Barbour, M. K. (2013, November). Teaching today's student. A webinar presentation to the K-12 Teaching in the Twenty-First Century massive open online course by the Michigan Virtual University, http://www.mivu.org/MVUKentStateUniversityMOOC/tabid/754/Default.aspx

1. Teaching Today's Student
Michael Barbour
Sacred Heart University

4. Generational differences:
the theory that people born
within an approximately 20
year time period share a
common set of characteristics
based upon the historical
experiences, economic and
social conditions,
technological advances and
other societal changes they
have in common

5. Generational Boundaries
• GI Generation “Greatest Generation”
– Born between 1901 and 1924
• Silent Generation
– Born between 1925 and 1945
• Baby Boomers
– Born between 1946 and 1964
• Generation X
– Born between 1965 and 1980
• Today’s Student
– Born between 1981 and 2005

6. Historical Influences
Boomers:
Gen X:
Today’s Student:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Civil Rights
Sexual Revolution
Cold War
Space travel
Assassinations
Fall of Berlin Wall
Watergate
AIDS
Desert Storm
Energy Crisis
School shootings
Oklahoma City
Internet
9/11
Iraq

7. This Generation’s Numbers
• 60 million - largest group
since the Baby Boomers
(72 million)
• 3 times larger than
Generation X
• Teen population is growing
at twice the rate of the rest
of America
• Made up 37% of U.S.
population in 2005

8. “…today's
teens are
recasting the
image of
youth from
downbeat
and alienated
to upbeat
and
engaged.”

9. Today’s Student: Which Fit Your Students?
Gamers
Digital Natives
Socially
Conscious
Disdain Previous
Generations
High Expectations
Spoiled Rotten
Respect
Intelligence
Value Diversity
Expect Incomes
Experiential
Exceeding Parents Learners
Optimistic and Family Oriented
Positive
Collaborative
Nomadic
Inclusive
Have More Friends
Healthy Lifestyle
Clueless
Direct
More Liberal
Achievement
Oriented
Media
Consumer
Patriotic
More Conservative
Value Balanced
Lives
Multi-tasker
Confident
Entitled

10. Do
today’s
students
really
want to
learn?

11. Focus on undergraduate education
• Participating Institutions: 621 colleges and universities
participated in NSSE 2013. 1,554 have participated since
2000.
• Student Participation: 371,284 students completed NSSE
in 2013. Approximately 4 million

24. What Else Do We Know?

25. What Else Do We Know?
The most
“shocking”
discovery is the
“non-aggression
pact” between
instructors and
students.

26. What Else Do We Know?

27. The traditional standard for an average
performance was a C, but students now
expect Bs for putting out a modicum of effort
that produces mediocre work, and As if they
do any more than this. Failure is a thing of
the past in many schools.

28. Grade Inflation
http://gradeinflation.com/

29. Today’s Student
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Generation Y
Echo
Net Generation
Neomillennials
Generation NeXt
Millennials
Generation Me
Digital Natives
Generation txt

30. Net Generation
• Children of baby boomers
• Digital technology has had a
profound impact on their
personalities, including their
attitudes and approach to
learning
• Generation gap has become
a generation lap

31. Millennials
• Based upon survey
research
• Sample from Fairfax,
VA
Howe, N., & Strauss, W.
(2000). Millennials rising:
The next great generation
New York: Vintage
Books.

32. Digital Natives
• Common in the media
• No systematic research
• Makes unfounded
assumptions about access
to digital technology
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives,
Digital Immigrants – Part II: Do
They Really Think Differently? On
the Horizon, 9(6).

33. Generational Differences and Training
• Thomas Reeves (University of
Georgia) completed a funded
literature review on generational
differences
• Most generational differences in the
literature were based on no or
flawed research
Reeves, T. C. (2008). Do generational differences matter in instructional design? Paper
presented to ITForum. Retrieved on March 13, 2009 from
http://it.coe.uga.edu/itforum/Paper104/ReevesITForumJan08.pdf

35. “Today's young people
have been raised to aim
for the stars at a time
when it is more difficult
than ever to get into
college, find a good job,
and afford a house. Their
expectations are very high
just as the world is
becoming more
competitive, so there's a
huge clash between their
expectations and reality.”

36. • In 2002, 74% of high school students
admitted to cheating whereas in 1969
only 34% admitted such a failing. (p. 27)
• In 1967, 86% of incoming college
students said that “developing a
meaningful philosophy of life” was an
essential life goal whereas in 2004 only
42% of GenMe freshmen agreed. (p. 48)
• In 2004, 48% of American college
freshmen reported earning an A average
in high school whereas in 1968 only 18%
of freshmen reported being an A student
in high school. (p. 63)
• In the 1950s, only 12% of young teens
agreed with the statement “I am an
important person” whereas by the late
1980s, 80% claimed they were
important. (p. 69)
Jean M. Twenge

37. Twenge, J. M.
(2009). Generational
changes and their
impact in the
classroom: Teaching
Generation Me.
Medical Education,
43(5), 398-405.

38. “When asked
about problems
facing their
generation,
many millennials
respond that the
biggest one is
the poor
example that
adults set for
kids.” p. 36
Oblinger, D. (2003). Understanding the new student.
EDUCAUSE Review, 38(3), 36-42.

40. “The number one
thing to realize with
the Millennials is
that as a whole they
reflect much more
parental
perfectionism than
any generation in
living memory.
Colleges and
universities should
know that they are
not just getting a
kid, but they are
also getting a
parent.”

42. What Else Do We Know?

43. Another Common Myth:
The Master Multitasker
• Memory
encoding
and memory
retrieval
weaker in
teens when
attention is
divided
Naveh-Benjamin, M., Kilb, A., & Fisher, T. (2006). Concurrent task effects on memory encoding
and retrieval: Further support for an asymmetry. Memory & Cognition, 34(1), 90-101.

44. Other Multitasking Studies
•
Herath, P., Klingberg, T., Yong, J., Amunts, K., & Roland, P. (2001). Neural
correlates of dual task interference can be dissociated from those of
divided attention: an fMRI study. Cereb. Cortex 11, 796 – 805.
– longer time
•
•
Fisch, S. (2000). A capacity model of children’s comprehension of
educational content on television. Media Psychology, 2(1), 63-91.
Lang, A. (2000). The limited capacity model of mediate message
processing. Journal of Communication, 50(1), 46-70.
– simultaneous tasks limit memory
•
Just, M. A., Kellera, T. A., & Cynkara, J. (2008). A decrease in brain
activation associated with driving when listening to someone speak . Brain
Research, 1205, 70-80.
– less likely to remember

45. Today’s Students &
Technology
• Today’s students’ technical
knowledge is broad, but
shallow
• Skills differ by academic
program; deepest in
engineering and business
• Technical fluency
does not equal
maturity
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ers0506/rs/ers0506w.pdf

47. Two Key Points
• Introducing
technology alone is
never enough.
• Big gains in
productivity come
when new
technologies are
combined with new
ways of doing
business.

48. Two Key Points
• Introducing
technology alone is
never enough.
• Big gains in learning
come when new
technologies are
combined with new
ways of teaching.

49. Your
Questions
and
Comments

50. Director of Doctoral Studies
Sacred Heart University, USA
mkbarbour@gmail.com
http://www.michaelbarbour.com