The Power of Developmental Thinking: Social-Cognitive Complexity of Urban Secondary Teachers’ Pedagogical Narratives Predicts the Quality of Their Classroom Practices

Adolescents undergo critical neuropsychological development, but this rarely meaningfully informs pedagogy. Do teachers with developmentally informed perspectives enact higher quality practices? We interviewed 40 public secondary teachers from schools serving low-SES urban communities, nominated for excellence by their administrators, about their teaching practices. Four characteristic “pedagogical narratives” emerged from qualitative analysis and were ordered by the social-cognitive complexity with which teachers integrated discussions of students’ personal and intellectual development. An independent team rated participants’ teaching. The complexity of participants’ narratives statistically predicted the quality of their teaching practices, suggesting that how teachers understand the coordinated nature of adolescents’ academic learning and personal development relates to how effectively they teach—an important finding for reforming secondary education and educator preparation.