ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT: THEORY & RESEARCH [APSY.63.2272/003]
Spring 2011
(Class meets Tuesdays 2:00 to3:40)
Professor Carola Suárez-Orozco — NYU Steinhardt Department of Applied Psychology
Office — 726 Broadway, 5th Floor — cso2@nyu.edu — 212-998-5282
Office Hours: Thursdays from 1:00 to 5:00 (sign up for appointments on the sign-up sheet by my office door)
This course is designed for graduate students who are preparing to work with adolescents in
school contexts. In this course, we will emphasize the social and cultural construction of the adolescent
experience. We will be critically examining the myths and realities of adolescence. We will be taking an
interdisciplinary perspective as we examine the crucial role of culture during this stage of human
development. We will consider the adolescent in distinct societies as well as cultural and social contexts.
We will explore how gender, race, ethnicity, socio-economic background, and sexual orientation influence
the experience of adolescence. Lastly, we will examine academic engagement and disengagement among
adolescents.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
 Assess what are our key assumptions about adolescents and evaluate the widespread myths and
realities.
 Describe how the adolescent experience varies for individuals across different cultures of origin
 Consider (if any) what are the universal characteristics of adolescence
 Describe the role of gender, socio-economic status, race, and ethnicity in structuring
adolescents’ experiences and opportunities
 Explain the role of contexts including family, peer, neighborhood, unauthorized status, and
school in structuring experience and opportunity
 Assess how what you are learning changes the way you perceive and interact with adolescents
you encounter
 Integrate what are the implications of your newly constructed knowledge for research, practice,
or policy with youth
REQUIRED BOOKS
 Nakkula, M. & Toshalis, E. (2006). Understanding Youth: Adolescent Development for
Educators. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press).
 Sadowski, M. (2008) Adolescents at Schools. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press).
 Cushman, K. Fires in the Bathroom. (New York: The New Press).
REQUIRED SUPPLEMENTAL BOOKS
 Adams, G.R.. & Berzonsky, M.D. (2003). Blackwell Handbook of Adolescence. (Malden, MA:
Blackwell Press).
 Feldman, S. S. and G. R. Elliott, Eds. (1990). At the Threshold: The Developing Adolescent.
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
 = Readings in required books
 = Readings available on Blackboard Site
All readings are required unless otherwise indicated
COURSE STRUCTURE
Week 1: January 25th 2011— Prevailing Perceptions of Adolescence
/Recommended Offer & Schonert-Reichl. “Debunking the Myths of Adolescence”
/Recommended Nichols & Good. “America's Teenagers—Myths and Realities.”
/Recommended Understanding Youth—Chapter 1
***Note that these readings are useful to refer back to in preparing your final papers***
Week 2: February 1st 2011 — Mainstream Adolescence in the U.S.
Reading Response & Low-Tech ‘Facebook’ due
 A Tribe Apart: A Journey Into The Heart Of American Adolescence—Intro to Chapter 5, Chapter 12-15
Week 3: February 8th 2011— The Adolescent Experience in Global Perspective
Reading Response due
 The World's Youth: Adolescence in Eight Regions of the World—Chapters 1 & 2
 One entry (China, Mexico, or South Africa) from International Encyclopedia of Adolescence in preparation
for group assignment
Global Perspective Group Assignment due today
Week 4: February 15th 2011 — Identity
Reading Response due
 Understanding Youth — Chapters 1-4
/[Suggested] Suárez-Orozco. “Formulating Identity in a Globalizing World.”
Week 5: February 22nd 2011 — Minority Adolescents’ Experiences in the US
Reading Response due
 Understanding Youth — Chapters 7-8
 Adolescents at School—“Joaquín’s Dilemma”
 Adolescents at School—Model Minorities & Perpetual Foreigners
 Tatum, “…Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”
/[Suggested] Morales, “Living in Spanglish”
/[Suggested] Wu, “Yellow: Race in America Beyond White & Black”
Week 6: March 1st 2011 — The Ecology of Adolescent Development
Reading Response due
 Adolescents at School—Who wins & who loses?: Social Class & Student Identities”
 Luthar, “Poverty and Children’s Adjustment”
 Garbarino, “An Ecological Perspective on the Effects of Violence on Children.”
Page 2
 Gurdais, “Unequal Chances” ()
Media Watch Presentations-begin
Week 7: March 8th 2011 — School Contexts
Reading Response due
 Adolescents at School—Adolescent Development and the Potential of Schools
 Suárez-Orozco, Suárez-Orozco, & Todorova, Chapter 3 of Learning a New Land—Less than Optimal
Schools ()
 Understanding Youth — Chapter 12
/[Suggested] National Research Council. (2004). Engaging Schools: Fostering High School Students' Motivation
to Learn. Executive Summary.
