The Owner's Guide to the Teenage Brain

By Derek Pugh

The Owner's Guide to the Teenage Brain reveals the mysteries of modern neuroscience and teaches teenagers, parents and teachers how to prepare their brains for learning. Knowing the optimal conditions for brain function teaches us how to maximize the efficiency of our learning. This is powerful knowledge that gives the reader an essential edge in today's world with its high competition and crowded curriculum. The Owner's Guide to the Teenage Brain is written in an easy to read and entertaining style. This book is a must read for every teenager and anyone who knows one.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ReadOnTime BV
• Release date: Jul 9, 2012
• ISBN: 9781742840802

Derek Pugh

Derek Pugh, educator, consultant and author, runs consultancies in brain compatible education and story telling in education. After a career of teaching in Australia's Northern Territory and internationally, Derek Pugh currently lives in Lombok Indonesia.

Book preview

SMASHWORDS EDITION

* * * * *

The Owner’s Guide to the Teenage Brain

Copyright © 2011 Derek Pugh

Illustrations © 2011 Khan Wilson, www.studiokhanonline.com

Except for pages 12 and 62 ©2011 Derek Pugh

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

The information, views, opinions and visuals expressed in this publication are solely those of the author(s) and do not reflect those of the publisher. The publisher disclaims any liabilities or responsibilities whatsoever for any damages, libel or liabilities arising directly or indirectly from the contents of this publication.

A copy of this publication can be found in the National Library of Australia.

ISBN: 9781742840802 (pbk.)

Published by Book Pal

www.bookpal.com.au

* * * * *

To Rina and our sons

Harry and Roy.

* * * * *

Acknoledgement

Neuroscience is a new and growing field. Scientists have discovered more about the brain in the last two decades than in all human history and there’s still a great deal to learn. It has been my pleasure to follow their research, listen to them at conferences and begin to develop teaching programs that are more suited to teaching brains in the way they have evolved to learn, rather than in some of the traditional methods I was taught.

I am an educator with a science background, but my science degree from the 1980s taught me little about the brain because relatively little was known back then. I spent 20 years as a science teacher and school Principal whilst neuroscience burgeoned around us all, and I have enjoyed the following new discoveries and working out what they mean to education. It is unfortunate that the wheels of change turn slowly, but we already know so much about how the brain learns only the ill informed will continue to try and teach or learn through non-brain compatible methods.

My current direction is thanks to the thousands of wonder-ful kids and colleagues who taught me so much about education. It has direct links to the action research Arthur Yandell and I undertook in the 1990s in intrinsic motiva-tion. My sincere apologies for any ‘old fashioned’ non-brain compatible teaching I was guilty of in the old days but, believe me, I now know better.

My departure from safe salaried positions and metamor-phosis into a freelance Education Consultant and author required a great deal of support and patience from my wife Rina, for which I am forever grateful. Also thanks to John Joseph of Focus Education for continued professional discussions in Brain Based Education, and for training which was as thorough as it was challenging.

Editing texts is a tiresome but necessary duty and I am fortunate to have had great help from Liz Pugh, Dr Mark Heyward, Dr Gertrud Schmidt-Ehry and John Joseph (for Chapter 13). To them my sincerest thanks.

Lastly, some discoveries by neuroscientists are now common knowledge, so if I have failed to adequately acknowledge any individual it has not been intentional, and I apologise, and thank them one and all for the fasci-nating journeys into the mind their work now allows. The sources used in the writing of this book are listed in the reference section and to those who are interested in how the brain works I recommend many of these for further reading.

* * * * *

Contents

Introduction

Section 1 Brain structure and function

Chapter 1 What’s it made of?

Chapter 2 How does it work?

Section 2 The five secrets in preparing your brain for learning

Chapter 3 Have enough sleep

Chapter 4 Get enough exercise

Chapter 5 Drink enough water

Chapter 6 Prioritize breakfast

Chapter 7 Eat a healthy diet

Section 3 How now to your future?

Chapter 8 Something is happening to your brain!

Chapter 9 Hormones

Chapter 10 A risky future

Chapter 11 Stress

Chapter 12 Girls and boys are different!

