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01 Oct 09

Understanding How Adolescents Think | Edutopia

Raleigh Philp isn't a scientist; he's a longtime teacher and a teacher trainer at Pepperdine University's Graduate School of Education and Psychology. But he also thinks of himself as a translator, someone who can use current brain research to help teachers teach. His book Engaging 'Tweens and Teens: A Brain-Compatible Approach to Reaching Middle and High School Students aims to show teachers how to cope with the developing -- and often baffling -- teenage brain. (Read an excerpt from the book.)
Raleigh Philp
Credit: Raleigh Philp

Philp points to research showing that teenage brains don't function the way adult ones do. (See a good introduction to scientific studies on teenage brains on the Web site for the PBS program Frontline.) The neocortex -- the part of the human brain responsible for language, planning, empathy, and executive functions -- hasn't fully developed inside the average 13-year-old's head. That teenager still relies on a more reactive, gut-instinct part of the brain, the amygdala, which handles emotions and memories associated with emotion.

Teenagers also aren't very good at reading emotion on others' faces. In addition to the obvious physical signs of adolescence, teens and 'tweens are undergoing a major neurological overhaul, which is why that perennial teen mumble "I don't know" may be closer to the truth than we'd realized.

What this means for teachers, says Philp, is that they must be both patient and persistent. The point at which teenagers tend to withdraw and ask to be left alone is exactly when it's most important to engage them.

www.edutopia.org/ing-states-teenagers-interview - Preview

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