Child and adolescent development

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!!!!