The document discusses changes that occur in the adolescent brain during development. It notes structural, functional, and chemical changes including increased sex hormones and dopamine/serotonin levels. These brain changes impact behavior by making teens more reward-seeking and impulsive with poor decision-making abilities. They may act aggressively one moment and child-like the next. The document provides strategies for teachers, including building relationships, allowing autonomy, and opportunities for safe risk-taking to help guide teens through this period.

1. The Adolescent Brain
What’s going on?
Implications for teaching

3. Brain Changes
• Adolescence
• Structural
• Functional
• Chemical
• Sex hormones
• Dopamine and serotonin
• Identity and personality

4. Consequences
• Unable to think through the consequences of their actions
• Poor executive functioning impacts on decision making and
choices
• High risk behaviour
• Addiction vulnerability
• Cold cognition vs hot cognition
• Reward seeking behaviour driven via dopamine
• Impulsive behaviour and instant gratification
• Violent and aggressive, delinquency, heroic altruism,
competitiveness
• Act like an adult one minute and a child the next
• Personal fable

5. Implications
• Planning, anticipating the consequences of a
decision
• Regulating their own behaviour
• Reward centre “priority”
• Immortal
• “Super peer” culture
• Defiant, challenging authority
• Push limits (power struggle)
• Seek autonomy

6. Strategies
• Relationships – hobbies, interests and passions
• Safe and supportive learning environment
• Need for teachers to genuinely care about them
personally
• Build team spirit – collaborate, cooperate, create
community
• Autonomy: we need to respond by gradually
granting them more control
• Think ahead, make a plan, and carry it out
• ICT social network, IT, Blogs

7. Strategies
• Opportunity for adolescents to seek information about the changes
to their brain and the variation in neurological, emotion and psycho-
social function
• Create role playing scenarios to allow them to think about the
consequences of their actions, and behaviour, for the future
• Provide opportunities to attend to the emotional expressions,
experiences and plights of other people including other adolescents
(help-seeking peer support)
• Develop their ability to think abstract thoughts (critical thinking) in a
variety of learning environments
• Encourage self reflection about situation, handled correctly do it
differently (social scaffold)
• Right and wrong scenarios
• Cold cognition
• Positive addiction

8. Opportunities
• Neurological pathways that support motor skills (speed,
strength and fitness) and speech peak in adolescence
• Safe risk taking with responsible adult supervision
• Reduce threatening task and environment
• Time for passion about sports, music, art or literature
• Channel passion into idealistic causes
• Create opportunity to explore and discover and take
some chances
• Good decisions make good decisions
• Think critically
• Expose adolescents to experiences

9. References
• Nagel, M. C. (2005). Understanding the adolescent brain. In Pendergast, D. and Bahr, N. (Ed.), Teaching
the middle years; rethinking curriculum, pedagogy and assessment (pp. 65-76). NSW: Allen and
Unwin.
• Romeo, R. D. and McEwen, B.S. (2006). Stress and the adolescent brain. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1094:202-
214.
• Steinberg, L. ( 2011). Demystifying the Adolescent Brain. Educational Leadership. April. pp. 41- 46.
• Brizendine, L. (2011). The male brain. UK: Bantam Press.
• Lenroot, R. K.and Giedd, J.N. (2010). Sex differences in the adolescent brain. Brain and Cognition 72: 46-
55.
• McDevitt, T.M. and Ormrod, J.E. (2007). Child development and Education 3 rd Ed. New Jersey: Pearson
Prentice Hall.
• McInerney, D. M. and McInerney, V. (2002) Motivation for effectual learning: cognitive perspectives
Educational Psychology 3rd Ed. NSW Australia: Prentice Hall.
• Winters, K. C., and Arria, A. (2011). Adolescent brain development and drugs. The Prevention Researcher:
April Vol 18 (2).
• Rickwood, D., White, A. and Eckersley, R. (2007). Overveiw of current tends in mental health problems
for Australia’s youth and adolescents. Clinical Psychologist, Vol 11, No. 3: 72-78.
• Sousa, D. A. (2006). How the brain learns 3rd Ed. Victoria Australia: Hawker Brownlow Education.
• Dahl, R.E. (2004). Adolescent Brain development: a period of vulnerabilities and opportunities. Ann. N.Y.
Acad. Sci. 1021: 1-22.