Understanding and Working with

Contemporary Students

Larry D. Roper

Oregon State University

Learning Outcomes

• Better understanding of the attributes of contemporary college students

• Better understanding of dynamics that influence students’ perspectives and behaviors

• Better understanding of ways faculty can enhance the engagement of students

Dilemma of Millennials

• Generational influences

• Industry built on stereotypes

• Challenge of labels

Your Students Today?

• Who are your students?

• How do you know they are who you think they are?

• What challenges do they present to you?

Flow

• Who are they?

• What influences them?

• What characteristics they manifest?

• What they expect?

• What we can do? (How we can construct better teaching-learning relationships?)

Generational Context

• Presentation focuses on students moving through a specific time in history with a distinct image of themselves

• Have a set of common beliefs and behaviors unique to their generation and their historical context – as was the case with previous generations

Generational Cohorts

• GI/Veteran (Greatest Gen) 1901 - 1924

• Silent/Traditionalist 1925 - 1942

• Baby Boomers 1943 - 1960

• Generation X (Lost Gen) 1961 - 1981

• Millennials 1982 -2004?

Millennial Generation

• Generation Y

• Net Generation

• Echo Boom

By most accounts this is the largest of generations (in excess of 76 million)

Influenced by…• Political focus on children and family

• Highly scheduled and structured lives

• Multiculturalism

• Terrorism

• Heroism

• Patriotism

• Parents as advocates

• Globalism

• Mandatory testing

Major Influences

1. Their parents

2. The self-esteem movement

3. The customer service movement (everything comes with a toll-free number or web address).

4. Gaming and technology

5. Casual communication (IM, email, tweets…)

6. Multiculturalism

Parent Profile

• Many Baby Boomers became parents in the 1980s while Gen X moms were more traditional age, which caused overlapping generations to have babies e.g., about 30% of births were by women over age 30).

• Millennials have older largely Baby Boomer parents, many delayed having children until financially secure.

• More highly educated than previous generations, the first in U.S. history whose mothers are better educated than their fathers, by a small margin.

• Generation of “wanted” children.

• Children central to their parents’ sense of purpose (trophy children).

Parenting Styles

• Deliberate, goal-specific .

• Boomers parents rebelled against the parenting they received (strictness, “because I told you so” or “because I’m the parent and you’re the child”).

• Friendship, open lines of communication and close relationship with children.

• They explain things and involve children in making informed decisions and rational judgments.

• Raise children to have input into family decisions, educational options and discipline issues.

• Teach to question authority and information conveyed by the media.

Parent Dynamics on Campus

• Helicopter Parent (n) A parent who hovers over his or her children.

• Snowplow parent: Parents who clear the way for their children.

Is this a problem?

Family Life

• Families spend more time with kids.

• Smaller families result in more time with each child.

• Fathers are more involved and spending more time with children.

• Less housework is being done.

• The social lives of parents and kids are interwoven.

• Parents and children share strong relationships and children share their parents’ values.

?

How Do They Show Up?

• What behaviors would you expect of children raised with the social and parental dynamics described?

• How might the possible behavioral attributes challenge you?

• What possible strengths might they bring to the educational experience?

Quick Synopsis

• Children of late Boomers and early GenXers

• “Babies on Board” (Reagan) and “Have You Hugged Your Child Today” (Clinton) influenced

• Social protections dominated legislation (child restraints, home products, movie/video ratings, campus security)

• Children of Columbine, terrorism, Iraq wars

• Technology influenced

Demographics

• Nearly 35-40% of Millennials are nonwhite or Latino.

• Twenty percent has at least one parent who is an immigrant.

• The most racially and ethnically diverse generation in US history.

• More than half are already voting age adults

• Single largest birth year was 1990, entering college about 2008.

Generational Attributes

• Civic-minded, have had community service emphasized.

• Collectively optimistic about our world and what can be achieved by them.

• Great belief in their own potential, having been acculturated in that manner.

• High achievers, an expectation that they will do well. Used to setting and achieving goals.

• Lower rates of violent crime, teen pregnancy, smoking and alcohol use than ever before.

• Are being asked to provide a new definition of citizenship lead the green revolution.

• Appreciation of diversity and collaboration

Millennials Are… Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation (Strauss and Howe 2000)

• Special - inculcated with a sense that they are vital to the nation and to their parents’ sense of purpose

• Sheltered - focus of the most sweeping youth safety movement in American history

• Confident - high levels of trust and optimism, strongly felt connection to parents and future; their achievements are good news for their country

• Team-oriented - teamwork emphasized from daycare and beyond, very accustomed to working in teams – tight peer bonds

• Achieving - on track to become the best-educated and best-behaved adults in the nation’s history

• Pressured - pushed to study hard, avoid risky behavior, and take full advantage of opportunities afforded by adults - feel a “trophy kid” pressure to excel

• Conventional - More comfortable with their parents’ values than any other generation in living memory – support the idea that social rules can help

Conventional Attributes

• They identify with their parents’ values

• They share close relationships with their parents

• They follow rules (if given clear understandable rules)

• They accept authority

• “Whatever” as a common response to dissent

Generational Messages• Be smart – you are special (Nickelodeon, Baby Gap, Sports

Illustrated for Kids)

• Leave no one behind (taught to be inclusive and tolerant of other religions and sexual orientations)

• Connect 24/7 (learned to be interdependent-on family, friends, and teachers)

• Achieve now at a high level(right college, right preschool)

• Serve your community – think of the greater good

• Be inclusive

Behavioral outcomes

• Develop negotiation, rational thinking and decision-making skills at young ages.

• Willing and able to negotiate with anyone on any issue.

• Are used to their parents keeping tabs on their every move.

• Expect and need praise.

• Confuse silence for disapproval.

• Expect feedback.

Behavioral outcomes

• Technology and multitasking are a way of life - expect nomadic connectivity, 24x7

• Trial and error is a common approach to learning (Nintendo logic)

• Live in a world of bits and bytes, flash and color – acculturated to the stimulation of the internet

• They want their parents involved (deeply involved) and solicit their involvement

• Progressive views in all areas and big expectations for change.

Aspirations

• They don’t want the stressed jobs and exhausted lives of their parents.

• They seek lives of value and meaning, including careers characterized by responsibility, independence, creativity and idealism.

Generational Themes

• The most monumental financial boom and busts in history.

• Saw steady income growth through the 1990’s, then saw parents lose significant portions of their stocks and mutual funds (college funds) during the late 2000’s.

Learning Preferences

With technology

With each other

Online

In their time

In their place

Doing things that feel significant (worthy)

Technology usage• Digital Natives

• Gamers

• Computers are an assumed part of life.

• Always connected – seen as essential.

• The Internet is used for research, interactivity, and socializing – their preferred medium.

• Affects their tolerance- zero tolerance for delays.

• Cell phones are a “lifestyle management tool”

• Communication much more casual (IM, email and cell phones.

Technology

• 100% use the internet to seek information• 94% use the internet for school research• 41% use email and IM to contact teachers

and schoolmates about school work• 75% have a Facebook account• 81% email friends and relatives• 70% use IM to keep in touch• 56% prefer the internet to the telephone

Educational Needs• They need to understand the objectives of classroom activities and projects.

(Why?)

• They want to have input into their educational processes.

• They want their work to be meaningful.

• They respond well to learning communities and service learning.

• They want clear expectations, explicit syllabi, and well structured assignments (including detailed instructions and guidelines for completing assignments).

• They are accustomed to active learning and constant change in classroom activities.

• Teachers are viewed as guides and facilitators of learning.

Expectations

• More Choices and Selectivity

• Experiential and Exploratory Learning

• Flexibility and Convenience

• Personalization and Customization

• Rapid Response

• Collaboration & Intelligence

• Balanced Lives

• Less Reading

Expectations of Faculty

• Enthusiasm

• Enjoyable to be around

• Provide intellectual challenges

• Have flexible class policies

• Clear direction

• Are sensitive to their needs/feelings

• Emphasize preparing for future career

Classroom Issues• Plagiarism (blurred lines between what it means to be a consumer and creator)

• Cheating (students need clarity about what this means)

• Cell Phone Policies (off or vibrate)

• Typing vs. Handwriting (What proficiency to build)

• Accommodations –many have been diagnosed with ADHD and have been medicated (@80% are boys).

• Number with disabilities has jumped from 3% to 9%.• Many have had individual education plans.• Many need testing services (quiet, separate).• Need to self-advocate to teachers.• Major transition from high school to college.

What To Do?

• Develop policies and practices around appropriate communication.

• Give students electronic access to as much as is philosophically possible.

• Draw a line on negotiations.

• Provide students with definitions, boundaries and rules.

• Provide group-oriented activities• Service learning• Study groups• Supplemental instruction• Learning communities

Enhancing Teaching Effectiveness

• Student-Faculty Contact

• Promote Reciprocity and Cooperation

• Break Course Assignments into Small Chunks

• Provide Frequent Feedback

• Allow Sufficient Time on Task

• Establish High Expectations

• When possible, allow for student input on assignments and course dynamics

• Honor Diverse Talents and Ways of Knowing

Enhancing Teaching Effectiveness

• Create opportunities for small group work, but keep the teams small.

• Provide a clear structure for managing classroom teams, including an approach to removing non-performing members from the team.

• Incorporate their preference for team-style activities by emphasizing collaborative and “active learning” pedagogies

Mediating Student-Faculty Differences

• You don’t want to talk to their mother when they are having problems, but they want you to.

• Are used to getting points for showing up, you don’t give them.

• Don’t understand definition of plagiarism and cheating, you do.

• May think it’s appropriate to call you at home after 9pm, you don’t.

• May not draw a distinction between IM language and language appropriate for papers, you know there is a difference.

• It’s okay to email you many times a day if they have not gotten an immediate response, you know there is a reason you haven’t replied.

• That you go to sleep and are not at your computer when they email you at after midnight, you’re older.

• The business office (and most others) close at 5pm, this can change.

Social Class Differences Appear

• Not all students will be proficient in technology - first-gen and low income student, particularly.

• Students from poorer school districts may be minimally exposed to educational technology.

• The digital divide begins in pre-K and widens over time.

Resources

• New Progressive America: The Millennial Generation - http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/05/millennial_generation.html

• Barrett Seaman, Binge: Campus Life in an Age of Disconnection and Excess (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2005

• Barbara Schneider and David Stevenson, The Ambitious Generation: Motivated But Directionless (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999)

• William Strauss and Neil Howe, Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation (New York: Vintage, 2000)