(Final)

Unit 6 – Adolescence – The High School Learners

Adolescence is a stage of human development that coincides with puberty – a biological

development occurring at the age of 11 for girls and 12 for boys, although there are some
factors that contribute to early or late development, such as heredity, diet, exercise and socio-
environmental influences. Early or late maturation in adolescence accompany the cognitive and
socio-emotional development of the adolescents. The high school teachers should be
understanding to guide and support the adolescent learners in their high school years.

Defining Adolescence

Adolescence is the period of transition in terms of physical, cognitive, and socio-

emotional changes, it begins with the biological changes of puberty. The ages of this stage vary
from person to person, but:

 Early adolescence characterized by puberty may come at the ages of 11 to

12;
 Middle adolescence may meet identity issues within the ages of 14 and 16;
 Late adolescence mark the transition into adulthood at ages 17 to 20.
Puberty Changes

Throughout life, growth hormones condition gradually increases in body size and
weight. Hormones flooding during adolescence causes an acceleration known as growth
spurts, which include a change in body dimensions like leg and trunk length and shoulder
width. Spurt in height is ascribed to trunk growth rather than leg growth.

In girls, the growth spurt generally begin at age 10 reaching is peak at age 11 and a
half, while slow continued growth occurs for several more years. 98% of the girls’ height is
generally reached at age 16. For the boys, growth spurt begin at age 12 reaching peak at age
14 and declining at age 15 and a half, while slow continued growth continues on for several
more years. Boys reach 98% of their height at the age of 17.

Growth in height is conditioned by stages in bone maturation. The muscles also grow in
terms of size and strength. Similar growth spurts occur for weight, muscle size, head and face
maturation and the reproductive organs. All muscular and skeletal dimensions appear to take
part in the growth spurts during adolescence.

Factors Affecting Development

The hormonal changes during puberty is complex. Hormones are powerful and highly
specialized chemical substance that interact with bodily cells. Hormonal changes in the
hypothalamus and pituitary glands signal the entire process of sexual maturation.

Sexual Identity
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 Adolescence is a period of sexual exploration with sexual fantasies and realities of
incorporating sexuality with one’s identity (quoted by Santrock, 2005 from One’s Identity,
Christopher, 2001). Adolescents are concerned about their body image, sexual attractiveness,
how to do sex, and the future of their sexual lives. Most adolescents develop a mature sexual
identity but some go through it with much confusion.

How Do Adolescents Develop a Sexual Identity?

An adolescent’s sexual identity involves sexual orientation, activities, interest, and style
of behavior (Bugwell & Rosenthal, 1996). Some adolescents are very anxious about sex and
are sexually active, others are only a bit anxious about sex and are sexually inactive.

Sexual orientation is a person’s tendency to be attracted to people of the same sex

(homosexual orientation), of the opposite sex (heterosexual orientation), or of both sexes (bi-
sexual orientation).

In terms of sexual identity, adolescence is a period when most LGBT begin to recognize
and make sense of their feelings. Development analyst- Froiden, proposed a model for the
development of homosexual identity:

 Sensitization marked by the child’s becoming aware of same sex attraction;

 Identity confusion when the youth is overwhelmed with feelings of inner
turmoil regarding sexual orientation;
 Identity assumption when adolescents come out of the family and
assumes a self-definition as gay, lesbian or bisexual;
 Commitment when the young adult adopts a sexual identity as a life
style.
Coming to terms with a positive LGBT identity is usually difficult because of a variety of
reasons like family, race, religious culture. Risks to LGBT adolescents are real in a
heteronormative environment. They may suffer ostracism, hurtful jokes and even violence.

Self Esteem

A major aspect of identity formation during adolescence is self-esteem. Self-esteem is

defined as one’s thoughts and feelings about one’s self-concept and identity. Most theories of
self-esteem state that there is a grand desire across all genders and ages to maintain, protect
and enhance self-esteem. There is no significant drop in self-esteem in the adolescence period.
An unstable self-esteem may fluctuate and cause severe distress an anxiety. In a Meyer study,
failure to meet the affection of the opposite sex – can be a major contributor to low self-esteem
among the adolescents. Girls are twice as likely to experience depression, while boys are three
to four times more like to commit suicide.

Adolescents and Nutrition

In this period of development, it is necessary to have sufficient amounts of vitamins:

B12, calcium, zinc, iron, riboflavin and vit. D., minerals and proteins. There should be a balance

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of food intake. Poor eating habits such as skipping meals, frequent taking of snacks and fast
food favorites are hazardous to health among the adolescents.

