of friends, I felt free to express my emotions to them. At that moment I realized that I needed to be careful when choosing a group of friends. In the other hand, I knew that most of teenagers are in troubles with this situation. They do what their friends do.

Furthermore, teenagers misbehave with their parents and teachers. Erikson claims that each stage has a crisis period of social and emotional development (1993). This means that teens do not have control of their emotions, they do not like to be talked what they have to do. They are rebellious and prefer to share their emotions with their friends instead of their parents.

What I learned

In the psychosocial stage there is a huge necessity to interact with others. Both boys and girls look for the peer approval because they want to be part of something. This stage is kind of dangerous because teenagers are trying to discover their interpersonal skills (Eriksson, 1993). It means that a teen can explore their abilities but if his/her group of friends does not share the same skills, they will be forced to interrupt his/her capability. For example, a boy can be fan of reading books; however, if his group hates to read and prefer to play video games, this group will be a huge influence in making him stop reading. For an adult it seems a crazy idea, but for a teenager it looks like he needs to be with that group for not being alone.

Models of behavior 

You are not a child anymore, and your attitude toward people will change. Contact with parents begins to decrease (Thornburg, 1983). That is why parents and teacher may feel that they have less influence on them. However, according to James Marcia, teenagers are in the search of their identity, they try to confirm what their values, attitudes and ideologies are. Manning (1987) stated that “peer group serve as the primary reference source of attitudes, values and behavior”. Body image is also important in this development. This happens in the gender differences. Boys feel more satisfied with their bodies than girls. For example, boys prefer to be in a group where the body image is not important. Nevertheless, girls do care of their appearance, which is why they tend to be only with one or two friends.

Identity vs Role (12-18 years).

According to Eriksson adolescents have doubts about their identity (1993). This means that teenagers develop a sense of self and personal identity. They are looking for their identity when they join in clubs, work in groups and practice any sport. These activities help them to gain relationship with others based on their own personal identity. Also, they look for role models and try to integrate those ideals into their own value system (George & Alexander, 1993). It is important for them to follow a model, but sometimes teenagers get confused and they try to follow pop artists, friends with aggressive behavior, and so on.

What I will do as a teacher

Now my lesson plans will be focused on the strengths of my students and to achieve the weaknesses of them. I will provide them opportunities where they can develop same-sex friendships and cross-sex interactions, for example:

•              My activities will be focused on group works. If I ask them to make a drama or role-play it needs to be related of bodies’ acceptance. For example, how is beauty considered around the world? What would you do if your best friend has low self-esteem? In these situations they can provide solutions while they are in front of others’ problems.

•              I need to identify the positive and negative peers. If I am capable to do this, I can separate them so they can learn social skills like listen to others’ opinions. A debate will be fine for this scenario.

•     Teenagers prefer to work with someone they choose. It is fine but, I will try to design cooperative learning activities. For example, if I ask them to make a video where they need to describe the behavior, abilities and accomplishments of themselves and a friend, they will be forced to observe and recognize that been different is normal, that at the end they will have something in common.

Reference

Erikson's Psychosocial Development- Ages and Stages Project. Retrieve from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grSxCdtLl38

  Santrock, J. (2010). Adolescence. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Physical Development

In youth, we clothe ourselves and go brave as the zodiac.                           -Ralph Waldo Emerson.

What I knew

Who does not remember adolescence, a natural stage where our bodies suffer external changes? Thinking about physical development only one word comes up to my mind: “Puberty”. At first, I thought that only external physical changes were happening, for example the rapid gains in height and weight, and the hormones taking control of our life. I knew that in boys, the tone of voice get lower, their muscles increase and mustache and beard appear. In the case of girls I knew that they suffer more, they become a woman when they have their menstrual period, their breast and hips increase.

Also, hair grows in underarms and genitals.

At this stage teenagers are afraid of their appearance, especially when their faces are full of pimples. Besides that, I used to think that girls felt embarrassed about their menstrual period, because they are not part of the group of girls that still are not “growing”. For example, when girls use a bra for the first time, they feel uncomfortable because the other girls may have fun of it. In the case of voice, I saw that many of my classmates did not want to talk anymore, just because their voice had changed. My conclusion at that moment was that the physical changes that we were experimented; they were a problem and an awkward situation.  I am not embarrassed to say that I did not know “anything” about physical development; however, I want to write what I found about this topic.

What I learned

After reading about physical development in adolescents, I have learned that many of my thoughts were in somehow wrong. Probably I just knew the 10% of the information because according to Manning, puberty is just a phase of physiological change triggered by the release of hormones (2012). This means that every single change in our body was normal.

