Cognitive development of teenagers

As I said in the last topic, I tend to judge and critize what teenagers do not or do “wrong”, but at this point you have noticed that there is something else that take place in this situation. However, now I will not talk about physical but changes talking about how teens use their logic. One of my favorite researchers and specialists is Jean Piaget, but there were some others like Erik Erickson and Robert Selman that have been studying the areas of cognitive and the social relationships of teens in the adolescence period. I do not want you to get bored with all this theories, but to analize the process in this stage of life in order to help boys and girls replacing they status to feel the way they feel.

According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (2014) identity, peer pressure, and self-esteem are the three most important aspects in the adolescence. In this stage teenagers have develop an ability to reason and have a complex thinking than when they were children in which they just could think in concrete operations, the things that they could see and touch. There are many wonderful things for example in this stage they can participate giving their opinions and sharing their points of view, but there are also some things which they can struggle with like peer pressure, identity, and self-esteem. Everyone wants to be part of a group, and feel they are important and loved, so they will follow not adults’ rules but the rule of the group they think they belong.

Thus, when teenagers misbehave, do not want to participate in any activity, or show an unusual attitude, they are just seeking their place in the World around them. Now I learned that teens are not adults, they think differently but they deserve the same treatment and respect. Thinking in the class delivery, I think something really meaningful for me is that I am conscious that teens love working and sharing with their peers, and topics related to technology. I will not just talk about what they struggle with but taking advantages of what I already learned.

I am pretty sure that if anyone who has the necessary tools, and what is more important know and read information before will sucess teaching teenagers. Personally, I could say that this is one of the groups I would love teaching English.

Reference

·         American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Teens: Alcohol and Other Drugs Accessed 6/4/2014.

Developmental Psychology: Cognitive Development, 2004 http://www.healthofchildren.com/C/Cognitive-Development.html