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Teaching the Teenage Brain

EDUC 718Z Teaching the Teenage Brain provides K-12 educators with the edge they need to create healthy and productive learning environments for their students! This research-based course provides resources to understand how to teach the teenage brain through the tumultuous ups and downs of their emotional rollercoasters and navigate sensitive issues concerning mental illness, diverse cultures, and gender. Discover the teenage brain’s infinite capacity to learn and understand new information while creating engaging and meaningful lessons across all content areas. 

Course Name: Teaching the Teenage Brain
Course Number: EDUC 718Z	Semester Credits: 3

Course Description

Does a teenagers’ brain function the same as an adult’s brain? They look like adults, talk like adults, and have fully developed bodies like adults, so they must be adults, right? Until the last decade, neurologists and neuroscientists would have agreed that an adolescent’s brain is effectively identical to the brain of a fully matured adult.

Through advances in neuroimaging technologies, such as sMRI and fMRI, scientists are painting a new, more accurate picture of the teenage brain. During these formative years, the adolescent brain sees a significant increase in white matter and pruning of gray matter, which allows the teenager access to a more efficient, higher-capacity for learning brain. There is no better time in a person’s life than adolescence because of the brain’s incredible efficiency in absorbing, processing, and using new information. However, roadblocks interfere, and the rapidly maturing limbic system outpaces the underdeveloped prefrontal cortex, leading to heightened emotions, risky behavior, the inability to think through actions, and an intense desire for social connections.

As an educator, knowing how the adolescent brain functions will give you the edge you need to create healthy and productive learning environments for your students. Through this research-based course, you will discover how to teach the teenage brain through the tumultuous ups and downs of their emotional rollercoasters, navigate sensitive issues concerning mental illness, diverse cultures, and gender, and discover a renewed passion and vigor for teaching this remarkable individual, the teenager. You will also learn to skillfully navigate and debunk commonly held myths about adolescent learning, multitasking, stress, memory, sleep, addiction, decision-making, and much more.

Goals

• Understand how the brain develops from birth through young adulthood.
• Understand recent neurology and neuroscience discoveries about the adolescent brain, and discover why this is a critical stage of brain development.
• Explore adolescent brain function in learning, multitasking, stress, memory, sleep, addiction, and decision making.
• Understand how to approach and remain sensitive to adolescent behavior across diverse cultures, gender, and mental health issues.
• Learn how to distinguish between two general characterizations of adolescent behavior: mood severity and function change.
• Dispel common myths about teens and their behavior.
• Understand the teenage brain’s infinite capacity to learn and understand new information.
• Apply new strategies and current research to develop brain-friendly lessons across all content areas.
• Learn how to effectively reach and teach adolescents through different teaching modalities.
• Explore why adolescents tend to be rash, impulsive, and process experiences differently than adults.

Course Contents

• The Amazing Adolescent Brain
• The Miracle of Adolescent Neuroplasticity
• Opportunities to Choose
• Self-Awareness Activities
• Peer Learning Connections
• Affective Learning
• Learning Through the Body
• Metacognitive Strategies
• Expressive Arts Activities
• Real-World Experiences
• Entering the Teen Years
• Building a Brain
• Under the Microscope
• Learning: A Job for the Teen Brain
• Sleep
• Taking Risks
• Tobacco
• Alcohol
• Pot
• Hard-Core Drugs
• Stress
• Mental Illness
• The Digital Invasion of the Teenage Brain
• Gender Matters
• Sports and Concussions
• Crime and Punishment
• Beyond Adolescence

Evidence of Learning Outcomes

Upon successfully completing Teaching the Teenage Brain, the student will have demonstrated knowledge and application of adolescent brain development and how this translates to enhanced classroom instruction by reading texts and responding to short essay questions. The student will also demonstrate the ability to apply their understanding of the objectives through critical thinking and writing skills by completing a comprehensive project and lesson plan.

How to Register

Registration for classes is fast and straightforward and can be done online or over the phone. Courses are offered on a rolling basis during three semesters, and you may begin as soon as you are ready!  

The Semester dates are: 

Fall: September 1 – January 31

Spring: February 1 – May 31

Summer: June 1 – August 31