# data[].attributes.body
Adolescence begins at approximately age 12 and ends around age 18, bridging early childhood with adulthood and beginning with puberty.

Adolescents experience a period of rapid physical growth and start to develop differing fat and muscle distribution based on sex. Other physical changes include increased growth of body and facial hair as well as sex organs. Females gain the ability to menstruate and bear children.

Neurons continue to grow in the brain, improving thinking and processing skills, though increase myelination inhibits second language acquisition. However, the frontal lobe remains underdeveloped, hindering adolescents from development a fully adult sense of logic and reasoning.

As a result of neurotransmitter levels, adolescents outweigh rewards in comparison to risks, relative to adults, promoting risky behavior and pleasure-seeking opportunities.

Adolescents are at especially high risk of developing psychological disorders, including drug addictions.

Adolescents struggle to maintain a healthy sleep schedule and diet.

# data[].attributes.body
Starts to think of abstract concepts and hypothetical problems.

Begins reasoning with morality, philosophy, ethics, sociology, and politics.

Uses deductive logic, deriving meaning from general principles and applying them to specific issues.

Adolescents begin face the challenges of reasoning that they will continue to address as adults. For example, when discussing history, they need to address why individuals acted in the way they did and explore their motives.

# data[].attributes.body
Starts to develop a sense of identity, that is, their beliefs, ideals, and personal values.

Consciously forms a sense of self, or ego identity, through social interactions.

This ego identity is in constant flux as new experiences and information is acquired.

Life challenges can either help or hinder development.

For example, a student may struggle with their identity and how it conflicts with the values imposed upon them by their parents. How to express themselves authentically may conflict with social expectations and lead to identity confusion.

# data[].attributes.body
By the time they reach high school, people will have developed a sense of conventional morality.

Those with a conventional morality seek to conform to social norms and meet societal expectations of behavior. They understand the social order and see its maintenance as important. To maintain social order, members of society follow the rules, do their duties, and respect authority.

Some people begin to develop post-conventional morality at this age in life. With this development, people gain a sense of the social contract. A social contract accounts for the differing values, opinions, beliefs, and needs between people in a society. Rules should be investigated for their moral justification rather than accepted merely for their authority. Under post-conventional morality, people gain an idea of universal principles. Universal principles, based on an internalized sense of justice, guide an individual's actions rather than rules or laws.

In practice, students of this age must choose between obeying the rules or disobeying them and facing the consequences. According to Kohlberg, only a few will go further and develop a post-conventional morality, seeking a comprehensive and universal sense of justice to guide their actions.

# data[].attributes.headline
Developmental Theory and Connecting to Students

# data[].attributes.subject
Developmental Theory and Connecting to Students

# data[].attributes.body
High school is a period where students must truly be challenged with developing reasoning and intellectual skills that will continue to serve them into adulthood. Beginning in 9th grade some students start taking AP course, studying the same academic material with the same degree of rigor as adults.

But at the same time adolescence is a particularly challenging period of life, something teachers must account for. There is a tremendous degree of personal development, physical and emotional, during this time that can hinder academic progress.

While teachers must maintain high expectations for their adolescent students, empathy must also be employed fully. Lessons must also accommodate for the still developing sense of reasoning, identity, and morality. A teacher has an important role in guiding their students at this point in life and acting as a model for scholarship and morality.