Media Watch Presentations-continued
MARCH 15th— NO CLASS —SPRING BREAK
Week 8: March 22nd 2011 — Academic Engagement & Disengagement
Reading Response due
 Goslin, “Engaging Minds” ()
 Prensky, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” ()
 Fires in the Bathroom—Chapter 6—“Motivation & Boredom”
/[Suggested] Jordan & Lovett (2007) “Stereotype threat & test performance…”
Media Watch Presentations-continued
Week 9: March 29th 2011— Learning & Emotional Challenges
Reading Response due
 Adolescents at School—“The impact of disability on adolescent identity”
 Keating. “Adolescent Thinking” ()
 Goldston et.al. "Cultural considerations in adolescent suicide prevention and psychosocial treatment"
( )
 Shedler & Block. “Adolescent Drug Use & Psychological Health”
/[Suggested] Lerner, J. “Adolescents & Adults With Learning Disabilities”
/[Suggested] Elksin and Elksin “The Socio-Emotional Side Of Learning Disabilities…
Media Watch Presentations-continued
Week 10: April 5th 2011— The Role of Friendships & Peers in Emotional Development
Reading Response due
 Brown & Klute, Friendships, Cliques, & Crowds”
 Underwood et al. Top 10 challenges for understanding gender & aggression…
 Owens et al. Guess what I just heard? Indirect aggression among teenage girls…
 Understanding Youth — Chapter 5
Week 11: April 12th 2011— Gender
Reading Response due
 Adolescents at School—“Who am I as a learner?”
 Adolescents at School—“I am not insane; I am angry”
Page 3
 Understanding Youth — Chapter 6
 Stevenson. “Boys in Men’s Clothing.”
/[Suggested] Lopez. Chapter 4 & 5 of Hopeful Girls, Troubled Boys: Race & Gender Disparity in Urban
Education
Week 12: April 19th 2011— LGBT Youth
Reading Response due
 Adolescents at School—“Growing up in the shadows”/“Still in the shadows”
 Understanding Youth — Chapter 9
 Grossman, “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth.”
 Rivera, Hearing Us Out
Week 13: April 26th 2011— Immigrant Origin Youth
Reading Response due
 Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, Chapter 3 of Children of Immigration –“The Psychological Experience
of Immigration”
 Cushman, Chapter 8 of Fires in the Bathroom –“Teaching teenagers who are learning English”
 Adolescents at School—“Adolescents from immigrant families”
Week 14: May 3rd 2011— Putting it All Together—From Theory to Practice
 Fires in the Bathroom
 Understanding Youth — Chapter 11
 Arnett, Adolescent storm & stress, reconsidered
 Arnett, Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the late Teens though the Twenties, Chapter 1
Learning from Adolescents due today
CLASS REQUIREMENTS & EVALUATION POLICY
 Your grade for the course is based on your engagement with and mastery of the
concepts underlying adolescent development. In order for you to benefit from this class, you must take
time to deeply reflect upon the material presented during lectures, class discussions, and in the assigned
reading.
 You are expected to attend all classes. As a courtesy to your classmates and me, please be
punctual. More than one absence or a pattern of arriving late or leaving early will lower your grade.
 Cell phones are not to be on in class. Texting during lectures and discussions is also distracting
and means you are not fully engaged in what is going on in class so please do not engage in this activity.
Laptops are to be used exclusively for notetaking related to class—using laptops for other activities reflects
that you are not fully engaged in class and will lead to a lower class participation grade. If I notice you using
your laptop for activities not related to the class, I will ask you to stop using your laptop in subsequent
classes.
 You are expected to complete reading assignments before class on the dates indicated on the
syllabus. In order to be well prepared for the discussion, each week you will be required to prepare reading
responses.
 Weekly Reading Responses: [30 % of final grade] Beginning the second week of class, you
will be required to write a reading response. For each reading, in bulleted form, consider: 1- what is the
disciplinary/methodological approach?; 2-what is the population under consideration?; 3-what are the key
Page 4
finding (s)/take-home messages of the reading? Optional topics to address include: Does the writer provide
a convincing argument and chain of evidence? Are you left with unanswered questions? How does this
reading inform your work as a counselor, speech, dance, or arts therapist, or educator?
These reflections MUST be turned in the day of class or will be considered late. These will be graded
with a +;; or -. You may miss ONE of these weekly entries without it affecting your grade. The reading
reflections will not be accepted late unless there are exceptional circumstances. An overall portfolio of
responses of +s is equal to an A; an overall portfolio of responses of s is equal to a B+; and an overall
portfolio of responses of -s is equal to a C (or potentially lower in which case I will ask to see you). You
will receive feedback on your portfolio of reading responses at the mid-point range of the semester and
then again at the end.
 Class discussions: [10 % of final grade] Class discussions and short presentations on the
readings play a critical role in your success in the course. Effective class comments may integrate material
from this and other courses, draw on real-world experiences and observations, address questions raised by
others, or pose new questions to the class. High quality participation involves knowing when to speak and
when to listen or allow others to speak. Take the time to think about how your comments will be received;
comments that are vague, repetitive, unrelated to the current topic, or without sufficient foundation are
distracting and do not move forward the discussion. Those that are insensitive to other students in the class or
are framed as personal attacks are unacceptable under any circumstances. Below are the criteria for assessment:
Strong Contributor: Contributions in class reflect thorough preparation. Ideas offered are
substantive and provide good insights as well as direction for the class. Challenges are well substantiated
and are persuasively presented in a respectful manner. If the strong contributor person were not a
member of the class, the quality of discussion would be diminished considerably.
