21st Century Student Observation Essays

A general population third grade class was observed to further understand the psychological aspect of teaching. The Title I school classroom observed has sixteen students, eight girls and eight boys, and is almost entirely made up of students from a low socioeconomic status (SES). The desks are arranged with one big horseshoe and two rows of desks inside the horseshoe shape. The teacher has made adjustments to seating assignments and layout due to student behavior and feedback. The class is made up with students eight to nine years old with two students repeating the third grade. Snowman and McCown (2012) highlight that students in this class would be in Erikson’s fourth stage of psychosocial development, industry

Another problem with high school cliques is that kids in them feel superior to some of the student who have trouble socially or are reluctant to be in a social situation. For example, a student transfers to new school and doesn’t know anyone. The cliques seem to feel superior because they already have an established group of friends, while the newcomer is still struggling. This would be a great opportunity for the high school counselor or the teachers to help students feel included in the high school social scene by introducing them to kind and friendly students. Cliques tend to have the same ideas or follow the same opinions on different topics. They usually think alike. When someone new enters the picture, they may have new ideas and opinions that may clash with the existing group. Their solution is to exclude that particular person, in order to keep their social circle “normal” in their minds, so they don’t have to change their thinking. “If students only spend time with others who are like them racially, socially, or otherwise they may never learn how to live and work with people who are different.” (Kay Herting Wahl, a University of Minnesota assistant professor of educational psychology) Cliques are so exclusive in this generation and kids are only associating with other very similar to themselves. This does not allow them to explore different people from different experiences or life

Every public school lunch room is filled with many tables, every day these tables are the perfect place for a student to find where they “belong”. Like Beverly Daniel Tatum states in “Why Are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”, part of the social groups forming in high schools goes to thank adolescents. Tatum writes, “As children enter adolescence, they begin to explore the question of identity, asking ‘Who am I?’ ‘Who can I be?’”(375). At this point in their life everyone begins to see their own interests and hobbies that makes them a little different than others. Because students are starting to realize their differences, in modern day high schools there are many social groups that students can identify with and feel the most comfortable being themselves.

The period of adolescence is crucial in the development of identity and social integration, and for many teens can be very trying. From the moment children begin attending programs such as daycare and elementary schooling, they are transferred from an environment that no longer exclusively contains their parents, to one where they are integrated with other children who are similar in age; also known as peers. In the United States, adolescents spend twice the amount of time within peer groups from a day to day basis than with their parents (Dijkstra & Veenstra 2011). The socialization that occurs within these peer groups plays a large role in influencing the behaviors of adolescents during this developmental period; whether reinforcing positive behaviors such as academic achievement or encouraging questionable behavior and delinquency. The importance of peer groups in contemporary society is accurately represented in the 2004 movie Mean Girls, adapted from self-help book The Queen Bee’s and Wannabees, depicting the life of a young adolescent who struggles to prove herself worthy of being accepted by the dominant social group. Whether it is deciding on identifying with the ‘Brains’ or choosing to imitate the ‘Cheerleaders’ in hopes of obtaining status, overall adolescent behavior is greatly influenced by their peer groups.

The peer society was especially noticeable on college campuses around the United States. On campuses, students made connections beyond the classroom. They shaped a youth culture shaped which consisted of their own slang, flapper fashion, fads, and music. Students were away from their home and community, so peers replaced family roles. Colleges and universities begin to defined the youth society. Students became consumers and mass production enabled conformity in fashion. Campus newspaper kept the youth informed on the latest trends and activities. College students were not directly supervised and enjoyed their leisure time by dancing, attending the movies, and dating. Students set morals in peer society and determined the proper way to behaviors.

Adolescents, a time of transition from child to adulthood (Jackie, Psych 220, 2012). It gives us the sense of what creates the self and our roles in society by building social groups and relationships with our peers (Jackie, 2012). It is a time in stage where we ask ourselves questions of what characteristics, values, and norms help understand the self (Jackie, 2012). The identity is built around our interactions with clique’s (Saeta, Soc.

