Developmentally Appropriate Best
Practices
For
Middle School Teachers
Research shows that middle school students (ages 10-14) need to have instruction, curriculum and assessment aligned to their psychological and physical development in order to be successful in school. This can be more difficult than one might first think because at no other time in their lives, save infancy, are these children going through a more rapid development than they are in their young adolescent years (Van Hoose, Strahan and L’Esperance, 2001). Therefore, middle school educators need to be, not only well versed in human development, but they must know how to respond accordingly to their students in the continually shifting and changing years of young adolescent development.
However, research shows that only one out of five
middle level teachers receive any specialized young adolescent training and,
therefore, many middle school educators consider themselves to be poorly
trained in this area (Scales, 1996).
This probably is the result of the way colleges and universities have
designed educational coursework for teachers so that they can meet state
certification. For instance, in
However, this may not be feasible for many current middle school educators; therefore, there are many self-learned strategies and techniques that middle school teachers can learn and adopt into their best practices. Anne Wheelock (1998) describes how middle school teachers can meet the needs of their students in standards based education by practicing and incorporating “new rituals, new conversations and new lessons” (p. 88). We have outlined many of the research based strategies so as to develop a responsive ecologies in middle schools.
Creating Responsive Ecologies
Knowledge…Middle school educators should develop and apply a knowledge of the developmental stages of children, focusing on ages 10-14. Teachers should refer to the studies of Jean Piaget (developmental), Erik Erikson (developmental), Howard Gardner (multiple intelligences), Carol Gilligan (developmental) and Lawrence Kohlberg (moral development). Having knowledge of why young adolescents do the things they do, even as simple as the following example, will enable educators to be more effective.
Did you know?
One study reported that restroom breaks were significantly lowered, simply by placing mirrors in all of the middle school classrooms (Knowles and Brown, 2000). It is believed this is due to young adolescents being overly concerned with their appearance and requiring the continual need of reassurance that the mirror provided. (One mother reported that her 13 year-old son rides in the car with the visor mirror down!)
Flexibility…A word of caution is that this age group will also experience these changes in uneven stages, with no set timeline and with inconsistent growth; therefore, middle school teachers should design flexible organizational structures that Stevenson (1998) describes as “predictability with uncertainty” (p. 123).
Did you know?
In many middle school classrooms, “Works in Progress” signs posted, accompanied by students’ work in various stages of completion, demonstrate to students that the end product requires several drafts. In these classrooms students have the option of abandoning their first drafts and starting anew or students also have the flexibility of completing abandoned projects of others.
Safety…Students of all ages need to feel safe, but since middle schoolers are going through such dramatic physiological, cognitive and emotional changes, they especially require this all three of the areas in order to succeed.
Did you know?
Research
shows that if middle schools provide the following three “external
assets” then kids’ levels of risk decline:
1) caring and supportive
relationships *Advisory programs have been shown to be
effective ways of developing supportive relationships with students so that
students will feel safe in discussing concerns.
2) boundaries and limits *Listing
clear guidelines and classroom rules aids students in understanding the
boundaries of their environment.
3) structured use of time. *Children need time to
explore, but in ways that outlined so as to keep focused and progressively on
target.
Social Interaction...At the middle school level students, more than ever, need time to work in groups and experience group decision making. This time for socializing accommodates teens “need for affiliation and personal belonging to a small community of peers” (Stevenson, 1998, p. 110). Group activities also enable children to work with their peers within structured boundaries. At this age, peers, not parents, have typically become the primary source of models and standards for young adolescents. Therefore, structured time for modeling is optimum.
Did you know?
According to Scales (1996), this type of “socializing has been called the primary work of early adolescence in much the same way that the primary work of early childhood is playing” (p.229).
Curriculum…With standards
based education, teachers need to incorporate new and
challenging techniques into their repertoire.
Developmentally appropriate curriculum that is integrative (link),
and allows for team teaching of themes will enable students to make connections
in their learning.
Such as….
1. Lecture
less, coach more.
2. Provide
exploratory options.
3. Initiate
upgraded mini courses.
4. Encourage
learning for “the sake of learning.”
5. Explore
grand themes, such as love, justice and money.
6. Develop
service projects.
Since the middle school years are the transitioning time from what Piaget described as moving from concrete to formal operations, then these young adolescents need direct experiences with hands on activities so as to understand abstract concepts.
Such as…manipulatives,
service learning projects and role-plays.
One example of this is a math teacher, in
teaching the concept of slope utilized
a computer program that recorded students’ movements by means of a motion
detector. As students increased or
decreased speed, they could visually and physically experience the concept of
slope. Think of how this combines the kinesthetic, the visual/spatial and the
cognitive intelligences!
Did you know?
“Only about one-third of eighth graders
consistently demonstrate an ability to use formal operations” (Knowles
and Brown, 2000, p. 19).
Student Voice…When in doubt, ask the students. Effective middle schools are increasing students’ voice in many ways.
Such as…
Ask students…What are the characteristics of a nurturing learning
environment?
Then ask students…What are you, as an individual, willing to do to nurture this environment? (Bencivenga and Elias, 2003, p.20)
Then
ask yourself, other teachers, administration, staff,
parents, and the community these questions.
Diversity…Teachers need to recognize and empower the diversity of the students, both individually and as a whole. Teachers need to work with other teachers, parents, and community members in ways to help students develop positive self-images through self-identity work and self-efficacy exploration. Erikson’s stage theory of development points out that young adolescents describe themselves in terms of what they can and cannot do. They also compare themselves to others and this can be critical to their self-concept. This is why effective middle schools have tried to avoid the one winner approach and have incorporated more team competitions. Middle schools also need to develop ways that every student can be a winner, but these need to meaningful, not arbitrary awarded.
Consider this…Since “every child is changing in a peer population where everyone else is also changing, previous answers to the question ‘Who am I’ may no longer fit” (Stevenson, 1998, p. 82).
Where to Begin
Many of these concepts and practices are not new and are alive and well
in our middle schools. However, there is
still much work to be done and it takes a concerted effort on all of the
stakeholders to be willing to step back from their current practices and
critically look at making meaningful changes.
It is only in the last thirty or so years that we have begun to
systematically break down our ways of teaching and how children learn and are
now looking at education “more of a science than an art” (Marzano, Pickering and Pollock, 2001, p. 156). Therefore, educators need to stay current on
the latest studies. The next step is to
look at these current practices and begin to think in terms of human
development by comparing their practice to what is developmentally appropriate
for young adolescents.
References
Bencivenga, A., & Elias, M. (2003). Academic Learning Thrives in a Caring,
Sharing Educational Community. Middle School Journal, 34 (5), 16-22.
Knowles, T., & Brown,
D. (2000). What
every Middle School Teacher should
know.
Marzano,
R., Pickering, D., & Pollock, J.
(2001). Classroom
Instruction that
Works.
Scales, P. (1996). A Responsive Ecology for Positive Young Adolescent
Development. Clearing House, 69 (4), 226-230.
Stevenson,
C. (1998). Teaching Ten to Fourteen
Year Olds. (2nd ed.).
Van
Hoose, J., Strahan, D.,
& L’Esperance, M. (2001). Promoting Harmony: Young Adolescent Development and School
Practices.
Wheelock, A. (1998). Safe To Be Smart: Building a Culture for Standards-Based Reform
in the Middle Grades.