child and adolescent development
DESCRIPTION
Created by Allen Broyles 2014 SAIS New Teacher InstituteTRANSCRIPT
Teaching The Student In Front Of You
A wholly inadequate crash course in differentiation, psychosocial development, and neuroscience
In table groups:
List characteristics of a child that you know you will naturally like.List characteristics of a child that you know you will struggle to like.
You teach who you are.-Parker Palmer
Schooling
=Learning
Our Job:Increase Cognitive
Effectiveness
Differentiation
•The Changing Human▫Developmental Level
•The Individual Human ▫Unique Learning Profile
▫The Universal Human▫What All Brains Like
What does this student’s unique
brain need to learn best?
“The only time my education was interrupted was when I was in school.”
— George Bernard Shaw
“It’s a miracle that curiosity survives formal education."
— Albert Einstein
Disclaimers
•This won’t help you with any particular student.
•Lots of frameworks, but no expectations that any particular student will follow them
Hopes
•Awareness of the many, many ways and time frames in which normal people unfold
•Think deeply about kids (ie. a diagnostic instinct): “I wonder what’s going on inside there?”
•Handful of ideas, authors, research for further investigation
Do something. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn’t,
do something else.
Cerebrodiversity
Cerebrodiversity•We have a collective neural heterogeneity•No such thing as an optimal brain. Even the
brain that scores 2400•Cerebrodiversity IS the reason for
differentiation • If Cerebrodiversity is a fact, then
differentiation is not negotiable•Grade levels and age-specific outcomes
violate what we know about human development
•All brains are unique. Each of our brains solve wiring problems in slightly or very different ways .
I.Q. changes
Intelligence is malleable.
Intelligence Tests: A seriously flawed view •Volatile until 8 or 9 years•Volatile again in adolescence•Highly dependent on language•Not correlated to adult success•Full-scale IQ scores are worthless. Don’t
use them.
Exceptional
Weak
Golf
Cooking
Intelligence
Average
Are you passionate about your subject?Is the person sitting next to you?
Exceptional
Weak
Golf
Cooking
VerbalSpatialLiteracyMath PerformanceSocial/CollaborationExecutive FunctionPersistence
Top of your school
Bottom of your school
Student 1
Verbal
Spatial
Social/Collaboration
Persistence
Student 2
Social/Collaboration
Persistence
EF
Student 3
10% - 15%Rate of Dyslexia
U.S.
30%Rate of Dyslexia
CEO’s
Intelligence: A better view
•Successful interaction with the environment.
•Learning success and struggle are intimately tied to the ecology of the classroom
•Equal onus on the environment to allow for different interactions with it
•You, plus your “surround”•Multivariate (ie. Gardner’s Multiple
Intelligences)
Triarchic Theory of Intelligence: Sternberg
Componential/Analytical
•Dissemble problems•See novel approaches or solutionsExperiential/
Creative•Unfamiliar tasks or ideas•Novel/Automated
Practical/Contextual
•“Fit” with environment•Adaptation/adjusting•Shaping environment
A Triad of Intelligence: Perkins
Neural•Genetics•Maturation•Unique mix of features•Variance of skills
Experiential•Time spent in certain pursuits•“Street smarts”
Reflective•Metacognition•Persistence•Task analysis•“How am I doing?”
This Person is......
10085 115 13070
Independent Schools:Pathologizing the Normal?
Developmental And Learning FrameworksA Historical View
Maslow: Human Needs (1954)
Erikson: Psychosocial (1950)
Piaget: Learning Theory (1952)
Bloom: Taxonomy of Learning 1956
Bloom: Taxonomy of Learning 2001
The problem is…•Research does not agree about their validity
People unfold in ways that defy the order•Assert you must successfully negotiate one
level before moving to the next•Might imply a student “should” be something
other than they are
Physiological
Safety
Love/Belonging
Esteem
Self-actualization
Maslow
Remember
Understand
Apply
Analyze
Evaluate
Create
Bloom
Sensorimotor0 - 2 yrs
Preoperational
2 - 6 yrs
Concrete Operations7 - 12 yrs
Formal Operations
12 yrs - adult
Piaget
Trust/Mistrust0 - 18ms
Autonomy/Shame
18 mos - 3 yrs
Initiative/Guilt
3 - 5 yrs
Industry/Inferiority
6 - 11
Identity/Role Confusion
12 - 18
Intimacy/Isolation
19-40
Erikson
Generativity/Stagnation
41 - 65
Ego Integrity/Des
pair65 and older
Grade 16 yrs
Grade 27 yrs
Grade 38 yrs
Grade 49 yrs
Grade 510 yrs
Grade 611 yrs
Our Schools
Grade 712 ys
Grade 813 yrs
The Developing BrainCritical periods of development from birth to teen
Critical Periods!
•First Great Period of Brain Reorganization•26 weeks: 50,000 neurons per second•At birth, same number of synapses as
adults•By age 2 or 3, twice or three times the
synapses as adults•After that, pruning based on what is used•By 8, back to adult levels•First years of schooling are critical!!!
•Last Great Push of Brain Development!•Several brain areas double or triple•Frontal lobe thickens11- 13, thins until 20•Pruning of unneeded childhood memories•Decides what is important based on what is
used•Growth in frontal lobes (DLPFC, OFC)•Hormonal changes make the body a new
machine to learn how to work
•Facial expressions read with the amygdala,not fusiform face area
•Brain grows in spurts (like the rest of the body)
•Extremes of novelty seeking•Lack of planning (hard to see
consequences)•Crowd morality (immature PFC)•Sensitivity to reward (actual, not adult
defined)•Social context is HUUUUGGGEEE
The Social-Emotional BrainWhat stress is good and bad for the brain?
