Today's adolescents write to communicate--via text messaging, instant messaging, and social networking posts. They are skilled at manipulating their out-of-school digital language to communicate with an intended audience and to capture individual voice. Because the writing is informal, teens have the ability to break rules, and they can do so…

English teachers have always had a hard time getting kids to read books, but in recent years the problem has spread and taken new directions. The rejection of books by teens and young adults has become a common feature. One by one, recent studies and surveys have charted the decline. With the advent of the Digital Age, teens have more diversions…

Middle school students are naturally curious about their expanding possibilities. This stage of their lives is a time of transition, of figuring out who they are and where they belong in the world. Many students also think that the world they look at through the classroom window is distant and unconnected to the world of chalkboards and pop…

In this article, the author discusses several research reports demonstrating the existence of sex differences in cognitive function and language skills. Although dozens of studies published in the past five years have demonstrated dramatic sex differences in autonomic function, the educational literature has not emphasized those studies and their…

This article examines the explanations behind these questions: (1) Why do American teenagers behave the way they do?; (2) Why are many obsessed with the brands of clothes they wear, their lunchtime seatmates, the parties they are invited to, the latest popular music, the intrigues of school cliques, and who is hooking up with whom?; (3) Why do…

Using a technique designed to channel students' aggressive behavior into constructive energy, students who intend to act out sit in a chair and say anything they want. This therapeutic talk reduces disruptive behavior. (SK)

Deals with the scope of adolescent pregnancy both numerically and in human terms, pregnancy resolution, long term effects on the mother, associated medical factors, and implications for educational personnel. (Author/RK)

Discusses the adolescent father and the persons involved in intervention, education, and health-care delivery for adolescent parents. (Author/RK)

The point of view of this paper is that discriminatory practices and, indeed, other environmental or external events, do not completely account for the discrepancy between the professional success achieved by men and that achieved by women. (Author)

Provides an overview of the articles in this issue of Educational Horizons that focuses on goals for adolescent development. Discusses the problems of teenagers and the importance of allowing them to have adolescence. (JOW)

Discusses how youngsters learn to think in a recognizable adult fashion about political, social, and humanistic issues. Reports on research on the development of political attitudes over the course of adolescence. Concludes that the major difference between younger and older adolescents is the ability of the latter to think abstractly when…

Stresses the development of complex cognitive processes during adolescence and sees the challenge of the curriculum in the question of greater match between the learner's cognitive level and the material to learned. (JOW)

Discusses two major educational reform efforts: the effective schools movement and the high school reform movement. Finds that neither movement has paid much attention to the needs of adolescents and suggests that such a focus may be useful in bridging the gap between the two major research efforts. (JOW)

Presents a design for school improvement programs particularly responsive to young adolescents. Discusses the Middle Grades Assessment Program, designed to help middle grade schools use their own resources to deal effectively with situations. Includes case studies. (JOW)

Adolescents are likely to respond to teachers based on how they see their role, and that understanding varies with the adolescent's cognitive maturity. (JOW)