Such a Stupid Idea! What were you Thinking!?
Dopamine and the Adolescent Brain
John Lenz
Introduction
If you are like most teachers, or most adults really, you probably have found yourself wondering why adolescents make such dumb decisions and act on such impulsive, seemingly irrational behaviors. We wonder, “Didn’t they think about the consequences, or how their actions would affect other people? Do they have no concept of their future? While these questions are reasonable, I want to challenge you to ask a few other questions:
Should we blame hormones, or is there more going on?
How do adolescents think about consequences?
Could there be cognitive changes below the surface?
Asking questions like these does not mean we are throwing in the towel and giving in to the “craziness” of adolescents. On the contrary, it means that we are fed up with age-old hormones excuse and are ready to take our interactions with our students to the next level. In order to fully understand the complex answers to such complex questions, we need to turn our attention away from hormones and focus on the chemical changes going on in the brains of adolescents.
The Research
Daniel J. Siegel, author of Brainstorm and Clinical psychologist at UCLA, offers a cutting-edge theory to explain why adolescents act on impulse and urge rather than rationale and consequence. In his book, Siegel argues that during adolescents our neurotransmitters, specifically those involved with dopamine, go into hyperdrive (Siegel, 67). Dopamine is one of our feel-good neurotransmitters that we can thank for feelings of happiness, excitement and satisfaction → the reward center of our brain (Siegel, 67). During Adolescence, the baseline and maximum levels of dopamine start to change.
Childhood - According the Siegel, Children have a very high baseline level of dopamine. In other words, it is much easier for children to experience a sense of reward, whether that be excitement, happiness, or some other positive feeling. Anything and everything can occupy the mind of a child. From playing in the sandbox to building a fort kids easily experience a dopamine “fix”.
Adolescence - According to Siegel, baseline dopamine levels go down in the brains' of adolescents. In other words, it is harder for them to get excited, feel urges of happiness and experience the cognitive reward of a dopamine “fix.” However, Siegel suggests that the maximum dopamine levels of adolescents greatly increases during this period (Siegel, 67). In other words, young adults have the ability to experience a thrilling and powerful feeling of being alive. So to answer one of my earlier questions → Why do adolescents make such dumb decisions and act on such impulsive, seemingly irrational behaviors? → It is because they are chasing a dopamine “fix” that can only be achieved through sometimes impulsive, dangerous and reckless behavior.
Ok, great, we know why adolescents do dumb stuff, but what about their lack of consideration of consequences? Why don’t they think before they act? According to Siegel, they do think before they act. Siegel argues that adolescents go through a thinking process called hyperationality. In this style of thinking, adolescents “examine just the facts of a situation and don’t see the big picture...they miss the setting or context in which those facts occur” (Siegel, 67). The big picture in this case is the effect actions will have on others, the consequences that follow and how these actions will affect the future. It is not that adolescents are incapable of seeing this big picture, they just rationalize with themselves that the reward (the dopamine “fix”) will greatly outweigh the consequences or effects of their actions. In the words of Daniel Siegel, hyperrationality “places a lot of weight on the positive outcome and not much weight on the possible negative results” (Siegel, 69). In this sense, young adults understand and confront the consequences, but rationalize why they do not matter in comparison to the thrilling experience.
So what can I do to help?
So now we know why some students might seem bored all the time, or even apathetic towards learning. We know that is has a lot less to do with our subjects and their inability to engage and a lot more to do with the chemical changes in their brains. Great. So what? I am in no way an expert. Actually, I am a second year teacher with a grain of experience on a beach of opportunities. However, I do have a few strategies that you can use in your classroom to help stimulate those low baselines of dopamine and give your students the “fix” that they crave and need.
Get your students out of their desks and moving around. This is not always easy, but try breaking up a lesson into a few parts. In between “chunks” of the lesson, encourage students to get up, walk around and engage with other learners in the class.
Try running a simulation in your classroom. Simulations take a lot of planning and foresight, but if done right a good simulation can take a class full of bored, quiet and disengaged audience members and turn them into loud, active and engaged learners.
Include “holy cow!” moments in your lessons that make even the most disengaged students perk up → For example during our discussion on Ancient Chinese dynasties I always make sure to throw in that during the Xia Dynasty the emperor built a massive pool that he filled with wine and decorated the pool deck with trees that dangled cuts of meat for him to snack on as he paddled the river drinking wine.
Adolescents want novel experiences that offer them new perspective and a new way to think about the world. Therefore, try to expose your students to new forms of learning beyond taking notes and reading an article. Try some of the following:
Lets face it, adolescents love technology, especially their phones. It seems counterintuitive to shut students off from a part of their lives when they walk through the door. Therefore, try to include technology in your class.
Try using cell phones in class to poll data
Allow students to use their phones to listen to music
Model appropriate use of cell phones → if it goes off during work time, check the message, and put it down!
As you go forward, remember that everything is not always as it seems. Working with adolescents demands professionals that do not just ask questions but actively seek out answers, solutions and novel ideas. Enjoy!
Images
Text
Siegel, Daniel J. Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain. New York: Penguin Group LLC, 2013.
Spending time throughout the year, instead of just at the beginning of the year building relationships through purposely scheduled activities can help continue building connections with students. I have started a file of short, quick activities that I can use every two to three weeks to break up a lesson, build student trust, or help students learn about each other and myself. One activity I used recently was the toilet paper activity. I sent a roll of toilet paper around the classroom and the only instructions were to take what you need. After everyone had “taken what they needed”, and had some interesting discussions, they were told to share about themselves to their table groups. The number of things they were to share about themselves matched the number of toilet paper pieces they took! 
