Dr. Ruth Phillips, Academic-in-Residence
“When you know better, do better” Maya Angelou
Aristotle started the deficit perspective about young people, believing that young people were selfish, arrogant and irrational.
“They have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life … their hopeful disposition makes them think themselves equal to great things … They would always rather do noble deeds than useful ones: … all their mistakes are in the direction of doing things excessively and vehemently.”
This deficit thinking was compounded by early twentieth century research which suggested that the pre-frontal cortex is not fully developed until the early 20s. This is true, but like all good science there is more to it than that.
What new research is showing is that the way the brain is developing as young people grow and change shapes their priorities differently to that of adults (Dahl, 2018;Yeagar, 2024). This important process has evolved to allow young people to integrate successfully into the complexity of the adult world.
Our understanding of the human brain and behaviour has evolved, from linking intelligence to brain size to recognising the influence of emotions, heuristics, and biases. Kahneman and Tversky’s research showed that adults often act irrationally, especially under stress or fear of loss.
If we cannot understand why adults make irrational decisions, we need to look at young people differently. Over the summer break a book, Dr David Yaegar’s 10 to 25: The Science of Motivating young people and its research, challenged my thinking about young people.
What do we now know about the development of our young people’s brains that is different? Brain development from around 10 years on builds on childhood learning, creating a new level of knowledge, skills, and cultural competence. This means that these developments in the brains of young people:
· Improves cognitive, affective, and self-regulatory abilities to pursue increasingly abstract goals.
• Builds a nuanced understanding of adult society, learning to reason, about abstract concepts, future consequences, about the self and others, and the complexities of adult social relationships.
• Builds skills to navigate a growing range of novel, uncertain, and emotionally charged social situations and to apply these skills to complex social relationships.
These changes mean that:
· Connection, belonging, status and respect are more highly valued. Between 10 and the early twenties neurological and biological changes prime young people to be hyper aware of and value connection, belonging, status and respect with peers and mentors. (Dahl, 2018, Yaegar, 2024)
· Nagging and telling triggers the emotional section of the tween/teen brain, particularly the section which influences anger. This makes them more likely to respond negatively and tune out.
· Social standing becomes vitally important. Adolescents are highly sensitive to their social standing, driven by hormones, which can lead to risky behaviours in search of status, and create conflict between short-term status and long-term well-being.
· Motivational drivers change. Brain science shows that teens are motivated by respect and meaningful contributions, and with the right support, they can make better choices for their well-being.
· Young people can and do engage in complex decision making. In fact, they can and do make complex decisions – it’s just that their decisions are more influenced by their need for status, respect, connection and belonging than adults.
So, what should we do or not do?
• Use wise feedback – Research by Yeager and colleagues (2014) showed that feedback on tasks prefixed with “I am giving you these comments because I have very high standards, and I know that you can reach them” resulted in students being TWICE as likely to revise their work.
• As adults adopt the mentor mindset. Adults with a mentor mindset set high standards, offer appropriate support, build trust, and show respect. As educators, this means saying, “This is hard, but I know you can do it. I’ll support you, but it takes effort.” We should avoid Yeager’s enforcer mindset—high expectations with little support—or the more common protector mindset, which lowers standards and over-supports out of care. Instead, young people need belief, guidance, and the right level of challenge.
• Show Care: Clearly express and repeat – “I care about you and want the best for you; I’ll support you in reaching your potential.”
• Ask Questions: Instead of telling, ask more. Questions encourage collaboration and value differing priorities. Why do you think I have asked you to do this? Instead of just doing it. Why do you think I have set this rule? Instead of this is the rule, full stop.
• Understand and reframe Stress: Symptoms of stress and excitement can be similar, such as increased heart rate and sweaty palms. Rather than viewing stress as negative, see it as a motivating factor for tackling challenges. As long as we have the resources to meet the challenge, the stress can be motivation. “Stress is just excitement,” indicating growth outside of your comfort zone.
• Connect to Purpose: Relate current actions to the benefits and a larger purpose, this creates a sense of respect, status, connection and value.
• Foster Belonging: A sense of belonging is built through demonstrating competence in front of valued peers. Meeting the needs for status and respect is crucial for motivation and positive behaviour.
Helping our young people become fluent in the complex world of adults will enable them to be successful. And as all adults know, being an adult can be hard sometimes, but we can and do, do it.
Further reading:
Dahl, R. E., Allen, N. B., Wilbrecht, L., & Suleiman, A. B. (2018). Importance of investing in adolescence from a developmental science perspective. Nature, 554(7693), 441-450.
Dahl, R., Suleiman, A., Luna, B., Choudhury, S., Noble, K., Lupien, S. J., … & Uncapher, M. R. (2017). The adolescent brain: A second window to opportunity.
Denworth, L. (2021). Adolescent Brains Are Wired to Want Status and Respect: That’s an Opportunity for Teachers and Parents. Scientific American May issue.
Yeager, David S. (2024) 10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People. Cornerstone press London.
Yeager, D. S., Dahl, R. E., & Dweck, C. S. (2018). Why interventions to influence adolescent behavior often fail but could succeed. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13(1), 101-122.Yeager, D. S., Purdie-Vaughns, V., Garcia, J., Apfel, N., Brzustoski, P., Master, A., … & Cohen, G. L. (2014). Breaking the cycle of mistrust: Wise interventions to provide critical feedback across the racial divide. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(2), 804.