Module 5.2 Cognitive Development in Adolescence Chapter 5: Adolescence Module 5.2 Cognitive Development in Adolescence

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Cognitive Development Approaches Piaget Information processing Adolescent egocentrism 276

Piagetian Perspective Fixed sequence of qualitatively different stages Fundamentally different than child thinking Utilized in variety of settings and situations Incorporates new, more advanced, and more adaptive form of reasoning Occurs when biological readiness and increasingly complex environmental demands create cognitive disequilibrium 276

Piagetian Stages Related to Youth Development Concrete operations 6-11 years Mastery of logic Development of rational thinking Formal operations 11+ years Development of abstract and hypothetical reasoning Development of propositional logic 277

Developmental of Formal Operations Emergent Early adolescence Variable usage depends on conditions surrounding assessment Established Late adolescence Consolidated and integrated into general approach to reasoning 277

Piaget…Pros and Cons Cons Pros Fails to prove Stage like fashion of cognition FO is adolescent cognitive stage Fails to account for variability Between children Within child Within specific situations Pros Catalyst for much research Accounts for many changes observed during adolescence Helps explain Developmental differences Multidimensionality Metacognition 278

Information Processing View Study of cognitive development in component processes Incorporates same techniques to understanding human reasoning that computer scientists employ in writing programs 279

Changes in Information Processing Gains during adolescence help to explain developmental differences in abstract, multidimensional, and hypothetical thinking 279

Changes Include five basic areas: Attention Memory Information processing speed Organizational strategies Metacognition 279

Thinking about Thinking… Metacognition improves during adolescence Thinks about own thoughts self-consciousness Monitors own learning processes more efficiently Paces own studying 279

Adolescent Egocentrism Imaginary audience Personal fables Assessment methodology Imaginary audience Belief that one is center of everyone else's concern and attention Personal fables Egocentric belief that one’s experiences are unique Assessment methodology May be right about existence of adolescent egocentrism but wrong about underlying processes 280

How do adolescents connect using technology? E-mails Instant messages (IMs) Web logs (blogs) Websites Chat rooms Cell phones Camcorders 285

Review and Apply REVIEW Adolescence corresponds to Piaget’s formal operations period, a stage characterized by abstract reasoning and an experimental approach to problems. According to the information processing perspective, the cognitive advances of adolescence are quantitative and gradual, involving improvements in many aspects of thinking and memory. Improved metacognition enables the monitoring of thought processes and of mental capacities. 282

Review and Apply REVIEW Adolescents are susceptible to adolescent egocentrism and the perception that an imaginary audience is constantly observing their behavior. They also construct personal fables that stress their uniqueness and immunity to harm. 282

School Performance

True or False? Grades awarded to high school students have shifted upward in the last decade. True The mean grade point average for college-bound seniors was 3.3 (out of a scale of 4), compared with 3.1 a decade ago. More than 40 percent of seniors reported average grades of A+, A, or A- (College Board, 2005). Independent measures of achievement, such as SAT scores, have not risen. Consequently, a more likely explanation for the higher grades is the phenomenon of grade inflation. According to this view, it is not that students have changed. Instead, instructors have become more lenient awarding higher grades for the same performance. Ask: What consequences does this have (potentially) for college-bound students?

Socioeconomic Status and School Performance Individual Differences in Achievement Children living in poverty lack many advantages Later school success builds heavily on basic skills presumably learned or not learned early in school There are several reasons. For one thing, children living in poverty lack many of the advantages enjoyed by other children. Their nutrition and health may be less adequate. Often living in crowded conditions and attending inadequate schools, they may have few places to do homework. Their homes may lack the books and computers commonplace in more economically advantaged households. 283

Ethnic and Racial Differences in School Achievement Significant achievement differences between ethnic and racial groups On average, African American and Hispanic students tend to perform at lower levels, receive lower grades, and score lower on standardized tests of achievement than Caucasian students Asian American students tend to receive higher grades than Caucasian students 283

What is the source of such ethnic and racial differences in academic achievement? Ask: What do you think? Much of the difference is due to socioeconomic factors. More African American and Hispanic families live in poverty so their economic disadvantage may be reflected in their school performance. Members of certain minority groups may perceive school success as relatively unimportant: may believe that societal prejudice in workplace will dictate that they will not succeed, no matter how much effort they expend. Attributions effect. Beliefs about the consequences of not doing well in school. Process of involuntary immigration apparently leaves lasting scars, reducing the motivation to succeed in subsequent generations.

Cyberspace: Adolescents Online See: Adolescents in Cyberspace: Exploring a New Social Universe (http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/articles/teens/adolescents.html) Widespread availability of Internet and World Wide Web is producing significant changes in lives of many adolescents. Educational promise of Internet is significant. It is not yet obvious how this will change education or whether impact will be uniformly positive. Ask: What do YOU think? Why? To obtain the full benefits of Internet, then, students must obtain ability to search, choose, and integrate information to create new knowledge. 285

The Downside of Click Objectionable material available Growing problem of Internet gambling Safety Digital divide Poorer adolescents and members of minority groups have less access to computers than more affluent adolescents and members of socially-advantaged groups—a phenomenon known as the digital divide. 285

Dropping Out of School Incidence Causes Consequences 285 Most students complete high school, but as we have said, some half million students each year drop out prior to graduating. The consequences of dropping out are severe. High school dropouts earn 42 percent less than high school graduates, and the unemployment rate for dropouts is 50 percent. Adolescents who leave school do so for a variety of reasons. Some leave because of pregnancy or problems with the English language. Some must leave for economic reasons, needing to support themselves or their families. Dropout rates differ according to gender and ethnicity. Poverty plays a large role in determining whether a student completes high school. Students from lower-income households are three times more likely to drop out than middle- and upper-income households. Because economic success is so dependent on education, dropping out often perpetuates a cycle of poverty. 285

Review and Apply REVIEW Academic performance is linked in complex ways to socioeconomic status and to race and ethnicity. Both gender and ethnicity affect the incidence of dropping out. 286

Review and Apply REVIEW The educational benefits of the Internet are many, but it also introduces adolescents to objectionable material and online gambling. 286

Review and Apply APPLY What sorts of external factors (i.e. not attributable to the students) might negatively affect the performance of U.S. students on international achievement tests? 286