All posts by Wenxi Zhang

Let It Go

Biological & Cognitive Development in Adolescence

“Adolescents want to learn primarily, but not entirely, from their friends. At some level and at some times (and it’s the parent’s job to spot when), the teen recognizes that the parent can offer certain kernels of wisdom – knowledge valued not becuase it comes from parental authority but because it comes from the parent’s own struggles to learn how the world truns.  The teen rightly perceives that she must understand not just her parens’ world but also the one she is entering.” – Dobbs

My response: When children enter adolescence, their self-awareness develops rapidly.  At this time, adolescents understand that they are already an individual in the world.  Even they are not yet an adult but they start getting ready to be an adult physically and psychologically.  I am saying this because I did have this similar experience when I was applying for colleges in China.  All the colleges I applied for were not in my home city because I wanted to live in dormitory and to give me more freedom to explore college life.  Sometimes parents are too protective to children because they do their best to prevent children from any harm that they have already known about.  But they forget that the world is changing, the challenges and ordeals for children is changing as well.  Children have to learn and face to the world they are living in.  The role of parents and teachers is to support and to give advice when they are facing new challenges instead of to impose their own choices and decisions in children.

Think and Act Following the Changes of Times

Perspectives & History of Adolescence, Urban Adolescents

“ ‘We have not developed and strengthened institutions to serve young adults,’ Mr. Furstenberg said, ‘because we’re still living with the archaic idea that people enter adulthood in their late teens or early 20s.’ ” (Cohen)

Reflection: I have seen many young adults just like how the article describe.  They delay independence from parents, marriage and parenthood.  Some of their reasons for this is that as parents, adults are only responsible to raise their kids until kids are 18 years old.  After that kids should take responsibility of their own lives.  Therefore, the latest time for adults to have kids is the year that 18 years before they get retired.  They have a lot of time to get themselves psychologically and financially ready to get married and to raise children.  I think there is a contradiction between the behaviors and thoughts of these young adults.  They delay their starting point of independence so long but they expect their kids to be independent right at 18 years old.  Their behaviors and actions are consistent with the trend of times changing but their thoughts are not.  I think this is one of the real reasons why the road to adulthood is getting longer and longer by generations but there is still no way to solve this problem.

MVP #2

Observing to Learn and Learning to Observe, Urban Adolescents

Learning to Describe, Describing to Understand

“When we conduct descriptive reviews of children in our reflective eminar, these undergraduates often express surprise at how much they thought they knew about their own students, but were perhaps wrong, or they notced how they jumped to characterizations before they sat down and really took the time to describe what they saw of a particular student in various situations.  A common framing question for our child studies are variations of ‘How can I make a better connection with this student?’  After presenters have detailed what they know about the interests of students, what this child finds fascinating are frustrating, with whom they may work well, and when they tend to find trouble, student teachers return to seminar to report ‘updates’ on how the child is doing in class and in various relationships” (Knoester, 151).

Reflection: This passage reminds me the teaching experience in my early years of teaching.  I planned a series of class activities and assignments that I thought my students would be interested in and had fun doing them.  But I realized that my plan did not work well when I carried it out in class.  So ideal is different from the real.  Observation plays an important role of testing out our acknowledgement and at the same time recieving feedback.  What we observed, which we can call field notes, always give us unpredictable answer and enlightenment.

As for teachers, teaching and learning is not a one way process.  It is a two-way process.  Observation is the bridge connecting these two actions.  When teacher is teaching academic knowledge to students, he or she is learning if his or her teaching strategy works and how well the students adapt to the method he or she uses through observing students’ reaction to his or her teaching.  According to the observation, teacher learns to adjust the teaching method and approaches and make the teaching more easy to be understood by the students.  I think this is what “Learning to Describe (Teach), Describing (Teaching) to Understand” means.

MVP 1

Culturally, Linguistically, and Socioeconomically Diverse Adolescents in Urban Contexts: Framing the Conversation, Urban Adolescents

Identity and Possibility:Adolescent Development and the Potential of Schools

“It [Identity] is, rather, the lived experience of an ongoing process – the process of integrating successes, failures, routines, habits, rituals, novelties, thrills, threats, violations, gratifications, and frustrations into a coherent and evolving interpretation of who we are.  Identity is the embodiment of self-understanding.  We are who we understand ourselves to be, as that understanding is shaped and lived out in everyday experience” (Nakkula, 11).

Reflection: Each word in this passage hits my understanding of identity that is deep in my heart.  Identity is a self-awareness a person develops through the experience in his or her life.  It should be a status a person gives to himself or herself.  Most teenagers develop their own dignity in adolescence and they care about people treating them as adults.  In the context of school, teachers and school counselors are responsible to build a supportive environment for adolescents to know themselves better and understand others better.  Positive interpersonal relationship greatly contributes to identity development of adolescents.  I truly believe that identity is the outcome of the social lives of people.