Many theorists share the same meaning of what physical development is. It refers to bodily changes including growth, improved gross and fine motor skills, and biological maturity. What surprised me is that puberty ends long before adolescence is existed (Santrock, 2010 p.52). There are two facts I found very interesting about physical development:

·         Growth in body size

Some body parts grow faster than other. Both girls and boys develop preoccupation with their changing bodies and constantly examine their physical development for signs and imperfections (Milgram, 1992). These changes affect first to girls because their bodies star changing two years earlier than in boys. Bullough stated that in the 1800s boys did not reach their full height until the age 23, now most of the boys reach adult height by age 18 (1981). On the contrary, girls’ physical development appeared with the menarche. According to Santrock (2010) menarche is the appearance of first menstrual period (p. 55-57). Not only girls experiment hormonal changes. For example, in boys the first ejaculation is called spermarche.

·         Hormonal changes (Puberty)

In boys, it is difficult to know exactly when puberty is coming. There are changes that occur only in the boys that make so different from girls, even though girls develop two years earlier than boys. The following are average ages when puberty changes may occur (Lawrence, 1980):

·         Beginning of puberty: 9.5 to 14 years old

·         First pubertal change: enlargement of the testicles

·         Appearance of pubic hair: 13.5 years old

·         Nocturnal emissions (or "wet dreams"): 14 years old

·         Hair under the arms and on the face, voice change, and acne: 15 years old.

Girls also experience puberty as a sequence of events (George & Alexander, 1993). However, their pubertal changes usually begin before boys of the same age. Each girl is different and may progress through these changes differently. The following are average ages when puberty changes may occur:

·         Beginning of puberty: 8 to 13 years

·         First pubertal change: breast development

·         Pubic hair development: shortly after breast development

·         Hair under the arms: 12 years old

·         Menstrual periods: 10 to 16.5 years old

Techniques I will use as a teacher

Knowing of adolescents’ developmental characteristics, it helps me to understand their behavior and the way I will plan mi lesson. Their bodies are changing, it means that teens need the opportunity to stretch and walk around the classroom. Now I know the importance for the warm-ups, practices and wrap-ups. It is not only fill in the blanks worksheets or please just copy what is written on the board. As a teacher I need to create a proactive environment trying to apply the four skills.

Possible activities/ideas to do in the classroom

v  I learned that teenagers may feel uncomfortable with their bodies, and being in front of the classroom will exposed them a lot. So I believe that at the time of making a role-play it will be a great idea to do it in groups. In this way they will feel comfortable with themselves until they can be able to pass in front alone.

v  Creating debates or a circle opinion about why parents do not understand this generation would be a really nice topic for them. They will feel engaged because they will talk about their personal experiences.

v  Another activity would be to ask them to write what they would like to change of their bodies and what are the parts of their bodies they feel more comfortable with. This activity will help them to recognize that even when they are writing bad things about themselves they can discover good things also.

 References

 Inside Puberty: What Are the Stages of Puberty?

Retrieve from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rsj6dW6qKRc  

Physical and Cognitive Development in Adolescence. Student Edition. Chapter 11. 2016. Rretrieve from: http://highered.mheducation.com/sites/0073133809/student_view0/chapter11/index.html

Santrock, J. (2010). Adolescence. New York: McGraw-Hill.

My Profile

Hello everyone, my name is Karla Patricia Fuentes Diaz. I am 27 years old and I am a student at Don Bosco University. I am studying Languages in the Teaching Field. I love English and I love this career. I studied English for 4 years (Saturdays only) in the Itca-Fepade Program. Unfortunately, because I was a teenager who did not know what I wanted for my future, I studied Foreign Affairs at National University. Big mistake! In that major I found my real vocation “teach”.

In 2013 I decided to change of Mayor, it was not in my plans to continue studying, but once I worked as an English tutor at church. I was in charge of 18 teenagers. I loved the experience but I never imagined that someday I would be working as a teacher.

Right now I am working in a private school with children. My teacher in Practicum I recommended me for the job. This job has helped me to realize that to be a teacher is not an easy job, but I have discovered that if you love what you do your rewarding will be how well your students learn.

In teaching practicum II I expect to overcome my weaknesses. I know that working with teenagers is not an easy job; however, now that I have a lot of information I can put it in practice in my lesson plans. I hope to gain experience from my tutor and my students who will help me to be the great teacher I want to be.  

Is it difficult to talk about adolescence? It should not be. We have been in that confusing but incredible journey where our brain, body and way of thinking are developing. I consider that this stage should be taken as an opportunity to help our future students. In the past our teachers were not aware of us, I can make the assumption that they even did not care about us. I appreciate this opportunity to learn from the mistakes and improve.