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The Different Generations

Dr. Sandy Gecewicz, in a comment on Patricia Scales's blog, "A Student's Learning Style, said, "Students today need a different approach than many of the teachers had when they went to school.  I am interested in not only addressing the individual learning styles but to show instructors how to approach the different generations as they all learn differently..." This reminded me that the way we learn is not only affected by our different modalities, but by generational differences as well. Instructors have often commented on the various makeups of their student populations - it is not unusual, for example, to have both recent high school graduates and seasoned adult workers in the same classroom or lab. As Faculty Coaches, we can empower our faculty by encouraging them to point to those differences in their learning environments, and ask both "highschoolers" and more seasoned classmates to present contributions they can both make to enhance learning for each other. This just scratches the surface - the learning possibilities are endless for the many demographical differences among our students - generational, cultural, personal learning styles, just to name a few.

This is such a timely discussion!  We deal with not only multi-generational learners, but we also have a percentage of learners who have recently left the military and are returning from war zones, where manners of thinking are extremely critical and very cut and dry; we have to attempt to re-define their habits during their education, without their losing their sense of self!  I greatly enjoy the challenge to stretch my own understanding of varied learners and am constantly researching new ways to approach these audiences to best suit their needs.

Greetings Mr. Hollowell: Two concepts interest me about instruction/coaching:  1) Generational differences for learning and 2) Brain research and learning. I often wonder if the two aren't connected more than we realize.  As a member of the Baby-boomers, I believe my learning of truly evolving while I work with students and instructors from Generations X and Y learners!

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