Forming a Help Yourself Yourself Club: Integrating Web-Based Technology to Teach Development Theories to Empower Early Adolescents

Abstract

The challenge of reaching and meeting the learning needs of early adolescents has been a struggle for middle level educators for nearly two decades. Help Yourself, YourSELF! is an inventive collaboration among professors, undergraduates, pre-service and in-service teachers that aims to assist early adolescents in gaining real-life knowledge about adolescence. As a result, the students are empowered by learning to take responsibility for their actions and choices. Web-based curricula developed specifically for the project seeks to link students, parents, and teachers into an online community of learners.