What is bad stress?
•Ramped up physiology•Response to aversive stimulus•Feeling out of control
Effects of Bad Stress?
•Adrenaline burst (RUN!!!)•Followup of cortisol balances adrenaline•We are designed for this in short bursts•Chronic:▫Deregulates blood pressure▫Increases stroke or heart attack▫Depresses immune system▫Hippocampus has lots of cortisol receptors:
blocks neurogenesis
Stress and Fear
Good Stress?
•Out of our comfort zone•Probably surmountable•Not chronic•Hippocampus thrives on this level
The High School Creature•Prefrontal cortex grows rapidly•Greater abstraction, the intellectual capacity to
form identity•Stimuli during that time is more impacting, feeds
more directly into our memories (memories during growth spurts are more easily made than during times of neuro-stability)
•Limbic systems has greater relative influence•Brain has more dopamine during adolescence•Much less able to control fear response than as
children or adults.New York Magazine, January 26 2013 Why We Never Leave High School
An Experiment!
Walla Walla, Washington
•Lincoln High School in Walla Walla, WA, tries new approach to school discipline — suspensions drop 85%
Jim Sporleder
2009-2010 (Before new approach) 798 suspensions (days students were out of school)
50 expulsions 600 written referrals
2010-2011 (After new approach) 135 suspensions (days students were out of school)
30 expulsions 320 written referrals
Good Stress?
• Reduced calories
• Learning new, challenging things
• Exercising vigorously
Mirror Neurons
• Fire whether you move or just see movement
• Purposeful vs. random actions and movements
• The contagious yawn
• Possibly the origins of language through shared gestures and facial expressions
Mirror Neurons
Ostracism
Play and Fun!!
Hippocampus
Amygdala
Ideal Learning Zone
Developmental And Learning FrameworksRecent Ideas
Daniel Pink: Motivation and Self Determination Theory
Relatedness Autonomy
CompetenceSweet Spot!
Motivation Research on Rewards•Harms effectiveness•Reduces creativity and intrinsic motivation•Reduces collaboration• Increases unethical behavior•Rewards can boost completion of
mechanical tasks, but hinders cognitive tasks
•Strongest motivator? Feeling effective
Drive, Daniel Pink
Research Study About Grades
•Grades only: Made no learning gains post grades
•Comments only: Made most learning gains
•Comments and grades: No learning gains▫Probably due to focus on grades instead of
comments
Focus on Formative Feedback, Valerie Shute, Educational Testing Services, 2007
Carol Dweck: Mindsets
http://www.mindsetworks.com/webnav/whatismindset.aspx
Mindset Research
•Predicts motivation and achievement•Narrows the gender gap in math•Narrows the racial achievement gap•Correlates with higher grades and test
scores
http://www.mindsetworks.com/webnav/whatismindset.aspx
New Bloom: Marzano and Kendall
Howard Gardner: Multiple Intelligences
Costa-Kalick: Habits of Mind
Vygotsky: Zone of Proximal Development
A Tour of the Brain
What does the brain do?
You see with your brain, not with your eyes.
You hear with your brain, not with your ears.
You feel with your brain, not with your fingers.
You smell with your brain, not with your nose.
A newspaper is better than magazine. A seashore is a better place than a street. At first it is better to run than to walk. You may have to try several times. It takes some skill, but it is easy to learn. Even young children can learn it. Once successful, complications are minimal. Birds seldom get too close. Rain, however, soaks in very fast. Too many people doing the same thing can also cause problems. One needs lots of room. If there are no complications, it can be very peaceful. A rock will serve as an anchor. If things break loose from it, however, you will not get a second chance.
Kite
Architecture of the Brain
Motor Sensory
Visual Auditory
Executive
Homunculus
Hippocampus
Amygdala
Processing
Plasticity
•The brain rewires itself all the time.• Intelligence is not fixed.•Study: Knowledge of the expanding nature
of intelligence did more to boost math grades than how to study for math.
•Teen brains have a natural variation of IQ test scores
Plasticity
“PayAttention!”
(McClosky, 2013)
Interpersonal Control Arena
Symbol System Control Arena
Intrapersonal Control Arena
Environmental Control Arena
Examples of Executive Functions
The Remembering BrainMemory and how to help it work better
•106 students were interviewed the day after Challenger and journaled:▫How did you feel, what were you doing?
•2 1/2 years later, they were asked about it.•Fewer than 10% got the details right.•Most were certain they were right.•Many went with their memories instead of
the documentation.
A Study...
What is memory?
•Stored:▫Information▫Procedures and processes▫Affective states▫Impressions
SemanticMeanings,
understandings, knowledge
Episodic
Experience, emotions
Things you know(and can say)
Things you know how to do
Declarative(Explicit)
Non-declarative(Procedural, Implicit)
Automatic actions without conscious
awareness
What gets stored?
•NOT a separate encoding for each memory•Sights, colors, sounds, content are stored
across the brain in different places Yr dg chsd th ct
•Reuses old memories if they approximately match
•Reactivates the network of neurons when we recall
•Functionally recreates the experience
How do we best remember?
•Attentiveness and concentration• Interest, relevance, motivation•Emotional content•Environmental context•Multi-sensory input
Motor Sensory
Visual Auditory
Executive
10%
Everything Important About A Subject
Personally relevant
Hands-on,
multisensory
Engaging problem-solving
Memory Strategies
•“Repeat to remember”•“Remember to repeat” (space rehearsal)•Manipulate new information elaborately!• Invoke emotion and experience• Involve all senses•Attach it to a context•Talk about it right after!•Sleep!!!!