The Teen Brain:

Living and Learning at the Leading Edge

Part of the Neuropsychology, Brain Science and Emotional Wellbeing Series

Dr Elizabeth Morris 25th May 2007Edinburgh

It’s all in the brain

Amazing Brain

• 100bn brain cells• Can grow 5,000 - 50,000 ‘branches’ in

every one of these nerve cells• 2 sides that work in harmony • 3 functional areas in 1 organ• 4 lobes with a variety of functions• Conscious and unconscious brain

The three part braina cartoon of the brain

• Reptilian• Mammalian Brain - surrounds the

reptilian brain and interdigitates with it at many points.

- Known as the Emotional brain• Cortex – the wrinkly thinking cap on

top

A neuron with axon and dendrites

Two hemispheres taking care of different functions

Lobes in the hemispheres

Footprints on the brain

• Experience shapes the brain- Sensory input- Emotional impact

• Enriched emotional environment• Enriched physical environments• Moderate stress

What do you mean?

• Teenagers find it harder to read facial expressions than younger children

• Amygdala not frontal cortex• 412 separate emotions felt by

humans

Sleep and teenagers

• 84% have fallen asleep at school• 50% of students show symptoms of

sleep disorder• 60% of young adults admit to driving

while very drowsy• More than half the number of car

crashes are caused by drivers 25 or younger

Lets try that…

• Risk taking• Desire for pleasure • Surviving risk gives us a boost• Teenagers brains need more

stimulation to reach the same level of pleasure – ventral striatum

• I’m doing it because I can – neural networks

I get it…

• Understand jokes differently• Make connections and transfer

knowledge• See shades of grey in arguments• Pick up deeper meanings

Student’s dream teacher• who are truthful in a

positive way, kind, supportive, makes you feel special, encouraging like a friend, involves everyone, respectful (x3)

• who do not treat others any better than anyone else

• who involve everyone• who doesn’t act superior

Style of teaching

• who makes learning fun and are lively

• who is nice, funny, lets you move around, gives more rewards and takes you outside

• who is fun and creative• more fun teachers and get

rid of the boring ones• have good teachers who

do practical stuff and cool teachers who interact not boring teachers who tell us to “shut up”.

• have 2 teachers in class – one to teach us and one to help us

• have younger teachers so they can remember being a kid easier and know how we feel

• CELEBRITIES, ICONS AND MENTORS

• have celebrity teachers especially for French and Maths

What the students want

• Have choices• Do much more active

learning• Learn outside• Changes in school

environment• Much more ICT, Art

music drama….• Changing the

organisation of the day

• Things to be relevant

Having choices

• being able to choose different activities

• not being forced to do subjects that they didn’t want to do

• having to earn points to be able to have a choice

• an arts week where people rotate between art, drama and music

• a 3 subject project week • more time for lessons that we

want to do – choose to do as much music or drama as we like

• choose your own subjects

Active learning

• practical activities• building things • more things to do• making stuff• make more stuff for

you to take home• more time to play and

mess around• more sports and

games (chess)• sitting down makes

me feel fidgety

Learning outside

• day trips to make work more interesting

• go on a shopping spree to learn outside

• have lessons outside• learn outside more• bouncy castle, water slide,

rubber rugby pitch, ball slides,

• adventure playground• adventure sports: canoeing

and climbing

THE SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT

• burn down the old school and rebuild a better one!

• have automatic doors and escalators

• have own desks and laptops

• more equipment• no bullying• stay as school as long as

you want and even sleep over if you want

• any food you want• robots as servants• pets allowed in school

Teaching and learning

• more ICT and more activities on computers

• less writing or no writing or maths

• listen to music• art, drama and music• design tech to take

home

Organisation & time

• learning different subjects at the same time

• merge subjects together• not having to rush work• having more time to get

stuck into things• one day projects – you can

get stuck into one project and do all subjects in 2 weeks or compromise and have 2 teachers a day

• having 1 subject each day would make us learn more

Relevance

• work towards a career but the work is fun

• pupils teaching each other

• make own lesson plans

• getting to draw on the smart boards

Dream classes• boys and girls taught separately (x4)• more time to move from class to class• in every class have someone from your primary

school who you can trust• being able to hang stuff and decorate room to

make the place more relaxed • classmates from different countries and cultures• call teachers by their first name• talk about stuff we want to talk about• do things that we are interested in: shopping,

music ...• do projects with different people• more films (12 or PG rating of course!)

“Every time we speak to another person weare either raising or lowering their selfesteem.”

Strokes

A stroke is a “unit of recognition”.

Strokes may be:

• Verbal v nonverbal• Positive v negative• Conditional (doing) v unconditional (being)• Direct v indirect• More or less intense.

The stroke gridNEGATIVE POSITIVE

UNCONDITIONALFor Being

Put-Downs

Expressed Love

CONDITIONALFor Doing

Negative Feedback

Praise

How people treat us and as a result how we feel about ourselves

A person’s self esteem is determined by the ratio of positive to negative unconditional strokes (for being):

• Lots of expressed love and few put-downs leads to high self esteem.

• Lots of put-downs and little expressed love leads to low self esteem.

• A person’s self confidence is determined by the ratio of positive to negative conditional strokes (for doing):

• Lots of praise and limited negative feedback leads to high self confidence.

• Lots of negative feedback and limited praise leads to low self confidence.

School of Emotional Literacy

Bilston Glen

6 Dryden Road

Loanhead

Edinburgh

EH20 9TY

Tel: 0131 448 1021

Fax: 01453 549008

www.schoolofemotional-literacy.com

info@schoolofemotional-literacy.com