Fiona Mauchline: Alpha to Z: eight key ingredients for teaching our teens
IATEFL Themes 2024 Fiona Mauchline Alpha to Z: eight key ingredients for teaching our teens Current teens are the so-called Gen Alpha (up to the age of 12, coming into secondary education now) and Gen Z (13+). Both of these generations had their socialisation and education affected by the pandemic at key stages of development. Fiona started off with some brainstorming (she calls it ‘Brainergy’) – what words do you think of when you think of teens? Here are some of her answers…. Some (brief) definitions: Reward – not necessarily a prize, sometimes just be acknowledgement of achievement can be enough to provide that dopamine hit, making you want to come back for more. The pre-frontal cortex is very important for teens as it deals with impulse control (fight or flight response). Caudate nuclei governs simple decisions – e.g. which language is most appropriate in this context. Can be trained by giving problem solving activities, translanguaging or translation activities. The size