In modern societies like ours comes’ unrealistic normality, for example, everyone is expected to conform to the same set of rules. This causes adolescents to form groups because they provide individuals with an identity in the eyes of their peers. The peers that they surround themselves with are usually similar in age, race, social class, and sex. In schools with mixed ethnic groups, crowds tend to form based first on ethnicity, and then on other attributes such as participation in athletics, use of drugs, and having a focus on academics. Their attitude with school- importance of grades and partaking in school activities; teen culture- music, how they dress, activities, drug use; and involvement with antisocial events- criminal activity and aggressiveness, more than often resemble that of the majority of the group. Adolescents become friends both because of prior similarities and because they become like each other the more they interact (selection and socialization). Teenagers just find people who are like them. This normality could be considered good or bad. “For example, alcohol users ‘find each other’ and influence each other to drink. Likewise, depressed teens tend to associate with others who have depressive tendencies, and their depression is collectively worsened.” (2nd) But this isn’t always true; because of the gap in today’s society, teenagers learn coping

The retrospective observational study was performed in Great Ormond Street Hospital. All admissions to the critical care services over a 9 year period (March 2003-December 2011) were included for analysis. Repeat admissions were excluded. The prevalence of 'extreme hypoxaemia' was explored. 'Extreme hypoxaemia' was defined as admission $PaO_{2}$ $< 2.67$ kPa (20 mmHg). This threshold was chosen from reported literature.\cite{Anonymous:2013vh}\cite{Grocott:2009jj}\\

The researcher sees their peers conforming to current fashions, hair styles, and behaviors daily in school. This topic is worth studying because while the test being run demonstrates a harmless example of conforming to what a group of people are doing, there are many crazes and issues that adolescents and young adults choose to follow, regardless of if they are safe or intelligent choices being made. Peer pressure is “influence from members of one's peer group”. According to an article written on peer pressure by a website called Parent Further, only 10% of teenagers that were surveyed claimed to never have made choices that were guided by peer pressure. In that same group, 28% of the subjects reached an agreement with each other that giving in to peer pressure made their social status stronger and nearly half of the subjects admitted to taking part in bullying someone only after they witnessed a friend being a bully. Drug and alcohol

William Damon is an educator/researcher on psychology and education. In William Damon’s work, he has proposed that children’s friendships are developed in three specific stages. In Level 1, children are about 4-7 years old. During this level children see each other as momentary playmates. During this stage children are all about having fun, with limited perspectives. Children want things their way and do not wish to hear different opinions other than their own. As the child gets older, at the age of 8-10 years old a more profound friendship is formed, this is called Level 2. During this time a child start to build trust and start to think of other rather than just themselves. Children learn the value of sharing and learn how to compromise. Lastly, Level 3 is during the approximate age of 11- 15 years old. During this time, friends are valued the most to a child. This is a more mature stage where children build trustful relationships and a high level of emotional closeness is built. Regardless of age cliques and crowds always develop among children and adults. A clique is a group of member that share common interests, often are of the same gender. The members of the group are often labeled or stereotyped. Crowds are very similar to cliques, both shape the minds of children on how they should act or how they should be. Both add pressure to adolescents under peer pressure such as drinking, smoking, skipping school, or sex in order to fit it. Cliques and crowds develop as a way

She remarks on how the teenagers of today aren’t as aware or concerned with fitting into the social norm like their parents or grandparents were. She supplied the statistic that, “Among kids today, 62% of college students say they pay little attention to social conventions. In 1958, an average of 50% did. Among ages 9-12, the difference was even greater — 76% in 1999, compared with an average of 50% in 1963.” Signifying that the adolescent of today don't stress a lot about creating an upright representation of themselves or exhibiting courteousness as their elders did when they were young adults. She additionally expresses how society today is running off norms of the 20th century when we should be focused on staying within the manners and standards of the 21st

Being a teenager is a memorable experience, for anyone. Some things about it haven’t changed, and probably never will. Awkward love triangles, embarrassing school photos, these things seem to stay with us throughout the decades. However, the fads of dieting, use of language, and human interactions certainly have changed between when my mother was a teenage in the 1970s, and now, in the 2010s

Early adolescence is marked by rapid physical changes, maturation of the reproductive system, appearance of secondary sex characteristics, romantic and sexual relationships, and sensitivity to peer relations (Newman & Newman, 2012, p.336). The psychosocial crisis at this stage is group identity versus alienation. Hence, adolescents are faced with the challenge of finding membership in and value convergence with a peer group while avoiding alienation, a sense of social estrangement or an absence of social support or meaningful social connection (Newman & Neman, 2012,pp.371-375). Thus, these years are crucial as one is trying to feel comfortable within a group that can provide a sense of belonging while striking a balance at allowing for the

The names in this Observation Report have been changed to protect the privacy of the parents and the child.

During this time of my virtual teen’s life they experienced many physical, cognitive, and socioemotional changes and developments. In these years they experienced challenges that many adolescents face such as finding their identity, adjusting to high school, developing morals, and adjusting to a divorced family. All the while they were consistently doing well in school academically while having some minor issues socially as they tended to stay shy around new people and keep to a small close group of friends.