In their Teens, adolescents suffer different psychological and cognitive changes. Here you are going to learn what these changes are.
The first one is related to the cognitive development that an adolescent experiments. According to Piaget in adolescence, teens are in a stage which is called “Formal Operations”. That mainly means that teenagers start developing a capacity to think in an abstract way, allowing them to manage and get information under a more flexible perspective. Besides, there is also an increase in the intellectual capacity of adolescents along with a development in their scientific thinking. All this, as a consequence of human cerebral maturing.
Identity and Vocation are another aspect we cannot forget once we are involved in the Teens’ world. Adolescence is a difficult age in which young people have to build an identity and define a vocation to follow. It is a stage plenty of challenges and decisions to be taken. Believe it or not, this is a hard task for adolescents because they have to establish what their interests are, but also what their needs, and whishes are. It is a period of time in which most of their decisions are going to have especially connections with their childhood and their previous experiences and knowledge about how society works, and what it accepts or what does not.
According to Erikson the main task of adolescents in their teens is to face the crisis between identity and confusion in order to become a unique adult with a coherent sense of himself, and with a social perspective of the society, as well. However, it can also be possible that some aspects of this crisis reappear in adulthood building the real identity.
These are some important aspects teachers cannot ignore if they really want to accomplish learning when teaching teens. It is also essential that educators take into account all the multiple factors that influence adolescence development since the cognitive changes until the emotional and social development.