Closed for construction - adolescent brain development in the middle years

Brain theory and adolescent development is an area of research that is expanding so rapidly that we need to constantly update ourselves on the latest information and implications for our teaching practice. This article will provide a synthesis of current research into brain theory and early adolescence. It will also provide some discussion about implications for our work in schools.

Adolescence is a time of profound changes. Three of the most significant changes of the life cycle take place during adolescence:

the ability to produce
the establishment of an identity
development of logical and rational thought processes.

The way the brain develops is not a characteristic sequence of events that is replicated in each individual. Recent research, using PET scans (Positron Emission Tomography) and fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) confirms what was long believed by Jean Piaget and Maria Montessori – a child’s mind develops in fits and starts followed by periods of consolidation.

In terms of brain development, there appear to be times during early childhood through to adolescence when children are highly receptive to new information and able to gain specific skills more easily. As teachers we need to be aware of these stages and ensure our teaching programs consolidate on these phases of brain development.

Children’s brains are much busier than an adult’s brains. From birth, the brain is busy setting up connections. At birth each neuron has 2,500 synapses. By the age of 2 years, there are 15,000 synapses per neuron. During this time children absorb their surroundings and are especially interested in differences. They are intensely interested in their social environment, they try to draw links and relationships between events and want to create meaning in new settings.

At the age of three years the first period of consolidation begins. This period tends to be characterised by children asking the question “why?” It is estimated that a four year old asks a “why” question every two and a half minutes!

Around the age of six, there is a second surge as the brain starts to use language in increasingly complex ways. Up to the age of nine a child’s brain continues to be twice as active as an adult’s brain.

At around the age of nine peer relationships seem to predominate. Primary schools often find that bullying increases around this age as children jostle for position with peers. It’s at this point that we start to see the brain gearing up for adolescence. During the teenage years, the brain starts to slow down to its adult running rate.

Synaptic pruning begins during the pre-adolescent years. This is where the brain breaks down its weakest connections preserving only those that experience has shown to be useful. The statement “use it or lose it” is apt here. The synapses that carry the most messages get stronger and the weaker, less used ones get cut out. The process is much like the pruning of a tree. By cutting back weak branches, others flourish. As many as 30,000 synapses may be lost per second in the early adolescent brain leading to an ultimate loss of almost one half of the synapses that were present in the pre-adolescent period.

Even though it may seem that having a lot of synapses is a particularly good thing, the brain actually consolidates learning by pruning away synapses and wrapping white matter (myelin) around other connections to stabilize and strengthen them. The period of pruning is as important for brain development as the period of growth.

The second thing that happens in adolescent’s brains is that the frontal lobes - the part of the brain that enables us to plan, consider, control impulses and make wise judgements - is the last part to develop.

During this phase, behaviour and emotion are less adequately controlled due to a lack of synchrony between a mature body and an immature nervous system. As a result, young people are more likely to engage in risky behaviours during this time. Ronald E Dahl, from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre describes it as being "… like turbocharging an engine without a skilled driver".

Although clinical studies show that adolescents reach adult levels of decision-making by age 15, they make poor decisions in real life, often with input from peers in an emotionally charged situation. Dahl states that "adolescents make a lot of decisions that the average 9 year old would say was a dumb thing to do".

One key message here is that adolescents are built to take risks. Trying to prevent them from doing so is typically futile, as it is simply part of their biology. What we can do as teachers is to create opportunities for adolescents to take healthy risks or experiment with decisions and consequences in a safe environment. Creating opportunities for students to explore and take some chances can minimise the likelihood that they choose less healthy, riskier options to satisfy their need to do so.

It is important to place adolescent behaviour into social contexts to better understand what is going on and to better arm students with the skills to make appropriate decisions. Although most adolescents know right from wrong, the environments in which risk-taking and other behaviours occur, such as riding in a car with three or four other friends, or hanging out with a group of smokers, can cause them to do things they know are hazardous and/or inappropriate.

Adolescents tend to use a part of the brain called the amygdala during decision-making, because their frontal lobes function poorly. The amygdala is responsible for impulsive and aggressive behaviour, and its dominance makes adolescents more prone to react with gut instincts. In adult brains, the frontal lobes offer a check on the emotions and impulses originating from the amygdala. But this check does not work to the same extent in adolescents’ brains.

Learning is generally enhanced by challenging activities in safe environments and inhibited by threatening tasks and environments. The brain learns best when appropriately challenged in an environment that encourages taking risks, but where it is not subjected to high levels of stress, or negative emotional reactions. Unpleasant feelings, such as fear, anger and helplessness, impair thinking, while more pleasant feelings, such as calm, safety and self-determination, tend to enhance thinking.

Emotional regulation is a key skill. Adolescence is also the period when hormones become more powerful and adolescents’ brains show more activity in the emotional parts of the brain. As was previously stated, negative emotions can impair the brain’s ability to think and learn. We need to support students to learn to recognise their emotions and how to react to them in an appropriate way. Students who are emotionally competent recognise and manage their own feelings, recognise and respond appropriately to the feelings of others, tolerate frustration, are less impulsive and more focused, and concentrate better.

Emotions also have an impact on students’ learning. Studies have shown that adolescents are more likely to report a negative emotional reaction to a situation or stimulus than an adult. As a result of this overall increase in negative feelings, adolescents’ motivation for learning declines over time also. One way to increase motivation for learning is to build upon the interests of students and link as many educational outcomes to these interests and their future goals. Providing a purpose for learning and exploring knowledge and skills in a real-life context can increase academic motivation.

So what does all of this mean for teaching adolescents?

A key theme in the adolescent development literature is that knowledge is constructed. We build our brains through our learning experiences. The nature of the learning experiences we undertake will dictate how the brain develops and the connections that are pruned. Some of the key skills students must develop in order to learn through experience are how to:

reflect on learning
link new knowledge to existing knowledge
establish what is true and accurate
challenge what knowledge is untrue and inaccurate.

Giving students opportunities to be reflective improves the quality of learning, since learning with understanding is more likely to promote transfer of knowledge than rote learning or memorising information. New knowledge needs to be relevant to the learner and linked to their current knowledge base.

Knowledge that is delivered in a variety of contexts and through a range of learning strategies is more likely to be applied or transferred broadly. Organising information and making explicit links between concepts help students to store and apply their knowledge. As students specialise, they need to have an in-depth grasp of the relationships between concepts and the way knowledge is organised within a discipline, as well as factual information related to the subject.

Students need to be provided with opportunities to learn through emotions and understand the impact of their emotions on their learning and behaviours. Adolescents like to learn when activities are made emotionally relevant to them. Using pastimes and pursuits, such as their favourite TV shows (Home and Away, Neighbours, the OC) to spark positive emotions will promote their learning.

For some practical ideas about engaging adolescents in relevant PDHPE lessons refer to the article on the Curriculum Support website titled Innovative ways of presenting PDHPE content.

For further information on brain research and development go to the following web sites.

References

Fuller, A(2003) Don't Waste Your Breath- An Introduction to the Mysterious World of the Adolescent Brain. (Accessed from www.inyahead.com.au on 12/9/06.

Dahl, R E (2003) Adolescent Brain DevelopmentKey note address accessed at http://www.nyas.org/ebriefreps/main.asp?intSubsectionID=31815 September 2006.

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (2005) Social, emotional and cognitive development and its relationship to learning in school Prep to Year 10: A discussion paper prepared in August 2004 for the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority as theoretical background for development of the Victorian Essential Learning Standards, Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, Melbourne, Victoria.

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