Adolescent Development

The Middle School Child
Excerpted from the writings of Bondi, Fenwick, Lipsitz, Mergendoller, and Tye

Source: Thanks to South Lake Middle School IUSD

Intellectual Development Middle School Students:

1. Display a wide range of individual intellectual development as their minds experience transition from the concrete-manipulatory stage to the capacity for abstract thought.  This transition ultimately makes possible: Prepositional thought, Consideration of ideas contrary to fact, Reasoning with hypotheses involving two or more variables, Appreciation for the elegance of mathematical logic expressed in symbols, Insight into the nuances of poetic metaphor and musical notation, analysis of the power of a political ideology, Ability to project thought into the future, to anticipate, and to formulate goals, Insight into the sources of previously unquestioned attitudes, behaviors, and values, Interpretation of larger concepts and generalizations of traditional wisdom expressed through sayings, axioms, and aphorisms.

2. Are intensely curious.

3. Prefer active over passive learning experiences; favor interaction with peers during learning activities.

4. Exhibit a strong willingness to learn things they consider to be useful; enjoy using skills to solve real life problems.

5. Are egocentric; argue to convince others; exhibit independent, critical thought.

6. Consider academic goals as a secondary level of priority; personal-social concerns dominate thoughts and activities.

7. Experience the phenomenon of metacognition--the ability to know what one knows and does not know.

8. Are intellectually at-risk; face decisions that have the potential to affect major academic values with lifelong consequences