teaching and motivating the adolescent child presented by dr. warren shillingburg csn education...

Teaching and Motivating the Adolescent Child

Presented by Dr. Warren ShillingburgCSN Education Professor

Best of Times and Worst of Times

• Time of Evaluation• Time of Decision Making• Time of Commitment• Time of Carving Out a Place in the

World

Issues• Face more numerous demands and expectations• Face less stable environments• Not a homogeneous group• Period of physical growth with puberty• Hormonal changes• Body image issues• Early/late maturation

• Adolescent Egocentrism (David Elkind)• Imaginary Audience – everyone is looking at them• Personal Fable - no one knows how they feel

Developmental Learning Theories

• Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory– Concrete Operations (7-12 years old)– Formal Operations (12-adult)– webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/piaget.html

• Erikson’s Psychosocial Development Theory– Stage 4: Industry vs. Inferiority (6-12 years old)– Stage 5: Identity vs. Role Confusion (12-18)– webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/erikson.html

Video Clip• Peers most important aspect of lives• Group affiliation important to self-concept

and identity development• Learn identity from peer group• Social isolation linked to many problems• Coaching has been shown to improve social

skills

Adolescent Development Issues

• Depending on child’s mental development: preschool-parents; elementary-teachers

• Media big influence: TV, magazines, music, videos, Internet

• Development of intimate relationships big part of later development for self-concept and searching for love (Charlie’s story)

• Discipline for major issues out of view of peers

Theories of Motivation(defined as internal process that activates, guides, and maintains behavior

over time)

• Behavioral Learning Theory: (Skinner) Reinforcements and Punishments-Intrinsic more powerful, but may need to start with extrinsic

www.bfskinner.org/home.html

• Maslow’s Human Need Theory: Deficiency Needs to Growth Needs

webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/maslow.html

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Theories of Motivation• Motivation and Attribution Theory: (Mindsets by Carolyn Dweck) What

attribute successes and failures to will determine our motivation– Ability, effort, task difficulty, or luck; want to focus on effort, which is

tough in school’s with grades, etc.– Develop an internal locus of control, due to own efforts and abilities;

external locus due to task difficulty and luck-have no control or power over these

www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2007/marapr/features/dweck.html

Theories of Motivation• Motivation and Expectancy Theory: probability and

incentive of success to motivate; proper challenge (tennis example); achievement is better predicted from student’s beliefs than actual ability

• Motivation and Personality Theory: Need to develop love of learning; many through parents’ passions

Enhancing Motivation• Focus on learning, not performance• Deal with learned helplessness: (common in

LD)-give opportunities for success by breaking tasks to smaller steps, giving immediate feedback, and consistent expectations and follow-through

• Teacher expectations-students will live up to your expectations

THANK YOU

Enjoy the rest of your day!