Body Image and the Adolescents

Consciousness about body image is strong among the adolescents because it is

important for them to feel confident about how they look, but the physical features of the human
body depends of genetic heritage which must be respected. However, there is more to body
image than the physical look, and these concern good habits in relation to:

 Cleanliness and grooming

 Proper wearing of clothes according to current style
 Erect body posture
 Eye contact while communicating
 Decorum (good form and confidence) and decency
Implication to Child Care, Education and Parenting

To meet the needs of physical development of the adolescents, parents must be aware
of manifestation of behavioral pattern that require closer communication, guidance and support.
The teens are especially addicted to modern gadgets- listening to music, video games, mobile
phone communication, and social media. These may cause shorter sleeping time, and may
cause depression. In school, teachers must be aware of possible drop in self-esteem among the
adolescents. Teacher’s support is crucial to protect learners against severe distress, and
anxiety over their school works and social relationships.

Cognitive Development of the Adolescent Learners

Adolescence is the time for rapid cognitive development. At this stage, there is a
decrease in egocentric thought while the individual’s thinking takes more of an abstract
form. This allows the individual to reason in a wider perspective. Study shows the
development of executive functions comprised by cognitive functions that enable the
control of coordination of thoughts and behavior. Adolescence is the period of human
development that has great influence on the individual’s future life through character and
personality formation.

Remarkable changes during adolescence are the thinking patterns. These

changes are marked by the acquisition of new cognitive skills due to the brain’s increase
in weight and refining synaptic connections (technically known as corpus collosum)
which join and coordinate the two hemispheres of the brain. Another brain development
is the process of correlated temporal and parietal areas (technically called myelination).
This second development covers the brain systems whose executive function relate to
attention, verbal fluency, language and planning.

Through brain scanning, three peaks in brain maturation have been identified by
neurological scientists: these are at the age 12, age 15 and age 18.5 coinciding with
operational thinking process for logical reasoning.

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 Accompanying brain changes in cognitive ability, the adolescent begins to
acquire spatial awareness and formulate abstract or general ideas involving numbers,
order, and cause-and- effect. These changes propel the adolescents from the world of
sensible and concrete thoughts to the world of the possible and universal ideas like
general ideas about the good, true and beautiful.

Piaget’s Formal Operational Thinking

Piaget formulated the theory of formal Operational Thinking which demonstrates

how the cognitive capacity of the adolescent allows him to go beyond the sensible and
concrete in order to dwell on what is abstract, hypothetical and possible. In this realm of
thinking, the adolescent begins to attain subtle thinking, entering the sphere of possible
and futuristic events. Formal operation thinking is consist in:

 Propositional thinking – making assertions outside visual evidence, and stating

what may be possible in thing not seen by the eye. (ex. the concept that the earth
id spherical)
 Relativistic thinking – subjectively making an opinion on facts, involving one’s
own biases, prejudice of distortion of facts, which may be either right or wrong
(ex. arguing over the superiority of race)
 Real vs. possible – examining a situation and exploring the possible in terms of
situations or solutions (ex. the possible success in implementing a student
project or a school policy)
A new capacity known as Hypothetic-Deductive Reasoning emerges in the
adolescent reasoning from general facts/situation to a particular conclusion. This is
deducing from variables and generating & recognizing a truth, expressed by the
transitional process of deriving a conclusion from a hypothesis, example to this is your
experiment done in high school about the pendulum experiment.

Scientific evidence shows that while the adolescents may acquire the
capacity for formal operational thinking, only experience and education will allow them to
practice it. Experiments in Science and problem solving in Math subjects actually help in
actualizing formal operational thinking.

The adolescent may further experience an increase in depth of thought, thus,

he can bring out the “best” for everyday life, whether or not it is correct solution or
response to a situation or problem.

Siegler’s Information Processing Skills

Robert Siegler views the influence of environment in thinking. He sees cognitive

growth, not as stage of development, but more of a sequential acquisition of specific
knowledge and strategies for problem solving. He observes the quality of information the

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 adolescents process that influences him in facing tasks at hand through strategies or
rules.

In his experiment, Siegler used rule models in relation to balance, weight,

distance, conflict-weight, conflict-distance and other conflict balance problems, drawing
out rule models in thinking and knowing.

Metacognition

Among the cognitive advances in adolescents is metacognition, which is the

ability to identify one’s own thinking process and strategies inclusive of perception,
memory, understanding, application, analysis, assessment and innovation. The
adolescent is able to say “I know that” referring to the information stored in his memory
and “I know how” referring to the procedural process that is memory recall or through the
use of mnemonic device.

