Capturing adolescent voice

In recent years interest and research around the adolescent brain has spiralled. New technology has enabled insight into this developmental stage in a way simply not possible twenty or thirty years ago. However, there is still limited appreciation of what adolescents, themselves, think about this emerging science. We believe that capturing the perspective of young people is vitally important for developing understanding in this nascent field. As such, The NeuroAspire Institute, working with Rich Collins who teaches on the Sports Media course at Boomsatsuma, are undertaking research exploring the opinions of the young people themselves. Through discussions, focus groups and interviews we are exploring how young people (17/18 year olds) engage with knowledge about their developing brain and also how our neuro-informed ASPIRE framework© helps in that process. Initial analysis suggests that young people perceive brain science to be both valuable and useful, and further, that the ASPIRE framework© helps them make sense of these new insights. Students interviewed suggested the ASPIRE model© ‘is a good thing for people to learn what’s going on in their brain’ and that such knowledge is beneficial for teachers to ‘have an idea of why kids do certain things and why they might react like that’. Further, they suggested that this understanding of the adolescent brain, facilitated through the ASPIRE framework© is ‘vital’ for teachers, helping provide a deeper understanding of young people.

You can watch some of the students’ thoughts on the video below: