The best way to predict the future
is to shape it yourself.
- Peter F. Drucker
Bringing up and guiding adolescents is quite an art. Therefore, we have a page dedicated to teenagers, with videos and articles by experts on topics that many educators and counsellors have to deal with on a daily basis. They help to understand and connect with adolescents.
If you have interesting content, please send it to us. We will then share it on this page for everyone to see.
How does the teenage brain work?
Jelle Jolles is a clinical neuropsychologist and neuroscientist. He is a professor at VU University Amsterdam and heads the Brain & Learning Centre. He sees adolescence as a period of opportunities and possibilities and sees the teenager as a "work in progress".
Teenagers can often get much further than we think. Not only the brain, but also support, guidance and inspiration from the environment, including parents and teachers, are decisive for their development.
Jelle Jolles actively participates in the dialogue between science and education. The focus of his work is on neuropsychological skills that are essential for learning.
Active support, structure and inspiration from parents and teachers is essential for brain maturation and personal growth. He has described his views on this in the bestseller "The Teenage Brain" (2016) .
How do we turn irritating teenagers into nice individuals?
That annoying teenager with an exploded wardrobe for a bedroom, are you or do you know him? For a long time, psychologists thought there was an unambiguous manual for this. Dr. Loes Keijsers has investigated why that manual is totally different for each adolescent and how, as a parent, you can make sure they will be a nice individual later on.
A parent who interferes in your life is something adolescents would rather not have. Yet, together with their friends, they consider their parents the most important in their lives.
A randomised scientific study showed that the more support and love parents gave to their adolescents, the less depressed they were. There appeared to be 3 main ingredients for successful parents:
- Setting rules
- Emotional support
- Supporting autonomy
The 5 most important characteristics of Generation Z
Generation Z is growing up in a fully digital world where they are accustomed to constantly satisfying their needs. It is a generation that is growing into the largest and most diverse generation there is. This makes this group of young people an important target group for companies and brands. But what is so special about this generation and what characterises them?
Raising children should be easy
Parents work too hard for their children's future. All that work is pointless, says psychologist Alison Gopnik. A child needs only freedom, love and attention, she says.
Parents should be like gardeners, creating an ideal environment with nutritious soil and sufficient warmth, space, water and light, so that plants and flowers have the greatest chance to grow and flourish.
Why do many gifted people fail to get a diploma?
You might think that for people with an IQ of 135, everything comes naturally. They only have to read a Latin lesson once and then they remember everything immediately and, with a little effort, they understand complicated formulas. And yet many gifted people do not have a diploma. Are they too lazy or socially inappropriate?
Prof. Dr. Kathleen Venderickx explains why people with an IQ of 135 need as much guidance as people with an IQ of 65.
Prof Kathleen Venderickx and Prof Tessa Kieboom have almost 20 years of experience in guiding gifted children and adults. Together they run the expertise centre Exentra. They have written several books on the subject.
Why do teenagers so often do stupid things?
Time and again they seem to get themselves into huge trouble: adolescents. They do their best to push the limits and are great at making stupid decisions. Why do adolescents behave like this?
Professor Eveline Crone is the expert when it comes to the adolescent brain. In this lecture she will tell you why we are adept at taking ill-considered risks and why a little rebellious behaviour is ultimately necessary to develop into successful individuals.
Eveline Crone does highly innovative research into adolescent brain processes, using MRI scans. She is the author of the book Het puberende brein.
What are the experiences of a gap year after graduation?
One in ten HAVO and VWO pupils take a gap year after their final exams. Because they have been eliminated, because they are fed up with school or because they do not know yet what they want to study. In Norway, more than half of the students take a gap year; in Australia and Great Britain, the figure is estimated at a quarter. Foreign research has shown that young people who have spent their gap year well, roll over better in their studies.
Ten young people tell what the gap year has brought them. It was fat, cool, very sick!
Feedback is more than conveying information
Feedback has the potential to increase learning performance (Hattie & Timperley 2007). It sounds very tempting to say that we should give a lot of feedback to students. Unfortunately, it is not that simple.
"Feedback should cause thinking", once said Dylan William. Hopefully, this article in www.van12tot18.nl will do just that, and school management, teachers and students will think together about more or perhaps less feedback.