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NIU Collaborative for Early Adolescence

The period of adolescence (ages 10-15) is recognized as one involving substantial biological, cognitive, and social changes. Although learning is important throughout the lifespan, learning and achievement become especially important during the period of early adolescence for several reasons.

First, during the period of early adolescence there is much more emphasis on preparing for adult work roles. This includes developing plans for learning at the high school and college level.

Second, during early adolescence there is a greater recognition of the ways in which school success is related to future academic and career goals.

Third, many academic decisions are made during the early adolescent years. In addition to an increased emphasis on academic achievement, adolescents also undergo several transitions between academic institutions (elementary to middle school and middle school to high school).

For each of these institutional transitions, there are academic challenges such as meeting more rigorous academic requirements, adapting to changes in the structure of different academic institutions, and learning to organize and prioritize academic work.

Additionally, there are social challenges to early adolescent learning which include developing a sense of belongingness to the academic institution, developing friendship networks within the academic institution, developing relationships with teachers, and integrating oneself into progressively larger, potentially more heterogeneous, social communities.

The increased emphasis on academic achievement during the early adolescent period occurs in conjunction with the transitions to different academic institutions. This sets the stage for academic success or failure. Therefore, a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities associated with early adolescent learning is needed.

The NIU Collaborative on Early Adolescence will examine the ways in which early adolescent learning can be enhanced within a variety of contexts including the classroom, extracurricular activities, out-of-school activities, peer group, and parents.

The overall purpose of the strategic planning process is to develop a center which will conduct action research on middle school learning. The action research will serve as a basis for scholarly research, middle school improvement, and middle school teacher education programs. The activities we will pursue in the next three years as well as their purpose are outlined below.

Year 1

Purpose

To bring visibility to the needs of middle school learners throughout Northern Illinois University and the wider educational community.

Activities

  1. The NIU Collaborative on Early Adolescence office will be established.
  2. The advisory panel for the NIU Collaborative on Early Adolescence will be established.
  3. Preparation of a vision statement and strategic plan for the center. The strategic planning retreat is scheduled for May 21, 2009 and May 22, 2009.
  4. Conduct an ongoing seminar series on adolescent learning to explore important issues in the area of middle school learning.
  5. Begin to identify regional stakeholders, such as schools, to begin forming partnerships with districts that are interested in learning more about early adolescent learning.
  6. Initial work with the partnership middle schools will begin.
  7. Begin to develop research grants.

Year 2

Purpose

The purpose of the second year will be to continue to increase interest in early adolescent learning at NIU and in the wider community. Additionally, new programming will emerge in NIU partnership middle schools. The middle school teacher education programming at NIU will begin to integrate new information about middle school learning.

Activities

  1. Continue working with initial NIU partnership middle schools. Identify new partnership middle schools.
  2. Submission and funding of research grants in the area of middle school learning.
  3. The research seminar series on early adolescent learning will continue.
  4. A university-wide symposium on early adolescent learning (outside research scientist) will be held.
  5. Integrate initial research findings into middle school teacher education curriculum.

Year 3

Purpose

The purpose of the third year will be to continue and expand work with area middle schools. Additionally, work on grant funded research projects. New programming will continue to emerge in NIU partnership middle schools and the middle school teacher education programming at NIU will continue to integrate new information about middle school learning. As a result of the grant funding and the work with area middle schools the NIU Collaborative on Early Adolescence will become partially self-supported.

Activities

  1. Continue working with NIU partnership schools. Identify new partnership middle schools.
  2. Presentations at international/national conference will be given based on work with the NIU partnership schools.
  3. Integrate initial research findings into middle school teacher education curriculum.
  4. Publications from the research with middle schools will begin to appear in scholarly journals.
  5. Exploration of edited volumes on middle school learning for scholars, practitioners, and parents.
  6. Continue ongoing seminar series on adolescent learning.
  7. Conduct grant funded research.
  8. Continue to update and add materials to the website to disseminate information on early adolescent learning to a wider community.
  9. University wide symposium on adolescent learning with outside research scientist to continue to bring visibility within NIU and wider community to our focus on middle school learning.

Participants in the Institute for Adolescent Learning

  • Director: Nina Mounts (Psychology), telephone: 815-753-6968, email: nmounts@niu.edu
  • Meryl Domina (Teaching & Learning)
  • Amanda Durik (Psychology)
  • Joseph Flynn (Teaching & Learning)
  • Jennifer Karre (Psychology) (NIU Collaborative on Early Adolescence graduate assistant)
  • Mark Pietrowski (External Programming Coordinator, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences)
  • Laura Pittman (Psychology)
  • Jennifer Schmidt (Educational Psychology)
  • Carla Shaw (Teaching & Learning)
  • Lee Shumow (Educational Psychology)
  • Cecil Smith (Educational Psychology)
  • Stephen Tonks (Educational Psychology)
  • David Valentiner (Psychology)