What do I know about the teenage brain?

Answer True or False

1. The brain is largely a finished product by age 12.

2. During adolescence, the brain is becoming more efficient, but it is also losing some of its potential for learning.

3. The teen brain responds to stimuli differently than the adult brain.

4.

Hormonal changes are responsible for teens’ emotional outbursts

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5. We notice depression and mental illnesses more during the teen years because teens are more dramatic.

6. The teen brain reacts in the same way to emotional threat as it does to physical threat.

7. The average teen needs more than 9 hours of sleep every night.

8. The reason teens struggle to get up in the morning is because they don’t go to bed until late at night.

9 . The teen brain should stop every 10 - 15 minutes to process new information.

10. There are no physical differences between kids of today and yesterday; only their attitudes have changed.

Learning Is Connecting

How are teen brains different?

Neural Pruning

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Starts in the womb when neurons over populate Neural pruning ends around age 3 Like pruning a tree; the strong survive Scientists see this happening again around 11 More neural pruning…over half by age 15

Use it or lose it!

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Stop!

Think of a teen you know.

What does he/she spend most of their time doing…reading, writing, studying, playing an instrument, playing a sport, listening to music, working, TV, movies, video games?

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How are they wired?

What fires together wires together.

Neural Pruning

If neurons are not used at appropriate times during brain development, their ability to make connections dies.

Stages of Brain Development Parallels Piaget’s Stages Piaget’s Four Stages of Child Development

Sensorimotor (birth-2years) Pre-operational (ages 2-7) Concrete Operations (ages 7-11) Formal Operations (ages 11-15)

Four Stages of Brain Growth

Large motor and visual system Language Acquisition Manipulate thoughts and ideas Higher-order thinking

Only 50% of the adult population reaches the highest level of thinking.

What’s happening with teens’ emotions?

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During puberty, hormones are released Impacts serotonin and dopamine levels Information is processed differently Rely on amygdala rather than frontal lobes React, don’t process An appetite for thrills Fewer frontal lobe functions -reasoning, motivation, planning, goal setting…

Too much emotion…

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Produces adrenaline Produces cortisol-stress hormone Energy is re-directed —fight or flight Difficult to think and remember Brain can not differentiate between emotional and physical danger

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If rejected, takes 32x before you feel safe

What emotion is this woman expressing?

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100 % of adults identified shock Fewer than 50% teens saw shock Teens saw confusion, anger or fear Teens often see hostility where there is none

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Teens read visual cues differently Boys were more impulsive

The teen brain responds differently to the outside world.

Teens used less of the prefrontal region while more emotional regions were activated

Studies by Yurgelun-Todd, Director of Neuropsychology and Cognitive Neuroimaging, Belmont, Mass.

Stop!

Write a 1 to 2 sentence summary of what you’ve learned. Use any 4 of these 6 words: adolescent dendrite neural pruning dopamine amygdala frontal lobe Share with your neighbor

During adolescence mental illness can surface…

• In the 10 th grade, 64% of boys and 89% of girls report being concerned about a friend who is depressed.

• Higher percentage teens used drugs and alcohol- irregular Dopamine levels • Schizophrenia & Bipolar Disorder is thought to be triggered during adolescence

More Vulnerable to Addiction

• Brains tuned to be responsive to everything in their environment —why they learn easily • Addiction is essentially a “form of learning” • Addiction happens faster and stronger • A teenager who smokes pot will show cognitive deficits days later • An adult returns to cognitive baseline much faster

Teen Drinking May Cause Irreversible Brain Damage

• Compared brains of heavy drinking teems with those who don’t • Damaged nerve tissue/dings in white matter • Affects attentions span in boys • Comprehension and interpret visual information in girls • Seem to have higher tolerance for immediate negative effects of binge drinking-headaches and nausea • Abnormal functioning in hippocampus

Dumb Decisions!

• Risk assessment studies • When will you run a yellow light?

• Teens, when alone, reacted as adults • Teens, when with peers, showed risky behavior • Immature nucleus accumbens-motivation • Prone to engaging in behaviors with either high excitement or low effort factor • Emphasize immediate payoff!

We need our sleep...

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Our brains review and sort material while sleeping Information is stored and discarded Rats reconstructed their days in their dreams Studies have shown sleepers perform better Teens need 9.25 hours of sleep; most get 7.5

Teens Melatonin levels differ

How does the teen brain learn best?

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Scientists saw more activity in the Cerebellum —physical coordination Use movement Use emotion Take brain breaks 20 minute maximum attention span Review 10, 24 and 7 Pause, reflect, discuss, connect…

Highly Effective Strategies for Today’s Students:

• Arguing/Defending Position • Project-based learning • Novelty • Technology incorporation • Self-assessment in relation to goal • Collaboration

CONSTRUCTIVISM Traditional Learning

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Part to whole, emphasize skills

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Strict adherence to curriculum

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Rely on textbooks, workbooks

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Students are “blank slates”

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Teachers disseminate info

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Teachers seek correct answer to validate learning

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Assessment/Teaching separate Constructivist Learning

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Whole to part, emph. concepts

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Pursue student questions

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Rely on prim. sources, manip.

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Students are thinkers

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Teachers mediate, interact

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Teachers seek students’ knowledge to make decisions

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Assessment/Teaching are interwoven

Why can’t they do it?

• Neural connections are developed through environment and stimulus • Experiences create neural pathways that determine how we will learn

We are all born with a brain, But the mind is developed.

How Have They Changed?

Compare how today’s children play to children’s play 20 years or more ago.

How do your lists differ?

What impact do these differences have on the way our students learn?

How can we as educators address these changes?

How Are Today’s Kids Different?

• Change in diet • Drug and medication use • Less crawl-time and physical activity • Social/economic stability — 1960, 90% unwed mothers gave up their child/today, 90% keep them • School budget cuts— music, drama, art, PE • Threat, stress, violence • Television and video games • Less time in creative play • Less interaction with adults/reading/discussion

Writer, Mark Bauerlein , speaking about today’s students surfing the Internet:

“ Their choices are never limited, and the initial frustrations of richer experiences send them elsewhere within seconds. With so much abundance, variety, and speed, users key in to exactly what they already want. Companionship is only a click away….Why undergo the labor of revising values, why face an incongruent outlook, why cope with disconfirming evidence, why expand the sensibility…when you can find ample sustenance for present interests? Dense content, articulate diction and artistic images are too much....They remind them of their deficiencies, and who wants that? Confirmation soothes, rejections hurts. Great art is tough, mass art is easy. Dense arguments require concentration, adolescent visuals hit home instantly. “

Stop!

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Find the Reaction Guide you completed at the beginning of this session.

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Check your answers.

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Do you have any questions?

Ticket Out the Door

Ideas that “struck” you Questions you still have Thoughts, connections or suggestions