Self-concept, Identity, and Motivation
for the
Middle School Student
Middle school is the time students develop their emotional intelligence. Great middle schools use cooperative learning to fostering positive social relationships. Middle school students should be engaged in curriculum-related activities that serve to develop their social and emotional intelligences. By giving primary attention to the development of social and emotional learning in middle school, teachers ensure that students will have the personal tools to function in the global society around them.
Middle School Students:
for the
Middle School Student
Middle school is the time students develop their emotional intelligence. Great middle schools use cooperative learning to fostering positive social relationships. Middle school students should be engaged in curriculum-related activities that serve to develop their social and emotional intelligences. By giving primary attention to the development of social and emotional learning in middle school, teachers ensure that students will have the personal tools to function in the global society around them.
Middle School Students:
- Experience traumatic conflicts due to contradictory loyalties to friends and family;
- Are extremely loyal to peer group values; sometimes cruel or insensitive to those outside the peer group;
- May be rebellious towards parents but still strongly dependent on parental values; want to make own choices, but the authority of the family is a critical factor in ultimate decisions;
- Refer to peers as sources for standards and examples of behavior; media heroes and heroines are also important in shaping both behavior and fashion;
- Are impacted by high level of flexibility of people to move; may become anxious and unsettled when peer group ties are broken because of family relocation to other communities;
- Are often confused and frightened by new school settings which are large and impersonal;
- Challenge authority figures; test limits of acceptable behavior;
- Are socially at-risk; adult values are largely shaped during adolescence; negative interactions with peers, parents, and teachers may compromise ideals and commitments.
- Act out unusual or drastic behavior at times; may be aggressive, daring, boisterous, argumentative;
- Want to know and feel that significant adults, including parents and teachers, love and accept them; need frequent affirmation;
- Sense negative impact of adolescent behaviors on parents and teachers; realize thin edge between tolerance and rejection; feelings of adult rejection drive the adolescent into the relatively secure social environment of the peer group;
- Strive to define sex role characteristics; search to establish positive social relationships with members of the same and opposite sex; and
- Experience low risk-trust relationships with adults who show lack of sensitivity to adolescent characteristics and needs.