Transcript 10 Principles of Youth Development

Youth Development
Chapters 1 & 6
Youth Development: Chapter 1
SOPS
• Supports (main actor: the provider)
• Opportunities (main actor: the individual)
• Services (and Programs) (main actor the
provider)
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10 Principles of Youth Development
1.
Understand that young people are assets in the
making and not just problems to be fixed.
2.
Move beyond deficit-based models (addressing on the
problem behaviors) to models that focus on
developing youth capabilities (assets).
3.
Base the provision of SOPS on a vision of fully
functioning and capable adult.
4.
Move beyond thinking in terms of either/or.
5.
Focus on developing a wide range of knowledge,
skills, and behaviors.
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10 Principles of Youth Development
6.
Involve adults from the family and community in
fostering youth development.
7.
Support youth in being essential players in their own
development.
8.
Design youth development supports, opportunities,
and programs deliberately.
9.
Bring programs to scale.
10. Sustain supports and opportunities over time.
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1. Understand that young people are
assets in the making & not just
problems to be fixed.
• How do we change society’s basic attitudes
about young people?
– 1st challenge – see youth as assets, not liabilities
– Key depends on a range of SOPS from:
• Families
• Communities
• Others ??
• Working from a positive perspective is
essential!
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2. Move beyond deficit-based models
to models that focus on developing
youth capabilities.
• Explain what America’s Promise entails.
• Why is keeping America’s Promise (2003)
critical to positive youth development?
• Developmental Assets model (40 assets;
20 internal and 20 external)
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Developmental Assets model
•
4 areas that make up the 20 external assets
–
(home, school, or community attributes that provide
supports & opportunities):
1. Support from family, neighbors, schools, and other
adults
2. Actions to empower youth
3. Establishment of boundaries and expectations
4. Provision of opportunities for the constructive use of
time
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Developmental Assets model
•
4 areas that make up the 20 internal
assets
– (attitudes and behaviors that are necessary for
youth to grow up to navigate their adolescent
years and function successfully as adults):
1. Making a commitment to learning
2. Developing positive valu3es
3. Developing social competencies
4. Creating a positive identity
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Developmental Assets model
• Studies show:
– 0 to 10 of the 40 assets: 49 % more likely to engage in
problem alcohol use, drug use, violence, and sexual
activity as opposed to only 3% who have 31 to 40 assets.
– 47% with 31 to 40 assets are likely to succeed in school
while only 8% with 0 – 10 assets will succeed.
– What does this mean?
• The more assets the more likely youth are to become positively
adjusted adolescents and productive adults.
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3. Vision of a Fully Functioning
Adult
•
Must be given a fair chance to develop the
knowledge, attitudes, skills, & behaviors that
will make the transition to adulthood possible
(Furstenbuerg, 1999)
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Three main ideals to indicate this successful transition:
1. To find rewarding and remunerative employment
2. To form a lasting and gratifying partnership
3. To become contributors in their communities
•
Must educate to highest potential to foster positive
identity, personal sense of well-being & self-efficacy,
and develop habits of good citizenship
•
Must move beyond simply supplying “fun and games”
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4. Move Beyond Either/Or.
• We can no longer decide to be “ problem
free” OR “fully prepared”
• WE MUST DO BOTH: the AND
APPROACH
• How?
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5. Develop a Wide Range of
Knowledge, Skills, & Behaviors
•
Can’t just focus on education
–
Also need: vocational, physical, emotional, civic, social,
cultural, and spiritual competencies.
–
These competencies helps youth deal with three crucial
challenges faced in adolescent years (Erickson):
1. The task of industry – learning to be productive & to
contribute
2. The task of identity – learning who you are & where you fit
3. The task of intimacy – learning how to be with others and
finding a life partner
•
Also need to learn to self regulate actions &
emotions
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6. Involve adults from the family &
community
• Key to adult involvement in youth
development is for them to provide youth
with the “scaffolding” necessary to
enable growth and development (Pittman
et al, 2000)
• What does this mean?
• What role does Reliability….. Being there,
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keeping promises…..play?
