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.