This paper briefly traces the history of 4-H youth development programs, explains what youth development is, and shows how the experiential learning model is used in 4-H. Begun over 75 years ago as a means of extending the learning of the land-grant university to rural youth, 4-H is part of the Cooperative Extension Service. The curriculum…

This book offers teachers, through discussion and example, a flexible conceptual framework upon which to base daily decisions about content and pedagogy when teaching adolescents. The Adolescent-Centered Teaching (ACT) models in each chapter are designed as illustrations of this framework. Each ACT further features specific concepts developed…

This study tracked the language preference of three French/English bilingual children, twin girls aged 12.8 and a boy 14.8, over a five year period. Their parents, who are also the authors, actively worked to raise them bilingual. The girls were enrolled in a school French immersion program throughout the study. Their brother had only one semester…

Noting that during the teenage years, adolescents may be faced with life-changing decisions and challenges, this book guides adolescent readers to a better understanding of themselves, their strengths, and their desires, while helping them to devise and achieve plans for realizing their visions. The book bridges the gap between education and the…

This book presents a constructivist approach to the development of rationality, morality, and identity in adolescence and early adulthood. It provides a review of post-Piagetian approaches to adolescent cognition, examining classic theories and current research in these three domains. The first chapter focuses discussion on adolescent…

This study examined links between early adolescent exposure to entrepreneurial gang activity and later criminal justice, economic, and social outcomes, comparing the social and behavioral outcomes of young people with active gang involvement and their non-gang affiliated counterparts. Participants came from a concentrated poor, predominantly…

The path adolescents take from childhood to adulthood is a product of social, economic, political, and technological forces. These forces may facilitate youths preparation to become healthy adults, or they may leave youth unprepared for adulthood. Knowledgeable projections are vital in shaping the agenda for research; for alerting educators,…

This study examined whether divergent parent-adolescent perceptions regarding parental acceptance predicted adolescent adjustment when the level of parental acceptance (as perceived by the adolescent) was held constant, a methodological and theoretical issue largely ignored by previous research. Subjects were 192 intact, primarily dual-earner…

Focusing on preadolescence to late-adolescence, this research examines how "early" exit from the student role and "early" entry into the adult role reflect factors operating prior to adolescence. Only leaving school early appears to be related to preadolescent career decisions and academic performance in high school. (Author/BW)

The issue of whether or not early adolescence is a transitional or stable period of development may be dependent on our ability to describe ways in which early adolescents are quantitatively and qualitatively different from when they were children and how these early adolescent characteristics are forerunners to the more elaborate constructs of…

A model for viewing adolescent psychosocial development is outlined and used as a framework for reviewing literature. The model assumes that basic changes in adolescents' biological, cognitive, and social capacities reciprocally interact with the social settings of the family, peer group, and school/work to influence transformations in six areas…

Middle school principals should seek to alleviate the frustration of teachers, make efforts to help parents understand preadolescents' development, assist students in their total development, and work at developing a supportive educational climate. (MLF)

Curriculum developers should consider middle level learners' needs for intellectual growth and individual attention and their needs to understand themselves and know others. (MLF)

The promise of education at a private Baltimore (Maryland) school rests in the idea that scholarship is the key to autonomy, self-determination, and self-fulfillment. The Park Heights Street Academy serves as a haven for the able adolescent who has been misplaced for social, political, economic, or academic reasons. (Author/MLF)

Describes research on the influence of sex, grade level, religiosity, and birth order on adolescents' perceptions of their parents' power/authority on such dimensions as control of economic resources, decision-making, and rewards/punishments; guidance; right to exercise power; and knowledge/competence in adolescent heterosexual relationships and…