t e a c h ing adolescents

Mr. Jair Felix, Senior Academic Consultant for Latin America, National Geographic Learning

T.E.A.C.H.-ing Adolescents Can they actually be taught?

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed. School of English Faculty of Social Sciences Universidad Latina de Costa Rica Satday, November 26, 2016 Post 307

What A.D.O.L.E.S.C.E.N.T.S. stands for While attending a training session with Jair Felix, National Geographic Learning Senior Academic Consultant for Latin America, we attendees were asked to “create an acronym” with the letters used to spell the word adolescents and to try to describe what a teen looks like in the eyes of the teacher. Many adjectives were used to describe ambivalent forces that adolescents seem to show at various moments of their teenage years and that prevail in their presence while being in a brick-walled classroom. Here you have only one single version of the many

acronyms that were created around this “reflective” exercise, which presents the ambivalence I got to detect among co-workers and myself by just considering the connotative meaning each of these words have beyond their other possible denotations: Personality Characteristic

Ambivalence

A

Active

Positive personality trait

D

Deaf

Negative personality trait

O

Overwhelmed

Negative personality trait (?)*

L

Lazy

Negative personality trait

E

Energetic

Positive personality trait

S

Sensitive

Positive personality trait (?)*

C

Creative

Positive personality trait

E

Egocentric

Negative personality trait

N

Naïve

Negative personality trait (?)*

T

Technological

Positive personality trait

S

Spoiled

Negative personality trait

(?)* I am still in doubt whether this can be considered unidirectionally

Felix’s exercise was indeed an incredibly reflective task to observe teachers’

disposition, predisposition, or indisposition to work with teens within a classroom.

Being metacognitively present in this “evaluative” exercise made me reconsider Dr. Rosenberg’s first component of Nonviolent Communication (NVC), which –when absent- can make teachers get into a lot of moralistic judgments that can be counterproductive if one is to teach students in this age group. For Rosenberg (2005), “NVC entails the separation of observation from evaluation.” And when a teacher combines his/her observations of teen student behavior with evaluations

(like the ones in the adolescents acronym one), many of us (including the teens themselves) “are apt to hear criticism” and adolescents will “resist what we are saying” to them the moment they sense they are not being respected by any teaching figure. But again, the exercise is indeed a great reflection of what teaching professionals have in their minds about working with teens, and it can be used positively to make them refocus their way of seeing adolescents and teaching them.

Mr. Jair Felix, Senior Academic Consultant for Latin America, National Geographic Learning

Defining adolescents for real Mr. Felix brought a quite interesting definition of adolescence to his training session that resounded in many of the attendees. Based on Dr. Mary Kamberk (quoted by Felix, 2016), it is essential to comprehend that “adolescents are in search of their identity. In the process, they become increasingly detached from adults and get closer to peers. They are emotionally vulnerable, and a long-term perspective is beneficial in helping them cross the bridge of becoming adults.” If instructors do no walk into a classroom full of teens with a NVC attitude, no such as

a bridge can be built between the already detached teens with their biased teachers, who hold an ambivalent idea of what an adolescent is. And as it was emphasized by Felix (2016) during his talk, “adolescents are trying to figure out who they are,” and their attention is much more focused on that discovery than to be in class paying attention to an adult who is not into trying to understand all psychological and biochemical changes they are undergoing.

Teaching adolescents is no easy task as it can be seen so far. Trying to deal with learners who are much more interested in a self-quest for self-discovery is a paramount, titanic effort for many educators. Also quoted by Felix (2016), “the search for identity is described by Erikson (1968) as life’s fifth psychological conflict:

identity versus diffusion or role confusion. It is about the need that adolescents have to determine who they are are, their own identity.” Once again, it is vital to approach adolescents with an open mind that reveals our Nonviolent Communication to “help” them in the search for their identity while learning with us in our courses and in our brick-walled classrooms rather than having them simply follow us in their instruction “willingly;” something that is not going to happen with teens.

Jair Felix’s Insights into Teaching Mr. Felix sounded like a good partner of mine at the private university I work for, José Sánchez, a university partner, when he talks about teaching this age group of learners. In the search for a nonviolent way of teaching adolescents, “teachers need to understand all the physical-psychologocal changes teens undergo before the fact of teaching them” (Felix, 2016). Failing to comprehend these processes, as it is commonly pointed out by Sánchez in his course at Universidad Latina, the instructors are bound to face lots of classroom management problems that are a side-effect of teenage turmoil already described by Dr. Kamberk, Dr. Erikson, Felix, and Sánchez. “The never-stopping question in the mind of a teen is “who am I?”

(Felix, 2016), and if this question is not answered, the adolescent’s attention is going to be shifted to anything or anyone who can give them a single, simple clue.

“Use this search for identity as the basis for teaching teens” (Felix, 2016). For Felix this psychological, hormonal, and biochemical turmoil experienced by adolescents must be the fuel for student teaching. And what is the role of the instructor? Based on Felix’s statement, the teacher is a means for teens to try to find the answer to their never-stopping question, “who am I?” “What really matters to them is who they are” (Felix, 2016); forcing teenagers to do some other things that become meaningless to them is simply forcing them to go against what is “tormenting” them deep inside, the search for their identity.

