Secrets of the Teenage Brain: Research-Based Strategies for Reaching and Teaching Today's Adolescents

by Sheryl G. Feinstein, Eric Jensen (Foreword by)

Overview

Teenagers can be mystifying to educators and parents. They exhibit a daunting array of dangerous tendencies and characteristics: emotional swings, forgetfulness, and fondness of risk-taking. What are teens thinking? What’s the best way to reach them? The revised and expanded edition of this hands-on guide helps unlock these secrets by explaining the biological and neurological changes happening in the teenage brain. Educators can use these insights developed from current research to help students achieve their full potential both in and out of the classroom.

Organized around specific areas of adolescent development, Secrets of the Teenage Brain is packed with fresh instructional strategies that teachers can modify and adapt to various contexts. In addition to presenting the latest facts and research findings, this guide offers:

· “Secrets Revealed” sections that present compelling stories and research about the growing adolescent brain

· Straightforward demystification on the differences between girls’ and boys’ brains

· Insights into the effects of technology on the brain

· Strategies for approaching such issues as ADHD, steroid use, and aggression

· An educator’s book club guide, with discussion questions

Enjoy reading and talking with your colleagues about how to understand and tap into the secrets of the teenage brain!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620878774
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	04/09/2013
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	216
Sales rank:	245,527
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Learn more about Sheryl Feinstein's PD offerings

Sheryl Feinstein is an Associate Professor at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD where she teaches in the Education Department. She is the author of a number of books, including Secrets of the Teenage Brain 2nd Ed (2009), Corwin Press; The Praeger Handbook of Learning and the Brain 2 vol. (2006), Praeger Publisher; Parenting the Teenage Brain: Understanding a Work in Progress, Teaching the At Risk Teenage Brain, and Inside the Teenage Brain: Understanding a Work in Progress (2009), Rowman & Littlefield Publisher; 101 Insights and Strategies for Parenting Teenagers (Fall, 2009), Healthy Learning Publishers; and Tanzanian Women in Their Own Words: Stories of Chronic Illness and Disability, (2009), Lexington Press.

In addition to teaching at Augustana College, Feinstein consults at a correctional facility for adolescent boys and at a separate site for Emotionally/Behaviorally Disturbed (EBD) adolescents in Minnesota. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2007-2008 to Tanzania where she taught at Tumaini University in Iringa and conducted research involving the adolescent. In 2006 she was a fellow at Oxford, UK.

Prior to joining Augustana College, Feinstein was an administrator for a K-12 school district in Minnesota and taught in the public schools in South Dakota and a private school in Missouri.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Eric Jensen
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Introduction
Glossary
1. Teen Brain: Under Construction
2. Teen Cognition and Learning
3. The Social Brain
4. Communication and the Unfinished Brain
5. Self-Concept Under Attack
6. The Risk-Taking Brain
7. Reaching and Teaching Today’s Adolescents—Tomorrow!
Conclusion: Secrets of the Teenage Brain—Revealed!
In Summary
Book Club Discussion Questions
References
Index

What People are Saying About This

Kathy Tritz-Rhodes

This book explains almost all of the headshaking frustrations educators express about teens. Educators will enjoy discovering that there is a biological reason for the behaviors and attitudes that teens demonstrate. Readers will also appreciate the practical and down-to-earth suggestions for helping students find school more appealing.

Editorial Reviews

"This book explains almost all of the 'headshaking' frustrations educators express about teens. Educators will enjoy discovering that there is a biological reason for the behaviors and attitudes that teens demonstrate. They will also appreciate the practical and down-to-earth suggestions to help students find school more appealing. "

Kathy Tritz-Rhodes

"This updated edition is a very significant and timely resource for educators and parents of teenagers. Teachers will relate well to the many observations and vignettes about teenagers and will see many of their own students in these descriptions. The science and research-based evidence is explained simply and in easy-to-understand terms with connections to teen behavior clearly established. Readers can easily appreciate how the strategies described in the book link to the neuroscientific findings and research. The newer research, ideas, and supplementary material greatly enhance the book—particularly the new stories, vignettes, and other teaching strategies. "

Barry Corbin

"As a parent, I found myself applying this information to understand my own children’s behavior better. The neurological content coverage is based on very current functional MRI brain science that is being used and understood for the first time. It is an exciting time with the promise of substantially more new information for many years to come. Feinstein presents complex information in an accessible manner with the tone of a real person who has worked with real teenagers. "

Judy Filkins