Adequate Contributor: Contributions in class reflect satisfactory preparation. Ideas offered are
sometimes substantive, provide generally useful insights but seldom offer a new direction for the discussion.
Challenges are sometimes presented, fairly well substantiated and are sometimes persuasive. If the adequate
contributor were not a member of the class, the quality of discussion would be somewhat diminished.
Non-Participant: The non-participant says little or nothing in class. Hence, there is not an adequate
basis for evaluation. If this person were not a member of the class, the quality of discussion would not be
changed.
Unsatisfactory Contributor: Contributions in class reflect inadequate preparation. Ideas offered are
seldom substantive, provide few if any insights and are often tangential and off track. Comments are
insensitive to other students in the class. If this person were not a member of the class, valuable time
would be saved and the comfort level of the class would be elevated.
LOW-TECH ‘FACEBOOK’: By the second week of class, please bring an 8 ½ X 11” page with a copy of
your NYU ID (or another photo if you like) and a one paragraph description of yourself—what program are
you in?; where are you from?; why are you taking the class?; what are you hoping to learn? The purpose of
this assignment is to help me get to know you—this is my low-tech version of ‘Facebook.’ This is an
ungraded but required assignment; failing to turn this in will count against your participation grade.
 Adolescent Development in Global Perspective Group Assignment: [10 % of final
grade] The adolescent experience is very different in various regions of the world. Choose one of three
countries—China, Mexico, or South Africa and work with your group members to learn about what it is
like to be an adolescent in that country. Prepare a half hour presentation addressing Family Relationships;
Peers and Friends; Education; Future Prospects. Consider the role of political context, poverty, and
gender on the experience of youth.
All members the group should read the pertinent assigned entry from editor J. Arnett’s International
Encyclopedia of Adolescence (on Blackboard) and then divvy up the topics and do more background research
supplementing what you have read. Feel free to be creative while covering the specified topics; you may
chose to show a clip from a film; bring in music, etc. Be sure to provide a list of your group members and
the designated tasks for each group member.
Page 5
 Media Watch Group Assignment: [10 % of final grade] During the next few weeks, you
will be required to select a representation of adolescence that you encounter in the media. This could
include a news report, a commercial, a film, a cartoon, a music video, or an Internet site. You will present
this to the class as a group and discuss the ways in which it does or does not reflects prevailing attitudes
about adolescence in our contemporary society and how it is (or is it not) consistent with what we have
been learning in course. Groups will consist of 4 to 6 students and should be no more than 15 minutes
each. The Media Watch presentations will begin on March 1st; we will have 2 presentations a week until the
Media presentations are complete.
 Learning from Adolescents [40% of final grade] Pick a topic of interest that you want to
learn more about by having a conversation with several adolescents. You may chose one of the questions
from Fires in the Bathroom, use protocols from the Longitudinal Immigrant Student Adolescent interview,
or (in consultation with the instructor) develop a series of questions of your own. You will use this
protocol as a basis for a conversation with 3 adolescents. Develop a 7 page paper in which you cover:
What did you set out to understand? Who did you interview? What did you expect (based on the readings,
lectures, or class discussion—bring in references!)? What did you learn from your informants? Is what you
learned consistent or inconsistent with what you expected? What did you learn from your informants? Is
what you learned consistent or inconsistent with what you expected? Attach the interview protocol your
paper and include references. Papers are graded according to a rubric found on the course Blackboard site,
which should guide you in the formulation of your paper. Note: if you would like to receive my comments,
you should attach a self-addressed envelope to the final paper when you turn it in. (Due the last day of
class).
STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
Any student attending NYU who needs an accommodation due to a chronic learning, psychological,
visual, hearing, and/or mobility disability or disorder should register with the Moses Center for Students
with Disabilities at 212-998-4980; 240 Greene Street; www.nyu.edu/csd.
If you are registered with the Moses Learning Center, please let me know, and I will work with you
according to your accommodation plan. Lecture notes are generally available before class of time and you
may tape lectures as well. Please make an appointment with me if additional accommodations are needed.
ACADEMIC HONESTY
Plagiarism is a very serious form of both cheating and intellectual theft. In some cases there
is clear intent and at others simple academic sloppiness. In either case, plagiarism may result in failure of the
assignment of the course as well as a referral to the Dean of Student Services.
Please refer to the NYU Steinhardt’s Statement on Academic Integrity:
http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/policies/academic_integrity
In order to avoid plagiarizing, you must always give credit whenever you use:
~ another person’s idea, opinion, or theory;
~ any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings—ANY pieces of information—that are not common knowledge;
~ quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words; or
~ paraphrase of another person’s spoken or written words.
Should you ever have doubts, please consult the following explicit web sites in order to clarify
ambiguities that might lead to accusations of plagiarism: http://www.northwestern.edu/uacc/plagiar.html or
http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pub/integrity/pages/plagiarism.html
Page 6
Page 7