Adolescent cognitive development involves a complex interplay between ego, logic, and emotions. During this stage, adolescents exhibit egocentrism, a belief in their invincibility, an imaginary audience, and a dual-mode of intuitive and analytic thinking. Effective teaching approaches must account for these characteristics and help guide adolescents through cognitive transitions using strategies that engage both rational and experiential thought processes.

1. Kathleen Stassen Berger
Part V Chapter Fifteen
Adolescence: Cognitive Development
Adolescent Thinking
Teaching and Learning
Prepared by Madeleine Lacefield Tattoon, M.A. 1

2. Adolescence: Cognitive Development
…adolescence combines ego, logic,
and emotions… ego overwhelms
logic; sometimes emotions overrides
both…
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3. Adolescence: Cognitive Development
• Adolescent Thinking
– brain maturation, intense conversation,
additional years of schooling, moral
challenges, and increased
independence occurs between 11 and
18 years of age
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4. Adolescence: Cognitive Development
• Egocentrism
– adolescent egocentrism
• a characteristic of adolescent thinking
that leads young people (ages 10-13) to
focus on themselves to the exclusion of
others
– a young person might believe that his or her
thoughts, feelings, and experiences are
unique, more wonderful or awful than anyone
else’s.
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5. Adolescence: Cognitive Development
• The Invincibility Fable
– an adolescent’s egocentric conviction
that he or she cannot be overcome or
even harmed by anything that might
defeat a normal mortal
• unprotected sex, drugs,
or high speed driving
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6. Adolescence: Cognitive Development
• Imaginary Audience
– the other people who, in an adolescent’s
egocentric belief, are watching, and
taking note of, his or her appearance,
ideas, and behavior
• this belief makes many teenagers very
self-conscious
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7. Adolescence: Cognitive Development
• Egocentrism Reassessed
– recent waves of research has found that
many adolescents do not feel invincible.
– egocentrism “may signal growth towards
cognitive maturity” (Vartanian, 2001)
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8. Adolescence: Cognitive Development
• Formal Operational Though
– Piaget’s theory, the fourth and final
stage of cognitive development,
characterized by more systematic logic
and the ability to think about abstract
ideas
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9. Adolescence: Cognitive Development
• Piaget’s Experiments
– …showed that, in contrast to concrete
operational children, formal operational
adolescents imagine all possible determinants,
and systematically:
• varied the factors one by one
• observed the results correctly
• kept track of the results
• drew the appropriate conclusions
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10. Adolescence: Cognitive Development
• Piaget’s Experiments
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11. Adolescence: Cognitive Development
• Hypothetical-Deductive Though
– …formal operational thought is the
capacity to think of possibility, not just
reality
• hypothetical though
– reasoning that includes propositions
possibilities that may not reflect reality
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12. Adolescence: Cognitive Development
• Abstract Thinking
– deductive reasoning
• reasoning from a general statement, premise,
or principle, through logical steps, to figure out
(deduce) specifics—top-down thinking
– inductive reasoning
• reasoning from one or more specific experience
or facts to a general conclusion, may be less
cognitively advanced than deduction—bottom-
up reasoning
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13. Adolescence: Cognitive Development
• Intuitive, Emotional Thought
– …because adolescents can use
hypothetical-deductive reasoning does
not mean that they use it…
– …adolescents find it easier and quicker
to forget about logic and follow impulse
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14. Adolescence: Cognitive Development
• Two Modes of Thinking
dual-process model
• the notion that two networks exist within
the human brain, one for emotions and
one for analytical processing of stimuli
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15. Adolescence: Cognitive Development
– intuitive thoughts
• thought that arises from an emotion or a hunch,
beyond rational explanation—past experiences,
cultural assumptions, and sudden impulses are
the precursors of intuitive thought—
contextualized or experiential thought
– analytic thought
• thought that results from analysis, such as a
systematic ranking of pros and cons, risks and
consequences, possibilities and facts… analytic
thought depends on logic and rationality
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16. Adolescence: Cognitive Development
• Comparing Intuition and Analysis
– sunk cost fallacy
• the belief that if time or money has
already been invested in something, then
more time or money should be invested
– because of this fallacy, people spend money
trying to fix a “lemon” of a car or sending
more troops to win a losing war
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17. Adolescence: Cognitive Development
• Better Thinking
– adolescents use their minds with more
economy than children
– with age thinking is more efficient and
less likely to go off on a tangent
– analytic mode joins the intuitive mode
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18. Teaching and Learning
• “Given the nature of the adolescent
mind, we are left with the question to
ponder: What and how should
teenagers be taught?”
