Four tips for teaching teens, from the experts

• Making decisions based on predicting consequences • Empathy – including ability to read facial expression In the classroom, teenagers may: • Be less able to control behaviour as emotions take over • Focus on now, more than consequences • Find it harder than adults to concentrate when distracted, including by negative thoughts

3. RISK-TAKING INCREASES Many teenagers are not risk-takers, but statistically this is the largest risk-taking age group. Imaging shows greater brain activity in teenage reward-systems compared to adults when risk-taking is contemplated, especially when peer presence is factored in. With the PFC. less in control, students may make poor decisions, relying on impulse rather than reason. In the classroom, teenagers may: • Be tempted to misbehave to gain group status • Not take risks you wish they’d take – e.g. answering questions, volunteering to present to the class or audition – because of the next point So, maybe they really do feel it acutely. In the classroom, teenagers may: • Find it harder to answer questions or perform in public • Find it harder to ignore people laughing at them • Find it harder to concentrate if they think people are looking or laughing at them

5. SLEEP DEPRIVATION MATTERS Teenagers need around 9¼ hours’ sleep but the sleep hormone, melatonin, doesn’t switch on till late at night, as for adults, so they won’t be sleepy earlier. Worse, melatonin levels don’t fall as early in the morning as for adults, so teenagers are still sleepy at school. Add the fact that many extend their day with use of screens and social media, and you have sleep-deprived, borderline

jetlagged brains in front of you.

4. SOCIAL EMBARRASSMENT IS HEIGHTENED Teenagers seem to over-react to embarrassing social situations and brainscanning shows greater (and different) activity compared to average adults. In the classroom, teenagers may: • Suffer stress, loss of concentration, mood swings and inability to selfregulate • Be poorly nourished, as sleep loss leads to eating too much sugar and junk food

• Have poor immunity to illnesses Remember: teenagers are individuals and many sail through adolescence. In many cultures, teenagers have to “grow up” more quickly and become independent. But there are physical changes they must still go through, quickly or slowly, and these help explain the difficulties many have in conforming to rules and learning environments. If we can properly understand what’s happening inside, we can be supportive and nurturing, with expectations which are ambitious but empathetic and fair.

8 CERI JONES (AUTHOR, TEACHER AND TEACHER TRAINER): “Teens love to be challenged. Challenge them to think outside the box, challenge them to come up with creative solutions to real problems, challenge them to show their maturity in real conversations about issues that matter to them. They will respect you for trusting that they can rise to your challenge.”

HERBERT PUCHTA (AUTHOR AND TEACHER TRAINER): “We need to take teenage learners seriously. They are not superficial, as many people think. We need to give them content that inspires them and makes them think about important issues, so that they can become responsible citizens of the world.”