7. Support Youth
•
Involve youth in the development of SOPS – critical!
•
Youth involvement and self-determination are keys to developing supports
and opportunities.
•
Thus, provide opportunities to:
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Participate in rule making, governance, and leadership
Form enduring, durable relationships with peers
Feel a sense of belonging and being valued
Make a contribution to the community
Don’t do everything “for” them, plan “with” them
– What are some of the problems caused by adult overregulation of the behavior of
youth?
– How can we plan “with” them?
• “Foster Involvement” p. 18
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8. Youth development by design
• Move away from just “fun & games” to deliberate approaches that
emphasize planning and leading on an intentional basis –
“intentional programming”
• Utilize comprehensive planning model – one that moves from
assessing needs, to setting goals, to developing programs to meet
goals, to assessing whether goals have been met.
• Program elements that need to be offered or created:
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A sense of safety
Challenging & interesting activities
A sense of belonging
Supportive relationships with adults
Involvement in decision making
Opportunities for leadership
Involvement in community
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10 basic elements that characterize
quality youth programs
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9. Bring programs to scale.
• Careful to not just focus on one group of
youth….all youth can benefit!
• Find ways to offer a critical mass of
services to a critical mass of young
people!
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10. Sustainability
• Short-term programs….just do not have long impact!
– Reasons to avoid one-shot or short term programs:
• Achieving quality in the first year or so can be difficult
• Youth development is ongoing and takes time to accomplish – continued
involvement is needed
• Almost impossible to evaluate the effectiveness of short-term programs
to achieve longer term objectives
– To be most effective”
• Efforts must begin early, be sustained throughout the adolescent years,
and allow for skill development through participation in various levels of
challenge.
• Programs must be comprehensive, addressing many aspects of youth
development.
• Need to develop a system of services that are ongoing & inclusive of the
variety of services necessary to meet youth’s needs.
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Youth Development: Chapter 6
Theories
Learning Theory: Teaching &
Shaping (Skinner & Bandura)
•
Key “reinforcements” the teacher or trainer uses to shape
behavior.
1.
Rewards are much more effective than punishment in shaping behavior
2.
Progressive reinforcement along a sequence of steps permits the shaping
of complex patterns of behavior
3.
Teacher has to be alert that undesired behavior is not getting reinforced.
•
Important in youth development because it helps us think about
what rewards youth are getting and the influence of these
rewards.
•
Shortcoming: risk of undercutting youth’s ownership of the
learning process.
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Constructivist Theory: Youth as
Producers of Their Own
Development (Piaget)
• Learning on your own….youth are motivated to learn.
• Piaget says youth “construct” concepts through the
process of active experimentation and reasoning.
– Peer to peer interactions provide the most fruitful context for
development of concepts about group processes & morality.
• Constructivist theories help us to think about the
powerful natural tendencies of youth to develop and to
organize their experiences into understanding.
• Shortcoming: when learning is turned entirely over to
youth they may founder and spin their whells
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Collaborative Learning: Guided
Participation (Vygotsky)
• Vygotsky saw learning as coming from
interactions between a child & other
people. (shared interaction)
• Creative scaffolding
• When to intervene and when to stand
back?
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Relationship Theories: Caring
connections as a Base for Development
• See close relationships with caring adults as
essential to human development.
– Stability important from birth
• Relationships that help child deal with drives and feeling. This
caring relationship helps them feel secure to take on new
challenges.
• So, what happens if children do not get this?
– Adults play an important indirect role in creating a
psychologically safe environment that facilitates youth to
engage in positive development.
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Sociological Theories: Learning
Norms & Acquiring Social Capital
• Development is the process so f coming to take your
place within social groups and society.
– Learning the general rules, meanings and ways of acting
– Developing social identity
• Where do norms come from?
• Do youth automatically follow norms?
• Learning AND forming relationships of exchange
– To successfully enter society we need competencies AND social
network!
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Theories as Tools
• Which theory is the “right one”?
• What is the purpose of developmental
theory?
• Common theme across these theories
(except early learning theory)?
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