Avoiding Getting into Faulty Teaching Now that it is clear to our five senses what is in the mind of adolescents in our classrooms, Nonviolent Communication needs to be used with teenagers to make them feel at ease with us teachers in spite of their detachment with us adults.

To avoid getting into faulty teaching, the following chart, emulating Dr. Rosenberg’s NVC is provided to the reader to evaluate his/her own teaching, to avoid getting into moralistic judgments, and to observe teen behavior without being judgmental.

Communication

1. Use of the verb to be without indication that the evaluator responsibility for evaluation

Example of observation with

Example of observation

evaluation mixed in

separate from evaluation

Teens are too lazy.

2. Use of verbs with evaluative connotation

Teen boys procrastinate more than teen girls.

3. Implication that one’s inferences about another person’s thoughts,

My teen students won’t get their homework in the next class.

When I see my teen students do nothing in class, I think they are rather laid-back Teen boys usually complete their learning tasks the night before they have to be submitted.

Based on the repeated behavior towards homework, I doubt that my teen students

feelings, intentions, or desires are the only ones possible 4. Confusion of prediction with certainty

will have their homework ready.

If your son doesn’t submit his assignments, he’ll fail the term/year/course.

5. Failure to be specific about Teenagers are not interested referents in their school studies.

6. Use of words denoting ability without indicating that an evaluation is being made 7. Use of adverb and adjectives in ways that do not signify an evaluation has been made

Carlos Calderon, the school bully, is the poorest student I have ever had.

Carlos Calderon is a sloth.

I fear that your son will fail because he’s getting no credit for learning tasks in this course.

I have not seen any of my teen students at JFK High do their homework in the library.

Carlos Calderon has not submitted any homework and paid others to do them for him.

Carlos Calderon’s way of taking care of school work does not appeal to me and to any school standard.

Adapted from Dr. Rosenberg’s (2005) “Distinguishing Observations from Evaluations” by Prof. Jonathan Acuña

As pointed out by Felix (2016), instructors of adolescents should concentrate on teaching them to discover who they are. However, as posited by Rosenberg (2005) in terms of NVC, to teach teens they also have to be approached nonviolently without moralistic judgments as the ones included in the adpated chart.

The Role of the Teacher Then At this point you may be wondering then what the role of the teacher is. The fact is, as clearly stated by Felix (2016), the educators’ role is divided into five different components. To start with, (1) “teachers should be empathetic” (Felix, 2016). For Felix (2016) “empathy is the key to teaching teens.” Empathy implies the instructors’ willingness to be more understanding with their students who are going through all these psychological and physical changes. In their search for their identity a helping hand is always well-received by any individual, even a teenager who tends to defy authority. (2) “Teachers should also inspire trust and respect”

(Felix, 2016). Though we cannot expect to befriend our students due to our age differences, all individuals look for trust and respect in others, and teachers are not the exception to this. And since peers are important to adolescents, we cannot expect to befriend them but to respect their decisions in the kind of comradeship they have with their partners in the classrooms.

The role of the teacher is not just linked to empathy, trust and respect; (3) it also implies openness to dialogue and exchange of ideas (Felix 2016). Dialogue must be directed towards exercising our leadership with Nonviolent Communication, where no moralistic judgments, disposition, indisposition, or predisposition. An atmosphere of trust and respect is then created based on NVC where all participants can have open dialogues in search for understanding and where speakers can exchange ideas without any judgmental attitude of the adults. (4) “Teachers should set firm limits and apply them” (Felix, 2016). As Felix (2016) posited in his training session, instructors need to negotiate rules and limits from day one onwards so that learners understand their role in the respect they look for, in the dialogue they are in search for, and in the exchange of ideas that is needed in human relationships; leadership has to be exercised nonviolently. And most importantly, (5) “teachers should be willing to compromise” (Felix, 2016). Instructors who are uninterested in their learners are and will not be part of the circle of people who is respected and trusted by teens. In their state of emotional vulnerability, adolescents need to find educators they can trust and who can give them a helping hand to learn. Instructors who are really willing to T.E.A.C.H. them NVC-ishly.

T

For Thought

E

For Empathy

A

For Activity

C

For Choice

H

For Harmony

Some Inconclusive Concluding Remarks Many things were cleverly explained by Jair Felix in his training session for teachers who are getting ready to start teaching adolescents in an innovative course in Costa Rica. Among the most striking thoughts shared by Felix was the fact that there is no way of defining an adolescent. From my very particular perspective, as I shared my thoughts with Mr. Felix, I do not believe in any definition for what an adolescent is based on the goodness and badness of the connotation (and even the denotation) of adjectives used to describe teens.

What I am certain now is that an adolescent is a human being in search of an identity who also needs from those authority figures s/he defies. The success in their education is connected to finding meaning, reliance and purpose in the activities that are designed for them, tasks that can help them continue discovering the individual who they are inside beneath all those hormonal, psychological, and emotional layers in their “hectic” personalities.

References Felix, J. (2016, November 3). Can you TEACH Adolescents? In-Service Training for CCCN Teachers. San José, Costa Rica: Centro Cultural Costarricense Norteamericano.

Rosenberg, M. (2005). Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life. Encinitas, CA: PuddleDancer Press.