Chapter 15 Introduction

Adolescence: Cognitive Development

  • Logic and Self
    • Egocentrism
    • Formal Operational Thought
  • Two Modes of Thinking
    • Intuition Versus Analysis
    • Dual Processing and the Brain
  • Digital Natives
    • Technology and Cognition
    • A New Addiction?
    • Cyber Danger
  • Teaching and Learning
    • Definitions and Facts
    • Middle School
    • A CASE TO STUDY: James, the High-Achieving Dropout
    • High School
    • OPPOSING PERSPECTIVES: Testing

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WHAT WILL YOU KNOW?

  1. Why do most young adolescents think everyone else is focused on them?

    Adolescent egocentrism causes adolescents to think intensely about themselves and what others think of them. This is in part because maturation of the brain heightens self-consciousness. Egocentrism creates the imaginary audience, in which the adolescent is at center stage, with all eyes on him or her.

  2. Why don’t adolescents use their new cognitive ability to think logically?

    Adolescents tend to rely on intuition rather than analytical thinking. Logical thinking improves with age and education, not with IQ. Logic is more difficult than intuition, and people of any age resist changing their minds once they have reached an emotional conclusion.

  3. How do computers and cell phones affect adolescent learning?

    Many secondary students use computers to check facts, read explanations, and view videos, and thus grasp concepts they would not have understood without technology. Most teachers are embracing technology as a way to reach today’s digital natives. Cell phones and social networking may speed up the process of advancing adolescent thought.

  4. Which adolescents (age and background) in which schools (size and type) are most likely to feel lost and ignored?

    Children in grades 6 through 8 who come from homes in which the parents feel unable to help with learning and who attend middle schools that are large and not very diverse are most likely to feel lost and ignored.

I have taught at four universities, educating thousands of college students. Most of the content of my courses is standard. That allows me to focus on updating, adding current examples to, and adjusting each class session. I can decide the best strategy for the particular topic and class (lecture, discussion, polls, groups, video clip, pair/share, role play, written responses, quizzes, and more).

No class is exactly like any other. Not only is the group dynamic in one class unlike the next, but also each student is unique. Ideally I know who needs encouragement (“Good question”), who needs prompts (“Do you agree with—”), who should think before they speak (“What is your evidence?”), whose particular background is instructive (“Is that what it was like when you were a child in … ?). Deciding who should learn what, when, and how is my challenge and my joy.

A few years ago, I taught a course for college credit to advanced high school students. They grasped concepts quickly, they studied diligently, they completed papers on time—in all those ways, they were easy to teach. But in other ways they presented difficulties unlike my college students. For example, one day I was explaining Freud’s stages.

Student: I don’t agree with Freud.

Me: You don’t have to agree, just learn the terms and concepts.

Student: Why should I do that?

Me: You need to understand Freud, so you can then disagree.

Student: But I have my own ideas, and I like them better than Freud’s.

I was taken aback. None of my college students had ever been so egocentric as to claim that their own ideas were so good that they didn’t need to bother with Freud. This is not to say they all agreed with Freud: some of them offered insightful criticism. But none resisted learning about Freud, especially by deciding in advance that they liked their ideas better. Then I remembered: Bright as they were, these students were adolescents. I adjusted my teaching accordingly.

This chapter describes adolescent cognition, sometimes impressively brilliant, sometimes surprisingly abstract, and sometimes amazingly egocentric. Then we describe how adolescents are taught—in middle school, in high school, and around the world—and how that aligns or clashes with adolescent cognition.

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