Adolescents’ emerging cognitive abilities

Adolescents’ emerging cognitive abilities make them capable of so much more than children (e.g., making predictions, taking others’ perspectives, and understanding hidden meanings). However, just because adolescents are capable does not mean that they competently or consistently use their advanced cognitive abilities. Let’s see what we can do when we observe this discrepancy between capabilities and competency. Our objectives are to:

• understand the social construction of adolescence and identify the key features of the developmental period (What are the major biological, cognitive, social, and emotional changes in adolescence?)
• appraise how the current major research issues and findings related to adolescent development can be applied to make teaching and learning more impactful (How do we design research, policy, and programming?)

INSTRUCTIONS

Read the scenario: Ms. Martinez has her 11th-grade English class read Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. She wants her students to understand the themes and symbols in the story. Over the past few weeks, the class has had spirited discussions, sharing their understanding of the story. She administers an exam and is surprised by some of the responses. For instance, when asked, “Why does Twain use a child as the protagonist?” Barbara writes, “I have no idea what a protagonist is, let alone why Twain would use a child as one,” whereas Samirah writes, “It has to do with a comparison between the powerlessness of children and black slaves.” When asked about Twain’s use of the river as a symbol, Barbara writes, “The river is just a river. They use it to navigate and have fun,” whereas Samirah writes, “The river represents freedom because it is in the wild, and it represents change because it’s in a constant state of flux.” After reviewing the answers, Ms. Martinez tries to explain symbolism and its use in literature, but Barbara says, “How do we know Twain meant that junk? Reading shouldn’t be this much work.” Most of the class agrees and complains that the test was too hard. (Revised from DeFrates-Densch’s (2008) Case studies in child and adolescent development for teachers)

1. First, choose 2 or more of the following questions to respond to. Use the readings, lectures, or other objective sources to support your argument.
   1. Are Ms. Martinez’s expectations developmentally appropriate? Why or why not?
   2. At which of Piaget’s stages are Barbara and Samirah? How do you know?
   3. What do you think Ms. Martinez should do in the future to help students understand The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? Why?
   4. Do you think Ms. Martinez should use The Adventures of Huckleberry Finnin her 11th-grade English class? Why or why not?
2. Lastly, respond to your classmates by commenting on, critiquing, or questioning their response to the case study.

SUCCESS CRITERIA

• The first postshould address each part of the probe while describing course concepts and incorporating evidence (e.g., quotes from videos, readings, powerpoints, etc.) to support your views (approximately 1 paragraph). The best way to do this is to use “quotation marks,” bold print, italics, different colored font, page numbers, etc.