Adolescent Brain & Teaching Revised.pptx

Teaching Adolescent brain

1. The Adolescent Brain: Part I Sheila Vogel, Ed.S .

2. By age 6, the human brain is already 95% of its adult size. Gray matter, the “thinking” part of the brain, continues to thicken throughout childhood, as brain cells gain extra connections, and peaks at about age 11 in girls, 12 in boys .

3. And then... ...an adolescent emerges .

4. Many factors contribute to shaping adolescent behavior and development: family & home culture friendships school environment nutrition bacterial & viral infections society & media

5. During adolescence, the sex hormones, testosterone and estrogen begin to pour into the bloodstream, which contribute to an appetite for excitement, thrills, and strong sensations.

6. Hormonal changes don’t tell the whole story... The adolescent brain hasn’t developed the regions responsible for “putting the brakes” on impulsive behaviors.

7. Through brain imaging, we have now discovered that adolescent behavior may be the result of neurobiology, rather than “raging hormones .”

8. The frontal lobe is involved in planning, organizing, strategizing, initiating attention, pausing/stopping, and shifting attention.

9. Just prior to puberty, the frontal lobes undergo a wave of reorganization and growth, with millions of new synapses. At around age 11, pruning of connections begins, and continues into early adulthood.

10. Adolescent brains go through a growth spurt about ages 10-13. From about 12-25 years old, there is a period of reorganization, pruning and strengthening neural connections.

11. This process can be compared to a network & wiring upgrade...

12. Axons are long nerve fibers that neurons use to send signals to other neurons. During adolescence, neurons become more insulated with myelin, boosting transmission speeds up to 100 times. During Adolescence, dendrites, used to receive signals, grow more twig-like. -Heavily used synapses grow richer & stronger. -Little -used synapses begin to whither.

13. As the adult brain develops, myelination occurs, beginning in the more primitive areas of the brain...increasing the speed of the axons . Myelination occurs in the frontal lobes last .

14. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for the ability to... organize multiple tasks inhibit impulses maintain self-control set goals & priorities initiate appropriate behavior form strategies adjust behavior to fit a situation

15. Recent research suggests that teens have not developed the relationship between the frontal brain and the more inferior parts of the brain, which is associated with emotion. Consequently, teens cannot always accurately read expressions of emotions on adult faces. Ms. Jones is mad!

16. Implications for teachers & adolescent learners... “It’s sort of unfair to expect [teens] to have adult levels of organizational skills or decision-making before their brains are finished being built.” (J. Giedd)

17. How can teachers of adolescents support brain development?

18. Ask open-ended questions. Guide teens to locate accurate information. Develop understanding of the role of emotions in decision-making. Provide authentic, respectful learning opportunities. Remember, “It’s not about ME.” (Avoid taking teen’s behavior personally.) Realize teens bring a variety of strengths & creativity

19. Impulsivity drops at about age 10..... ...however, sensation-seeking behavior peaks at about age 15.

20. Teens engage in risk-taking, not because they’re “stupid,” but because they value rewards more heavily than adults. One example of valued rewards is peer approval... There is a positive side to this stage...

21. Adolescents... ...are open to new ideas. ...have an urge to meet new people ...are interested in new experiences .

22. During adolescent development, humans become better at balancing impulse, desire, goals, self-interest, rules, ethics and altruism.

23. Neuroplasticity = how the brain responds and grows according to its environment and experiences during adolescence. What are some implications for learning ?

24. https:// www.ted.com/talks/sarah_jayne_blakemore_the_mysterious_workings_of_the_adolescent_brain?language=en

25. Neuro -Education Mind, Brain & Educational Science The Adolescent Brain: Part II

26. The more multiple ways information is encoded, the easier it will be to retrieve .

27. Scema = Relational Memory It is a cluster of information. Framing new content with prior knowledge = Better Understanding

28. How do you apply “ scema ” in your practice?

29. Mindmapping …

30. Working Memory: Without rehearsal (practice) or constant attention Working memory lasts for only about 15-20 seconds. Cannot process two trains of thought at the same time ( Cocktail P arty effect) Not able to process too much information at one time. (Magic #7)

31. Episodic Memory = Emotional Your personal experience (not necessarily factual).

32. Episodic Memory = Emotional

33. Long Term Memory Let’s sing a song together…

34. Long Term Memory: “ Sniff Test”

35. Long Term Memory …is relatively permanent but not always accurate. Capacity is unknown; Some estimates suggest that our long term memory contains a million billion connections .

36. Declarative Memory : Ability to store and recall information that we can “declare” ( ie . Speak or write). Requires conscious processing.

37. Episodic Memory is remembering where & when information was acquired. Details often escape us. The brain “fills” in the details; we “reconstruct” memory from bits and pieces of truth.

38. Procedural Memory : “Knowing how” vs. “Knowing what.” Can you teach someone to tie a shoe, swing a golf club, or write a word, without p hysically demonstrating it? (Tasks involving m otor skills. Some types of skills are non-motor ; With practice, skilled readers move their eyes about four times a second, taking in the meaning of more than 300 words per minute. (Wolfe, 2010)

39. Procedural Memory: Priming Priming involves the influence of a past experience without any awareness or conscious memories of that experience . How do you “prime” the adolescent brain for learning in various c ontent areas?

40. From brain research we . . . Have come t o understand that the brain is a pattern-seeking d evice in search of meaning and that learning is the acquisition of mental programs for using what we understand.

41. Effective Classroom Strategies Writing across the curriculum Mnemonic strategies Peer teaching Active Review/Games Hands-on Activities Experiential Learning (Real world application) Building on prior knowledge Emphasize concepts over facts (Essential Questions) Peer collaboration

42. Service Learning

43. “At seventeen, the smallest crises took on tremendous proportions; someone else's thoughts could take root in the loam of your own mind ; having someone accept you became as vital as oxygen. Adults , light years away from this, rolled their eyes and smirked " this too shall pass" - as if adolescence was a disease like chicken pox , something that everyone recalled as a mild nuisance, completely forgetting how painful it had been at the time.”  ―   Jodi Picoult ,  The Pact