Adolescent Cognition: Thinking in a New Key

It is not just teenage bodies that undergo tremendous changes in adolescence. Young minds begin working in new ways that sometimes cause awkward situations just as do newly elongated legs or deeper voices.

Referring to the work of Piaget, Erikson, Goffman and his own studies, David Elkind looks at the intellectual, emotional, and social consequences that result from the changes in thought processes. These changes permit new ways of reasoning and enable students to take on much more challenging materials, but sometimes the transition results in inconsistent forms of thinking that cause social and emotional difficulties.

Adolescent Cognition: Thinking in a New Key includes newly-shot footage in a public middle school and structured interviews illustrating the intellectual challenges of this period of life when adolescents are constructing personal identities and new mental capacities.

Available As: Closed Captioned English or Open Captioned Spanish
Produced By: Davidson Films
Total Running Time: 38 minutes