Understanding and Working with Contemporary Students Larry D. Roper Oregon State University.
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Transcript of Understanding and Working with Contemporary Students Larry D. Roper Oregon State University.
![Page 1: Understanding and Working with Contemporary Students Larry D. Roper Oregon State University.](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062515/56649cb95503460f94980486/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Understanding and Working with
Contemporary Students
Larry D. Roper
Oregon State University
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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
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Dilemma of Millennials
• Generational influences
• Industry built on stereotypes
• Challenge of labels
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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?
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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?)
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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
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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?
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Millennial Generation
• Generation Y
• Net Generation
• Echo Boom
By most accounts this is the largest of generations (in excess of 76 million)
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Influenced by…• Political focus on children and family
• Highly scheduled and structured lives
• Multiculturalism
• Terrorism
• Heroism
• Patriotism
• Parents as advocates
• Globalism
• Mandatory testing
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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
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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).
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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.
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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?
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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.
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?
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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?
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Learning Preferences
With technology
With each other
Online
In their time
In their place
Doing things that feel significant (worthy)
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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.
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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
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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.
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Expectations
• More Choices and Selectivity
• Experiential and Exploratory Learning
• Flexibility and Convenience
• Personalization and Customization
• Rapid Response
• Collaboration & Intelligence
• Balanced Lives
• Less Reading
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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)