The Adolescent Brain
A longer blog this week. As I would do with my classes when I am setting homework, since you had a shorter one last week, I think it only fair, parents, that you catch up this week.
Yesterday saw a rare foray away from school at the HMC Spring Conference. The presentation that has resonated with me the most was on the work done over the past couple of decades by Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore at the University of Cambridge with various worldwide collaborators. Professor Blakemore has been researching the development of the adolescent brain using techniques ranging from MRI scans to social psychology experiments. These are difficult to summarise succinctly, but the conclusions are worthy of reflection at any school. Prepare for a little advanced science, highly condensed, and almost certainly oversimplified.
MRI scanners are now ubiquitous in hospitals and are used increasingly in research. Scans  of thousands of subjects over time show grey matter in several areas of the brain gradually decreasing, while the white matter increases by 1% at around the same time. The ‘whiteness’ of the white matter is caused by an increased amount around the neurons of myelin, a fatty substance which insulates our nerve cells and makes them transmit the electrical nerve impulses more efficiently. At the same time, our brains are pruning excess synapses, retaining the connections that we regularly use at the expense of those which are more rarely called up. The adolescent brain is particularly plastic, meaning it can be permanently changed (and therefore improved) by external stimuli. Our brains retain some plasticity throughout our lives but in those early years, and through into our mid-twenties, we are most receptive to learning, while at the same time more prone to changes of mood and heightened sensitivity.
Given these ongoing changes in brain development, the accepted definition of adolescence in this branch of neuroscience is now much broader than you would expect, ranging from age 10 all the way up to 24. We should not consider our young people to be fully formed adults at the legal age of 18.
Alongside these results from ultra-sensitive scans, experiments in social psychology have shown that 12-15 year olds are hypersensitive to social exclusion compared to the rest of us. They are also, as we know, more prone to certain forms of risk-taking, and even more so in a social situation, as evidence in the real world. A driver under 21 is sadly 4 ½ times as likely to be involved in a fatal traffic incident when there are 3 or more passengers in the car compared to when they are driving alone: this has been attributed to heightened risk-taking in the social context. Even in simulated situations, adolescents take more risks when there are people of their own age watching.
However young people are more risk averse when it comes to social risks. There is a real conundrum for a young person in a social situation when, for example, they are asked for the first time if they want an alcoholic drink – balancing the known risks of alcohol against the risk of social disapproval by their peers. We know how that often turns out. In an extraordinary experimental result, when asked to rate different types of risks – such as crossing a road when the pedestrian signal was red - 12-15 year olds were seen to be more likely to change their minds according to outside advice when that advice supposedly came from someone of their own age, rather than when that advice came from an adult with much greater life experience.
The science backs up many of the hunches that educators and parents have long held: teenagers like to take risks; try to impress their friends; avoid situations where they are seen to go against the flow; and don’t listen to adults as much as to each other. If that’s what the science tells us, then what can you do?
What you can do is, as a school, to try to exploit this reality rather than simply wish it were otherwise. If pupils are more likely to be influenced by their peers we can help those influencers to be informed and positively contributing to the pupils’ welfare. This term there are real opportunities for large numbers of our pupils to earn positions of responsibility which could make a positive difference to the Bablake community.
We are on the verge of appointing our new Sixth Form prefect team, with the L6th due to take over shortly as our U6th depart on study leave. They have a couple of months to make an impact before we embark on the selection process for the new school captains. I will impress upon them the importance of their roles in influencing other pupils in the school. They will be heard and heeded when adults are not. The same is true for next year’s Year 10 peer mentors who will have their selection process and training with Mr Bevis soon.
In another of yesterday’s talks at the conference we heard about research into the impact of the lockdowns on pupils’ mental health and development. We know that our current Year 8s have needed to be treated as new Shells because their first experience of Bablake senior was largely spent at home or bubbled in certain parts of the school. Our children have not had the usual opportunities to learn from older pupils and understand our normal ways of doing things. The prefects and peer mentors have a huge role to play in helping all our pupils to find their way and follow the right path.
(Bulletin No 23 - 6th May 2022)