Chapter 13 Choices

Appendix: Other Brains

References and Further Reading

Index

Brain Compatible Education International

The Author

* * * * *

Introduction

This book is for you if you’re a teenager or about to become one. It will teach you about that soft wet squishy stuff in your skull people call your ‘grey matter’ (even though it’s really pink and white), and the hundred billion cells called neurons in there that make you a thinking being. Hopefully you’ll never see it, and it’ll hum along without any major problems for the next eighty or ninety years or more. You’re probably not even aware of it until you get a headache, or spin around and feel dizzy.

If you are a pre-teen you’re at the beginning of a wonderful, though sometimes confusing journey. Your brains have peaked as far as childhood is concerned. You’re going through a growth period – your grey matter may actually be thickening – it’s a period of over production. Enjoy it while it lasts – the ride has just begun.

If you’re a teenager already you probably have started a long process of ‘brain rewiring’ and your brain will never have as many neurons as it does now again. You may be losing up to 30,000 brain cells per second during this process as those neurons you’re not using are being recycled and those you are using are strengthened.

You may be having thoughts, or saying and doing things that you don’t understand. You may be having conflicts you’d rather avoid but can’t help having. You may be taking risks, and using the best excuse there is:

‘BECAUSE!!!’

This book is written for you so you’ll understand what’s happening, and how to get the most out of your brain. It’s hard to go it alone, the more people who understand the brain the easier it is to set yourself up to prepare and use it well, so talk to your friends, teachers, parents or brothers and sisters. Older siblings have been through what you’re going through right now just recently. They may have insights to share.

Neuroscience is a new and growing field of research which is telling us more about our brains every day. Some of the things you’ll learn in this book are ‘hot off the presses’ because they have been recently discovered. That’s great, and if your teachers or parents haven’t kept up with the changes you’ll know things they don’t about your brain. Like all learning this information can give you power and confidence. For example if you want to sleep in till midday on a Saturday morning and your parents call you lazy and tell you to stop ‘wasting the day’, you’ll know there’s very sound scientific evidence as to why your brain needs you to sleep in on weekends (see Chapter 3).

And of course, when Mum and Dad read this book they’ll understand you better.

The chapters are set out in a way that takes you from the very small to the bigger bits and pieces of your brain and how they work, then through the ‘secrets’ you can adapt to suit your lifestyle and use to improve the efficiency of your brain. Using these methods you’ll be able to get the best grades you can at school, develop healthy concepts and attitudes about life and understand some of the changes you’ve been going through like mood swings and why you’re making those crazy decisions.

At the end of each chapter there are messages for both your teachers and your parents. They also need to know what you know and sometimes more, so share this book with them.

Then, at the end of the book there’s an appendix about brains which may be different to yours. You’ll meet people who are having problems with their brains. It is in all our interests that we each have some tolerance and understanding of these problems, what we can do to avoid getting them, and how to help people who have them.

Treating your brain well now is an investment that will pay dividends for the rest of your life. Reading this book gives you the knowledge about how to do this and it will help you to make decisions that may affect you profoundly. The choices are yours to make. Good luck.

A message to your teachers

Why should teachers know about the brain?

Knowing how the brain works can guide best teaching practices. Learners knowing how their brains work can guide choices and goals within their learning. This is powerful knowledge that can be behaviour altering, and build motivation and confidence. Teaching with the knowledge of how your students learn best and what their (and your) strengths and weaknesses are is a starting point for maximizing the return on your efforts in teaching.

Here’s what some of the other writers in the field say:

Patricia Wolfe says that research adds a partial understand-ing of why certain procedures or strategies work – we can therefore articulate and explain the rationale for what teachers do. The brain becomes the focus of the daily work of teachers and it is no longer a ‘black box’. Research can now explain a little about how it works and the better we understand it the better we can teach it. A functional understanding of the brain allows us to critically analyze the ‘neuroscientific’ information that arrives daily – some

information is good, but some is just ‘sound bytes’ that invite misinterpretation or ‘pseudo-science’.

Sheryl Feinstein wrote ‘although you can’t change teenage behaviour you can adapt your teaching style to effectively reach adolescents’.

David Sousa reasons that as teachers try to change human brains every day, the more they know about how it learns, the more