Adolescent Development

Adolescent Development and Needs in the Classroom

Adolescent Development and Needs in the Classroom

Children are in a continuous process of learning. As they grow, the world expands from home and parents to the brothers with their peers and, finally, people and places to visit. To live actively in society, children must learn to know themselves, to achieve their own identity. The importance of the influence of family and family relations on the formation and development of the child's personality plays a very crucial part. In order to assist the child to reach their full potential, it is important to understand the development of normal child and adults. The successful child cognitive, physical and emotional development is also related to the development of other children and adults around them. Adolescent years are that part of life when a child is turning into an adult. This phase of life is full of sensitivity, unpredictability and self cautiousness for a child. Teachers should show their understanding and motivation towards students to develop positive self esteem so students can strive for achievement. It is the duty of teachers to make a strong bond with the student. Keeping success and failure private is another way to build trust between students. Ample praises by the teacher builds not only self esteem in the students but also paves the way for a student to reach self actualization. Overall, it should be imbibed in the teacher to be ethical and compassionate towards her students, as it is of utmost importance. In this paper my discussion will target the importance of motivating students to learn, building self concept and the need to build a classroom community. The paper will also reflect the peer pressure and psychological changes an adolescent goes through in this phase of life, the behavioral learning theory and its application in my future classroom. I will also explain the two types of conditioning and reinforcers and the power of modeling, cognitive theory, practices and applications in a holistic context, and different methods of effective teaching

Child development is a series of happenings that children go through in their life till they move from complete dependence as newborns to supreme independence as school goers. It is because of the varying environments that children all over the world end up demonstrating different behaviors. Genes of a child have an enormous influence on how a child develops but it is just one piece of the complicated puzzle. The culture, religion, and socio-economic conditions are all very important factors that influence the development of a child. The targets that each child needs to achieve over a specific time period are termed as milestones.

During the adolescent phase it is natural to be influenced by the peer and various other psychological pressures. All of the above mentioned factors come into play for the negative reasons. Some adolescents have problems which not fitting in any of these three categories because of low motivation, poor attention, popularity, and social skills (Omrod, 2000, ...