Personal and social characteristics of adolescence

1. General characteristics of adolescence

Students start their education in a lower secondary school as teenagers at the age of
thirteen or fourteen. This is a period of adolescence – the phase between childhood and
adulthood, a period in which the human organism changes very rapidly. Apart from the
physiological changes, human beings change mentally.
Adolescence determines a very specific phase in the life of young people. During the
period of early adolescence and full adolescence, the changes in emotional development
sphere are made as well as in heterosexual contacts, independency from parents, social and
intellectual maturity, professional development and the organisation of free time. In addition,
the changes are visible in the scope of philosophy of life and a sense of self-esteem (Iłendo –
Milewska 2009: 9 ).
The most important change in the adolescent brain in comparison to the childhood
brain, is the change of the point of view towards itself. The attention of young people does not
focus mainly on the authorities from their childhood - their parents. The main subject of their
interest becomes their own life. Adolescence is the time of activity, searching and shaping of
ones new skills. Teenagers feel new necessities, get to know new laws and responsibilities,
they set themselves new aims for realisation, they experiment, check and experience(Iłendo –
Milewska 2009: 26) .
The course of the adolescence period is very significant in connection to the
background of social factors, for example the relations of the time of the stage of pubescence
of one person towards his peers. It is stated that early pubescence is favour on psychical
development of young people. It is shown by a higher level of satisfaction, increasing of self-
confident etc. It is connected not with the physical changes, but with coming through these
changes and becoming more respectable to other peers.
In this period teenagers create their own value system which will be useful for them in
the future. These values are not only passed down by parents, but also by school, friends and
media. Some of these values can have the wrong impact on young behaviour. For this reason
the educational system puts the emphasis on handing down the most important values by
strengthening connections with these authorities that are in power to create the most necessary
and valuable patterns of behaviour in adolescent life as parents or school (Bogaj 2006: 37).
 At puberty the outside world is opposed to the personal, inner world. Adolescents are
mainly focused on their inner world, they observe both their own experience and the
experience of their peers. For the reason of their egocentrism they are reluctant to listening to
authorities and general truths. Their searching for an individual identity is reflected in their
lives. They try to draw attention to themselves by their behaviour, clothing, describing
themselves and creating an imaginative audience for their activities.
At the same time adolescence is the best time for learning. Teenagers achieve the
abilities to solve hypothetical or abstract problems which help in logical, deductive thinking.
If teenagers are well motivated and have a great capacity to learn, they are creative and have
passionate commitment to things which interest them (Harmer 2001: 39).
Adolescents are also able to acquire a wider range of vocabulary, expressions and
moreover, they gain the ability to apply different strategies to solve theoretical problems.
Abstract thinking gives the possibilities not only to talk about moral and social problems but
also to define values which can be important in searching for individuality as a teenager.
This is the period which gives the biggest opportunities to develop a teenager’s point
of view towards the surrounding world. If adolescents are given a well-motivated factor
which focuses their attention on problems through proving that a particular case concerns as
well their own individual system of values and will help to develop their attitude towards their
existence in society.

2. Characteristics of adolescent as the lower secondary school level

One of the most important impacts on adolescent educational environment, next to the
family home and contacts with the peers, is a school. In the period of adolescence (13 – 16
years old) teenagers attend the lower secondary school. It is a place where emotional and
social needs, that are very important for teenagers can be fulfilled. More importantly, school
creates the possibility to engage in pro-social activities or clarify the rules which are obeyed
in adult life.
In relationship with teachers, essential for the proper psychical development are
positive bounds, care, support from the teachers side, understanding and co-operation (Iłendo
– Milewska 2009: 47 ).
Proper adaptation to the school environment is one of the most important social factors
of adolescence. It allows students to exist in a condition which is in favour of versatile
development, creativity and self-awareness. The climate of the school creates a favourable
condition to develop interactions with peers, co-operation in accomplishing aims. Through
social interaction teenagers develop their system of values or compare attitudes towards the
problems. Only in the atmosphere of mutual sincerity and feeling of safety the full contact
between a student and a teacher is possible and the positive, developmental changes is
behavioural, emotional and intellectual physical sphere are possible.(Iłendo – Milewska 2009:
48 )
Adolescence is a period of intense psychical growing up (Bogaj 2006: 35 ). In this
period the necessity of emotional contact is restricted to social contacts. Relations with peers
are not the main aim for teenagers, nevertheless they create proper conditions to developing
adolescence in all spheres (emotional, behavioural, social or spiritual). Contact with another
adolescent can be fundamental in the development of personality in one or a few of these
spheres. Additionally, these contacts give teenagers the possibility to acquire and shape
efficiently in social relations, self-confidence among other people, the sense of being accepted
by them, independency and social tolerance (Iłendo – Milewska 2009: 62).
In a school environment relationships and interactions inside the group play a very
important role. They help with the necessity of expanding students, since inside it, teenagers
can measure themselves against each other and according to that they can prove their values
on the surface of equality and mutuality. The acceptation of the group of peers is very often
much more important than the acceptation from the teacher or family side.
Lower secondary school becomes a place where pathologies can be found most
frequently. Bogaj mentions, that lower secondary school students are ahead of other students
in numbers of school rule violations; truancy, vandalism of school property, disruptive
behaviour during the lesson, verbal violence towards both teachers and students, drinking
alcohol and smoking. (Bogaj 2006: 45).
This is a period, when teenagers search for their individual identity. For this reason
they challenge themselves many times on the verge of behaviours that are considered by
adults as unaccepted. Among classmates and friends a young teenager must forge his or her
own identity and the approval is considerably more important for teenager than the attention
of the teacher (Harmer 2001: 39 ). Not only this reason causes the students to be disruptive
during lessons. Apart from the need for self-esteem and approval they can be just bored. It is
important to remember that adolescents are characterized as bursting with energy. Their well
used impetuousness combined with suitable motivating factors can arouse an enormous
potential to learning inside them, which when used appropriately brings satisfactory effects
both for students themselves and teachers. Accordingly it is very significant for the process of
learning to proceed in conditions which cause that young people to sense that learning is
inevitable and extremely important factor of their own personal development. The appropriate
techniques of presenting material and motivating techniques help to take the right attitude
towards their process of learning.