Another important development is the ability of the adolescent for information

processing. Siegler sees a sequential acquisition of specific knowledge and strategies
for problem solving. Rules relate to balance, weight, distance, conflict, distance and
conflict balance problems. Thereupon, the adolescents may show:

(a) speed in information processing, coupled with greater awareness and control and
acquired knowledge base – a more efficient kind of thinking compared with that of
younger children,

(b) complexity by way of considering longer-term implications and possibilities beyond

the here-and-now, and

(c) increased volume of information processsing coupled with longer memory span along
many areas of domains of knowledge. The adolescent transforms from being novice to
becoming a near-expert.

Overachievement

During adolescence, children may acquire a very high academic grades in spite
of not getting IQ grades that are at the top 3 or 5 per cent of the bell curve. The case of
overachiever is a reminder that the IQ test is not the only determinant in school
achievements. There are other factors such as motivation interest, work habits and
personality development. Beyond statistical achievement in curricular subjects (math,
English, etc.), the overachieving adolescent may demonstrate superior work habits,
greater interest in school works, more consistency in doing assignment, and
more/performance consciousness. Overall, they show more responsibility,
consciousness and planning compared with “normal” achievers.

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Characteristics of overachievers:

 Positive self-value (self-esteem, confidence, optimism)

 Openness to authority – responsive to expectations of parents and teachers
 Positive interpersonal relations – responsive and sensitive to feelings of others
 Less conflict on the issue of self-autonomy – feels freedom to make right
choices, initiates and leads activities
 Academic orientation – disciplined work habits, high motivation to discover and
learn, interest in study value and various fields of study
 Goal orientation – efficiency and energy in organizing, planning, setting target,
prioritizing long-term goals over short term goals and rewards
 Control over anxiety – well composed and relaxed performance of organized
tasks

Underachievement

The adolescent may perform below the standard set. Possible potentials do not
cope with the opportunity to learn and score in the top quarter of measured academic
ability. Grades are below measured aptitudes for academic achievements.
Underachievement may become more pronounced when high school class work may
become too demanding. Withdrawn underachievers refer to those who have a more
pronounced tendency to be passive resulting to being submissive and docile. They
follow the path of no resistance, not reacting to given assignments and school
regulations. Generally quiet, they do not participate in class activities. Aggressive
underachievers are those who tend to be talkative, disruptive, and rebellious.

Behavior and Adolescence Cognitive Growth

There are behavioral tendencies which may accompany cognitive growth during
adolescence:

 Egocentrism – the adolescents tendency to think too much of themselves, while

being too sensitive to social acceptance of their appearance, actions, feelings and
ideas. Egocentric teens feel they are being watched like actors on stage, they have
exaggerated feeling of self-importance which may lead to murky early boy-girl
relationship, dangerous escapades and adventures.

 Idealism – refers to imagining the far-fetched and less ideal situations at home, in
school and in society. The teen may imagine a utopia or heaven on earth leading to
discouragement when social realities become harsh (example, unexpected low
grades and family break ups)

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  Increased argumentativeness – teens enjoy learning through the use of group
dynamics including role play, discussion, debate and drama. Strict implementation of
the use of English language in the campus has been the strategy of most universities
to develop argumentative students who later on transform into leasers in politics,
business and other top professional fields.

Developing Occupational Skills

Senior high school were designed to provide attention to occupational skills that
are absent even among the college graduates. The Department of Labor and
Employment reports that there are mismatch between academic preparation and job
skills, thus worsening the gap between employable graduates and potential jobs or
employment.

The following are basic personality factors that match with attitude and work
experiences, as identified by John Holland.

 Realistic – this personality type prefers practical tasks including those

requiring physical labor and motor coordination and less of interpersonal
skills (example- carpentry, driving, etc.)
 Investigative – this personality prefers tasks that are conceptual such as in
the fields of science and technology as in chemist, scientist, technologies,
etc.
 Conventional – this personality prefers structured tasks that cater to the
needs of others, such as in office jobs and manual labor.
 Enterprising – this personality prefers independence and innovation in
business and other enterprises that reflect autonomy and personal initiative.
 Artistic – this personality prefers unstructured tasks that show ability for self-
expression such as artists, musicians and performers.
Adolescents may also show multitasking, later on becoming professionals such
as doctors at the same time business entrepreneurs. Early on, adolescents may
show gainful work, later on becoming self- supporting in college, by entering the
service sector like fast food, sales clerk, office messengers and utility personnel.

