Secondary School as a Constraint for Adolescent Development

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors describe and discuss the extent to which schools as external socializers influence development in early adolescence, concentrating on schools as important socializers of adolescents. After describing major findings of research on school effectiveness in general, the chapter focuses on the concrete role of schools in shaping individual development. In this part of the chapter, the authors briefly refer to the concept of executive functioning, introduced in cognitive psychology to describe and understand how individuals plan, organize, evaluate, monitor, coordinate, and execute cognitive tasks. Schools are conceptualized as executive functionaries helping learners to manage the flow of information coming into the cognitive system and thus fostering the acquisition of new knowledge. Whenever a mismatch occurs between the individual's executive system and socially organized executive functioning, negative effects on individual development are to be expected. The developmental "stage and environment-fit" model proposed by Eccles and colleagues and research in situated cognition are presented as two prominent theoretical approaches conceptualizing consequences of a mismatch between individual needs and their school environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)(chapter)