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19. Teaching and Learning
– secondary education
• the period after primary education and
before tertiary education….it usually
occurs from about age 12 to18, although
there is some variation by school and by
nation
• traditionally grades 7th through 12th
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20. Teaching and Learning
– separate schools have been created
for children who have outgrown
primary school
– once called high school, with younger
students put in separate schools called
junior high (7th,8th,9th grades)
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21. Teaching and Learning
– middle school
• a school for the grades between elementary
and high school...middle school can begin
with 5th grade or and usually ends with 8th
grade
• with puberty occurring earlier than in years
past…often at age 11… many intermediate
middle schools have been established to
educate 6th graders with 7th and 8th graders
• 9th graders have been reassigned to high
schools
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22. Teaching and Learning
– middle school
• academic achievement often slows
down and behavioral problems become
more commonplace
• the first year of middle school is called
the “low ebb” of learning
– many teachers feel ineffective
– long term academic trajectories are strongly
influenced by experienced in grades 6th-8th
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23. Teaching and Learning
– middle school
• middle school scheduling means teachers
have many students
• bonding between students and teachers is
key to learning…yet, doesn’t always occur do
to scheduling
• students’ relationships with one another
deteriorate... due to the numbers of people
they come in contact with in schools
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24. Teaching and Learning
– middle school
• answers are not clear… adolescent
egocentrism is particularly strong in
early adolescence and the intuitive
thought generally overwhelms logic
• research finds that egocentrism,
intuitive thought, and logic coexist in
every classroom
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25. Teaching and Learning
• Technology and Cognition
– is no longer limited only to developed
nations
– teenagers worldwide use the Internet
– adults hope that computers will be a
boon to learning
– some fear that technology will undercut
respect for adults and schools
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26. Teaching and Learning
• Technology and Cognition
…it is easy to see egocentrism and
intuitive thought in adolescent use of
technology… it is easy to see the
educational possibilities… however, it
is not obvious how adults can guide
teenagers through the current maze of
technology.
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27. Teaching and Learning
• Transitions and Translations
– students find that changes, even positive
ones, are disruptive
– transitions from one school to another are
difficult, decreasing a person’s ability to
function and learn
– changing schools just when the growth spurt
and sexual characteristics develop is bound
to create stress
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28. Teaching and Learning
• Transitions and Translations
– hormones, body shape, sexual
impulses, family and culture contribute
to disorders in transition
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29. Teaching and Learning
• Teaching and Learning in High School
– adolescents think abstractly, analytically,
hypothetically, logically… personally, emotionally,
intuitively and experientially
– by high school, the curriculum and teaching style
is often analytic and abstract
– adolescents can use logic to override the “biases
that not only preserve existing beliefs but also
perpetuate stereotypes and inhibit development.”
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30. Teaching and Learning
• Focus on the Brightest
– an evaluation that is critical in
determining success or failure… if a
single test determines whether a
student will graduate or be promoted,
that is a high-stakes test
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31. Teaching and Learning
• Focus on the Dropouts
– not every student who begins secondary
school stays until finished
– developed nations typically require students
to stay in school between 14 and 18, with
age 16 being the average
– in the U.S. and Canada 90% are high school
graduates
– most dropouts leave at the age of 17
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32. Teaching and Learning
• Student Engagement
– students who are capable of passing
classes are as likely to drop out as
those with learning disabilities
– persistence, diligence, and motivation
play more crucial roles than intellectual
ability when it comes to earning a high
school diploma
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33. Teaching and Learning
• Student Engagement
– many students express boredom and
unhappiness with school
– honor students and delinquents have
“high rates of boredom, alienation, and
disconnection from the meaningful
challenge” of school
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34. Teaching and Learning
• Student Engagement
– students are often disengaged
• usual because formal operational
thought is promoted
• egocentric and intuitive thought, are
more rational and social, and are
usually excluded
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35. Teaching and Learning
• Student Engagement
– students are often disengaged
• teachers are hired for their expertise in
one or more academic fields, rather
than their ability to relate to
adolescents
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36. Teaching and Learning
• Student Engagement
– possible improvements
• keep high schools small
– 200 to 400 students
• encourage extracurricular activities
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37. Teaching and Learning
• School violence
“The same practices that foster
motivation and education can also
prevent violence.”
– students are less likely to be destructive or
afraid if …
• they are engaged in learning
• bond with teachers and fellow students
• are involved in school activities
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38. Teaching and Learning
• School violence
– studies also show that metal detectors,
and strict punishment, are more likely
to increase violence than decrease
violence
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39. Teaching and Learning
• School violence
– primary prevention to improve school
climate
• increase friendships
• strengthen teacher-student relationships
• promote student involvement
– programs that teach conflict resolution
have also had some success
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