These adolescents’ attitudes and abilities demonstrate:

 Self-reliance – working independently without stress

 Money management – not spending money on luxuries, much less on alcohol
and drugs
 Social responsibility – cooperation and respect for others including superiors
 Mature work orientation – pride in work and quality of work
 Personal responsibility – assuming task independently and competitively

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  Positive attitude to work – work is seen as a gainful and wholesome activity
and not a burden

Implication to Adolescent Care, Education and Parenting

Parents and teachers must be able to recognize the cognitive development paths
among the adolescents and create situations that will foster higher thinking skills
through:

 Creating enjoyable but wholesome activities at home- example, asking

the adolescent about family matters like house physical arrangement,
things to buy and places to go in family outings;
 Allowing more independence like decisions on the use of excess school
allowance, choice on what to wear;
 Creating activities in school that allow participation such as group
projects, joint internet research, field trips;
 Developing reading skills through magazine articles, internet blogs.

Socio-emotional Development of High School Learners

During the adolescence, the teens develop social cognition in the context of family
structure, the school, the community and media. They also manifest emotions which need to be
regulated for success in school as well as of their wellbeing. In the classroom, the teachers has
the mandate for creating a positive learning environment, while facilitating the students’ sound
moral judgment.

Human Emotions

Emotions are known as human feelings that are manifested by varied conscious or
unconscious moods. It is a subjective reaction to internal or external stimuli that involves
physical change, action or appraisal. The unique patterns of emotions are: (a) event that is
strong or important, (b) physiological changes in heart, pulse rate, brain activity, brain levels and
body temperature, (c) readiness for action often describe as “fight or flight”, (d) dependence on
the emotion on how the stimulus is appraised or interpreted.

Biologists view that the part of the body that controls reaction is the autonomic nervous
system connected to the glands and muscles in the body. The system has two parts: (a) the
sympathetic part- which excites or arouses emotions, (b) parasympathetic part – which
depresses body functions. These parts coordinate for arousal or slowing down amid the
changes of life.

Positive and Negative Emotions

Emotions function by focusing attention, motivating and enabling the individual to face a
situation in life or withdraw or run away from it. Positive emotion like interest and joy motivate
the individual to continue his endeavor, while negative emotion may cause withdrawal from what

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may be perceived as bad or dangerous. For Charles Darwin, there are six emotions: interest,
joy, happiness, sadness, anger, disgust and fear. Other scientists expanded the list to
include love, pride, hope, gratitude, compassion, jealousy and anxiety.

Social Emotions

Social emotions start to emerge as early as the toddler years (15-24 months) comprised
by such feelings as envy, embarrassment, shame, guilt and pride. Observable emotions during
these stage may not be accurate but they can be a problem if not controlled. Among early
learners, emotions affect learning, since learners pay more attention to things with emotional
significance. In time, emotional competence can be developed by the child, this means he gains
the ability to regulate emotions and understand the emotions of others.

The girls are more skilled in regulating emotions than the boys, but twice as likely to be
depressed. Teen girls are also more likely than the boys to have both positive and negative
interaction family and friends. Adolescents usually stress from relationship with parents, friends,
sweethearts, and from pressure from school works. Thus, they are stereotyped as moody or
negative, poor emotion control. Some studies argue over against stereotyping adolescents
pointing at other emotions among teens such as boredom, tiredness, sleepiness, social
discomfort like awkwardness and loneliness. Other observations are that most adolescents are
not moody, while some are frequently angry, anxious or sad. An important lesson to high school
teacher is: you should not only dismiss emotional negativity as a normal phase, but
should address the needs of teenagers who are chronically moody or unhappy.

The Adolescents and the Social Media

Today, the adolescents have easy access to culture of various media particularly in
social media and games. Almost all homes have TV sets and mostly have access to the
internet. Findings indicate that electronic communication negatively affects adolescents’ social
development. Social skills are impaired because of the absence of face-to-face communication
leading to unsafe interaction. Girls are particularly vulnerable to online socializing, while boys
gaming lower their academic achievement. Socially insecure teens become victims rather than
beneficiaries of the modern gadgets innovation of the digital age.

Implication to Adolescent Care, Education and Parenting

The overall implication is that emotional skills influence the adolescent learners’ success
in class work. Learners who are able to regulate their emotions tend to be happier, better liked
and better able to pay attention and learn. Interventions by the schools and the teachers can
reduce learners’ emotional distress, while raising test scores and grades. The teachers play
important role in promoting positive changes for adolescents. As the teens are susceptible to
peer pressure, the negative influence of social media, drug use and addiction, early romantic
sexual adventures, the teachers and the school can conduct interventions to assist the youth
with focus on risky and inappropriate behavior while promoting positive development among
adolescents.