Understanding the Adolescent
Brain
Presented by
Garfield Gini-Newman
OISE/University of Toronto
[email protected]
Wikipedia generation is lazy and
unprepared for university’s rigours,
survey of faculty says
Toronto Star, April 6, 2009
The evidence is strong that they [Net
Geners] are the smartest generation ever.
[They have] been given the opportunity to
fulfill their inherent human intellectual
potential as no other generation.
Don Tapscott, Grown Up Digital, 2009
Some recommended reading
Does a child's belief about intelligence
have anything to do with academic
success?
•100 seventh graders, all doing
poorly in math, randomly assigned
to workshops
• One workshop gave lessons on
how to study well.
• The other taught about the
nature of intelligence and the
brain.
•Students in the latter group
"learned that the brain actually
forms new connections every time
you learn something new, and that
over time, this makes you smarter.”
• By the end of the semester, the
group who had been taught that the
brain can grow smarter, had
significantly better math grades
than the other group.
Nurturing a Growth Mindset
Growth Mindset
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Fixed Mindset
See intelligence as fixed something you are born
with
Success/failure is what is
expected
School is about
demonstrating your worth
Avoid challenges which
may not immediately yield
success
• see setbacks as a
challenge that motivate
• success is about
stretching oneself
• intelligence comes from
hard work
• School is an opportunity
to expand intelligence
Marching to a Different Circadian
Rhythm!
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Teens begin to secrete
melatonin, chemical
neurotransmitter which
makes us feel drowsy, 1
to 3 hours later and it
lingers on later in the
morning
Teens sleep needs far
exceed adults – they
need at least 9 hours
Teens are the most sleepdeprived segment of
North American society
Implications of Sleep Deprivation for
the Adolescent Learning
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Do less well in school
Experience a greater feeling of
sadness and hopelessness
Greater mood swings (less able
to control emotions)
Less able to process emotions
and are therefore prone to raw
emotional outbursts
Causes an elevated level of the
stress hormone, cortisol
Impairs ability to process glucose
which contributes to obesity and
type-2 diabetes – both on the
rise among North American
teens
Five Pillars of Brain
Development
• Blossoming and Pruning
• Use it or lose it
• The Window of Opportunity
• The Window of Sensitivity
• Myelination
Blossoming and Pruning
brain develops and fits and starts
during a growth spurt the number
of connections in a particular area
of the brain explodes creating
more branches than will survive this is called “blossoming”
Neurons that fire together, wire
together!
Learning is a matter of making connections.
The Process of Long Term
Potentiation
When information (stimuli) is received, a trail
along a series of neurons is blazed making it
easier for subsequent messages to fire along the
same path. The more the path is re-fired the more
permanent the message or new learning becomes.
Each time an activity is repeated the bonds
between neurons strengthen and expand, leading
to an entire network developing which remembers
the skill or information.
Considering how the brain
learns...
...how and why is the behaviour
of an adolescent similar to that
of a 2 year old?
At both stages, the
brain is responding to...
...a massive build up of
connections and pruning away
excess connections allowing
for a more refined and
efficient brain.
Pruning
Following the explosion of dendrite growth in the
brain, experience and the use-it-or-lose-it process
take over
experiences will cause some neurons to fire - those
that do fire will strengthen
branches that do not fire will weaken - this is called
pruning
Brain Sculpting
Imagine you have set out to capture
the essence of who you are in a
marble sculpture. Reflect back to
what life was like at age 11 or 12.
Walk yourself through the defining
experiences of your adolescence.
While doing so, imagine yourself
chipping away the excess marble to
allow for the emergence of your adult
self.
Shaping the mature brain
The brain sculpts itself through its
experience with the world.
Teenagers need to realize that the
brain is the only organ in the body
that is sculpted through
experience. What they are doing
with their brain now is going to
determine what their brain is going
to become as an adult.
Remember that...
“...if teens are doing music and sports
and academics, that’s how brains will
be hardwired. If they are doing video
games and MTV and lying on the
couch, that will be how they are
hardwired.”
Jay Giedd
Myelination
The Myelination Process
Understanding Myelination:
A Myelin is a fatty, waxy substance that wraps
A
A
A
A
itself around the axon
Myelin insulates the axon so that the electrical
impulse travels more efficiently
The neurons you need to survive will myelinate
first
Before a neuron is myelinated it is called
immature
Myelination results in the creation of a more
efficient brain
Four Basic Emotions
Researchers generally agree
there are four basic emotions
and that all other emotions
are created from combinations
of these four.
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Fear
Anger
Sadness
Joy
Emotions, the Amygdala and
the Teenage Brain
Any information received by the brain
travels first to the amygdala
The amygdala holds emotional
memory - it tells you how you feel
about things
In the teenage brain, the amygdala is
developing faster than the frontal
lobes
So, teenagers tend to be reactive not
reflective
What happens when the brain gets
hijacked by negative emotions?
The body is readied for the fight
or flight response. The body is
primed with adrenaline preparing
it for the fastest physical reaction.
The hypothalamus activates the
amygdala, which in turn
produces anger, rage, or
threatening behaviour.
“Emotion drives attention and
attention drives learning”
In her book Brain Matters, Pat Wolfe
noted:
“The brain is biologically
programmed to attend first to
information that has a strong
emotional content. It is also
programmed to remember this
information longer.”
Reading Facial Expressions
Critical thinking is...
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Concerned with judging or assessing what is
reasonable or sensible in a situation,
Focuses on quality of reasoning,
Depends on the possession of relevant
knowledge
Occurs when we attempt to solve a
problematic situation
Takes effort but is more interesting than merely
memorizing information
When is someone thinking critically?
A person is thinking critically only if s/he is
attempting to assess or judge the merits of
possible options in light of relevant factors or
criteria.
Critical thinking is criterial thinking— thinking in
the face of criteria.
A Definition of Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is the working through a
problematic situation in order to decide
what to believe or how to act. It requires
that we make a reasoned judgment .
Encourage open
discussion of
issues
Invite children to
solve problems or
offer thoughtful
assessments
Children as thoughtful
learners
Intellectual
Tools
Background
Knowledge
Criteria for
Judgment
Critical Thinking
Vocabulary
Thinking
Strategies
Habits of Mind
Is Canadian diversity the result of
or inspite of government intentions?
Create a Want Ad profiling the ideal immigrant sought by the Canadian
government as reflected in the 1904 cartoon All Together Now.
Is Canadian diversity the result of
or inspite of government intentions?
Create a Want Ad profiling the ideal immigrant sought by the Canadian
government as reflected in the 1904 cartoon All Together Now.
Can you help out Lou Costello?
A.
Uncover the conceptual error in Lou’s mathematical
thinking
B.
Design a learning activity that would help Lou in
understanding this conceptual error by providing an
alternative solution to the math problem being discussed.