2. Cognitive DevelopmentSchool Performance

3. Cognitive Development

4. Piaget Information processing Adolescent egocentrism

5. Piagetian Perspective Core concepts Fixed sequence of qualitatively different stages Fundamentally different than child thinking Utilized in variety of settings and situations

6. 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

7. 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

8. The Consequences of Adolescents’ Use of Formal Operations Changes in everyday behavior Increased abstract reasoning Increased critical thinking More argumentative More indecision

9. Piaget: Pros and Cons Pros Catalyst for much research Accounts for many changes observed during adolescence Helps explain –Developmental differences –Multidimensionality –Metacognition Cons 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

10. Information Processing Perspectives Gains during adolescence help to explain developmental differences in abstract, multidimensional, and hypothetical thinking

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

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

13. Adolescent Egocentrism Imaginary audience Personal fables

14. Adolescents’ personal fables may lead them to feel invulnerable and to engage in risky behavior, like these Brazilian boys (known as “surfistas”) riding on the roof of a high-speed train.

15. 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.

16. Adolescents are susceptible to adolescent egocentrism and the perception that an imaginary audience is constantly observing their behavior. Adolescents construct personal fables about their uniqueness and immunity to harm.

17. Fifteen-year-old Wyatt is able to solve the physics problem from class in abstract rather than in concrete terms. According to Piaget, Wyatt is now capable of ______________. a. preoperational thought b. formal operational thought c. egocentrism d. sensorimotor thought

18. ______________ is the knowledge that people have about their own thinking processes and their ability to monitor their cognition. a. Metacognition b. Postformal thinking c. Egocentrism d. Self-absorption

19. Rorie refuses to go to the eighth-grade dance because she is sure that the only thing everyone will see is the pimple on her face. Which of the following limitations in thinking associated with adolescence is at work here? a. imaginary audience b. personal fable c. invincibility fable d. hysteria

20. When faced with complex problems, do you think most adults spontaneously apply formal operations like those used to solve the pendulum problem? Why or why not?

21. School Performance

22. True or False? Grades awarded to high school students have shifted upward in the last decade.

23. Socioeconomic Status and School Performance Individual differences Children living in poverty lack many advantages of more affluent peers Later school success builds heavily on basic skills presumably learned (or not) early in school

24. 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

25. U.S. 15-Year-Old Performance Compared with Other Countries When compared to the math performance of students across the world, U.S. students perform at below-average levels. Source: Based on National Governors Association, 2008.

26. What is the source of such ethnic and racial differences in academic achievement?

27. Achievement Testing in Schools: Will No Child Be Left Behind? No Child Left Behind Act Passed by Congress in 2002 Requires that every U.S. state design and administer achievement tests that students must pass in order to graduate from high school Unintended consequences Teaching to test at the expense of other content Inherent bias of mandatory testing program

28. Teenagers, Cell Phones, and Texting Most Teens Text Friends Daily The % of teens who contact their friends daily by different methods, by age

29. Teenagers, Cell Phones, and Texting Most Teens Text Friends Daily The % of teens who contact their friends daily by different methods, by age

30. The Downside of Click Objectionable material available Growing problem of Internet gambling SafetyDigital divide

31. Dropping Out of School Incidence Causes Consequences

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

33. Due to the unfavorable comparison of U.S. standardized test scores to the scores of other countries, the gradual shift upward of adolescents’ grades in the last decade has been attributed to ______________. a. increased immigration b. grade inflation c. achievement deflation d. decreased motivation

34. Students who experience socioeconomic disadvantages, and consequently academic disadvantages, as young children usually overcome those disadvantages by adolescence. True False

35. Who is least likely to drop out of high school prior to graduation in the United States? a. males b. females

36. 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?