Strategies for teaching Gen Yers.
What are strategies that have worked for you with Gen Y learners?
There are many strategies that have worked for me when teaching Gen Y learners. One that I have found critical is to break down instruction into smaller, more manageable “chunks†than what is in the textbook and what I normally would do for other generations. In between the “chunks†of information, I integrate small group work and think-pair-share activities which play on another important characteristic of Gen Y learners.
Due to the technological advances, I also incorporate reasoning as to why to learn the subject matter than vs. rely on technology, give meaningful examples of practical applications, and explain the value of critical thinking skills gained within the course. Another important strategy that I incorporate is frequent, meaningful feedback given in a timely manner. Students expect this and setting up expectations of when I give feedback and how quickly I turn around the feedback from the assignment submissions helps have a mutual understanding.
In response, I find it that my students scores are not as high for an open book test with timing. What I also find is that Gen Y does not read, if they do, some may say the book language is an issue to understand, some may say too much info in the reading, what do we need to know. So my question is How do you get Gen Y to read the text and carry it with them?
I have used alot of group activities and discussions rather than just lectures.
Hands on activity is a great way for them to learn coupled with the lecture. Hear it and then apply it.
One strategy I use is interactive homepages for my course. Students can interact with me whenever they want. They can submit their homework, check their current grade and even post questions to a forum of their peers. I make it purely voluntary but find not only the Gen Yers enjoy it it but actually influence other generational cohorts to participate.
I agree. Once again I am going back to my opinion on critical thinking and plain old rote memorization of information. With technology at their fingertips the skill to retain information doesn't seem as important to them. I think good teaching skills would be to somehow incorporate testing that involved critical thinking to solve questions.
Including them in some decision making like when to have a test and also making sure to give feedback on test results asap.
stick drawings although I was getting better results with elementary students than gen x
I have found that incorporating Youtube video clips to complement a lecture has been very effective in the classroom to clarify certain concepts, especially videos that have real-life news scenarios or 3-D animations.
BYOD - bring your own device and finding innovative ways to get students to use them to play learning games and respond on their device or access information. Create competitive environments of learning where students have a say in what we should learn. Create adaptive learning scenarios for each student where they can progress at different stages based on their level of competency.
Youtube has a wide selection of educational videos that are short, often humorous, and set to music. The students prefer those short videos over many other methods of presentation.
Using technology based information, such as youtube videos for surgical procedure traing information, GenBank for nucleotide comparisons, as well as asking for information during class discussion using their smart phones generates productive learning experiences for students.
immediate feedback works with Gen Yers
Encouraging them to take pics of their work and showing them how to build a professional portfolio puts relevant value to the daily work they produce
I produces short videos as supplements to the instructional materials, which they can view on their 'gadgets' in school or at home. I try to satisfy everyone, including myself, by sharing content via our online Portal as PDF files, YouTube, Vimeo, and email. My goal is to cover as many bases as possible where they may find it.
I use as much technology as I can in the classroom. I allow them to work in small groups. I also allow them the opportunity to teach the class a lesson during the semester. Lastly, I try to give them "real life" examples of what to expect when they graduate and begin working the field.
In teaching Design Theory, I've found it is important to show the direct correlation between theory (primarily through articles and important design web sites) and practice. I find that this generation in particular is very attuned to social issues and often wants to intervene in some way. A design component that addresses that has proved effective in my courses.
One of the challenges I have found for students researching using internet sources is their ability to filter credible sources. I have developed research assignments that require peer reviewed journal articles.
I often offer "open book, open notes, but NOT open neighbor." I allow open internet also. Beforehand, we discuss the time factor and the need to know where to look.
What I plan to remember to add is a reminder about the need to acknowledge sources and to indicate quotes where required. Generally, drawing from the textbook and class notes does not need in-text citation in a test or quiz setting, but lifting direct quotations without credit in any context is a bad practice. Freedom to wander the net sometimes turns into that kind of plagiarism.
I'm wondering, having further considered the Gen Y desire for teamwork and connectivity, whether I should allow group or partner testing. If all members are participating, it should enhance the learning. Perhaps the teams could adopt the policy of "you don't participate, then you don't share" in the answers. I would also like to allow those students who hate teamwork (usually because of having had to depend on someone unreliable in the past) to complete the work independently.
