The Teenage Brain - Can Understanding It Help Improve A Difficult Class?

Each year as I prepare for a new school year, I invite my past students to help me make seating charts for the upcoming year’s classes. Etched in my memory is their reaction to one of my science classes as they finished developing that class’ seating chart. Putting it simply, they said “You’re dead, Mr. Schulist.” Referencing that same class, a retired teacher with 30 years of middle school experience who subbed for me a number of times this year put it this way - “You’ve got about seven kids in that class who never should have been put together.” I learned to lock my classroom door and lock the cabinet where I kept candy after finding it was mysteriously taken multiple times. While one half of the class struggled academically and behaviorally, the other half of the class often became frustrated by the off task behaviors because they loved learning. 

I decided to approach the challenges this class presented through a “neural lens” and see how the brain research I’ve done could be applied, and if it might make a difference. Here are six solutions I tried and their results. (spoiler alert - this is not a “cinderella story.” It’s more of a gritty reality check about the teenage brain…)

Solution #1 - More Peer Interaction - In middle school, students transition to a “peer centered” world. My research showed that the teenage brain has evolved to seek the approval of peers as a means of survival as they transition away from the protection of parents at home into a world where they will need a support network of friends. To utilize this fact, I surveyed students to find peers who they thought might best support their learning and placed them in table groups with at least one or two of these students. (I have large desks in my classroom so students are seated in table groups for the entire class period). 

Results - Failure. After a week I switched students away from “supportive peers” because the struggling students found talking to their friends a lot more interesting than listening to the teacher.

Solution #2 - Brain Smart Starts - At a teacher inservice we learned about the the three states of the brain - survival, emotional and executive - and how starting the class with a fun, engaging activity can take kids out of the survival and emotional state and put their brains into the executive state where they are ready to learn. I created a “Brain Charger” menu and experimented with integrating activities such as “Grab It,” “Partner Mirrors” and “Line Up As Your Animal” into the classroom. 

Results - Mixed. The activities were fun and helped to bring smiles, laughter and oxytocin into the classroom. This was especially helpful in helping me lighten up when I was feeling overwhelmed by the class. The challenges were that some students chose not to participate in the activities. For other students, the transition from an active and fun activity back to being a focused learner proved to be difficult.

Solution #3 - The Anti Talent Show - To help students understand growth mindset and how it might help them in school, I ran an “Anti Talent Show.” Students selected something they wanted to learn that they were not good at (ideas ranged from writing with their left hand to doing a cartwheel to juggling). After a month of tracking their progress, they presented their new skill to the class. This checked a few boxes in the teen brain essentials list: risk taking, novelty, connecting school to life, and agency. 

Results - A winner! Students enjoyed this activity and supported each other as they presented their new skills to the class. The activity helped the top students in the class shine, and even the students who spent little time practicing their new skill were able to participate in and learn from the activity.

Solution #4 - Adding The Teenage Brain To The Curriculum - What changes in the adolescent brain make activities that once seemed fun in fourth grade—like solving Rubik’s cubes, doing puzzles, or having sleepovers—suddenly feel boring, while new experiences—like Snapchat, shoplifting, or partying—start to seem exciting or 'cool'? My research into the teenage brain revealed some fascinating answers based on the way dopamine affects the teenage brain (the “dopaminergic system"). Put simply, teens produce less dopamine under normal conditions than adults do, but when triggered by a “thrill” - like sugar or gambling or drinking alcohol - their dopamine levels shoot up higher than in an adult brain. This explains how a disengaged class can transform into rapt attention when candy is offered for answering a question. The teen brain is a “favorable adaptation” that leads teens into adulthood by this dopamine induced motivation to shun the comforts of home in favor of risk and novelty. To help make the connection between their lives and the curriculum, I added the teenage brain to our study of evolution, and had students learn how the changes they are experiencing are necessary adaptations for the very survival of our species. 

Results - Good idea with a lot of potential. Students enjoyed learning about their brains, but they were challenged by connecting their brain changes to the general content of our evolution curriculum. For the struggling students, it felt a bit like “more notes.” Next year this connection can be made stronger by taking more time in the beginning of the lesson to discuss the changes they are experiencing as 13/14 year olds.

Solution #5 - The Dopamine & Oxytocin Experiment - Based on the way that candy could motivate students (when I offered them candy I called it “dopamine”), I decided to create a “science experiment” and consider the dopamine/sugar effect. The class was given this explanation: 

“I would like to see you improve in these areas: 

1. Listening 

2. Following directions 

3. Completing work 

4. Using materials appropriately. 

Every day at the end of the class, I will let you know which of these areas you did effectively as a class and which you did not. I will then use a computer spinner to randomly select one area. If it is an area you did effectively, you will all get a piece of candy. That is the dopamine part of the experiment. I also expect you all to encourage and support each other. That is the oxytocin part of the experiment.” 

The experiment lasted three weeks, and I took a survey of the class at the beginning and the end of the experiment to see how it worked. (the results can be found here). 

Results - Mixed results. This felt a bit like a bribe by a desperate teacher which was couched in a science experiment. The real benefit was finding a new way to talk about behavior goals that didn’t sound like a lecture or reprimand. The results show that there was a general improvement in all of the areas except “using classroom materials appropriately.” (This is an odd result, since this category was the only one that the class consistently did well and received the prize for). There is excellent research to show that extrinsic rewards actually decrease student motivation for meaningful learning (Check out Alfie Kohn’s book “Punished By Rewards.”  My hope was that I could tie the reward to an understanding of the power of dopamine, and use the reward as a first step toward changing student behavior. In this capacity the “experiment” was successful with the majority of students in the class.

Solution #6 - Humor - It’s almost impossible to laugh without feeling good. Laughter releases endorphins and serotonin and reduces cortisol levels. Any way I could bring laughter into the classroom was a win for students and myself. During class, I could feel my own reactive thoughts when I witnessed consistently disruptive behaviors. Finding light hearted responses could breathe life back into the classroom. For example, instead of “Why are you late again, John??” I might say “Thanks for coming today, John!” Instead of “Joe, this is the 3rd day in a row you have fallen off your chair - sit up straight in your chair!” I might say “Joe - you clearly have an interest in experimenting with gravity, don’t you?”

Sometimes I would create poems about the material and start the class off by reading them. The more groans the better, and the most smiles came when students would rap the poems back to me. As I learned more about the teenage brain this year, I decided to write a song, and with the help of Suno.ai, the lyrics became a great song. I worked with a student to turn the lyrics into a video, which features our staff acting like teens and me rapping. The video can be seen here. This video will be a funny way to introduce the science of the teenage brain to them.

Results - A winner with a lot of room for creative improvement. It is interesting to note that the teenage brain is not wired for humor in an “adult way” yet, and things that we think are clever and funny may get only eye rolls, while things teens think are hilarious may make no sense to us. Regardless, laughter is contagious, and it was critical in maintaining joy in the classroom. It is also important to note that due to the importance teens place on social standing (which produces serotonin), their laughter is often used to put others down. Next year I will make a clearer distinction between the positive and negative ways that humor and laughter enter the classroom.

If you’re interested in learning more about The Power of the Adolescent Brain (affiliate link), I recommend reading Thomas Armstrong’s book or checking out these other resources:

Video - 6 Key Facts About the Adolescent Brain

Video - The Neuroscience of The Teenage Brain - Sarah Jayne Blakemore

Article - Why We Should Know About The Basic Needs Of The Middle School Brain - Lee Hendricks