Lauren,
I have mixed feelings about student attitudes. I'm a Boomer teaching all generations. Although I think I'm up to speed on technology, I don't spend a lot of time playing with gadgets like my gen x and y students.
As for the attitudes of gen y students, in my situation, about 90% have a somewhat indifferent attitude about school, instructors, and their financial situation. They want the money and have no interest in earning it.
I am also a boomer teaching all levels, but I got my degree with gen Xers and ys. I can remember the light bulb moments myself as it wasn't so long ago. Helping students to use the light bulb moments to further critical thinking is an inportant function in todays technical teaching. Students are concerned with being on their own and being ready for the challenge.
I agree they want the money without earning it. I teach culinary and so many of my students think they are going to be rock star chefs. When they are faced with the reality that they actually have to work very hard at even the chance of becoming a chef they tend to get an attitude. Also so many cant understand that they are paying a lot of money to attend school but will still miss numerous days and wonder why I gave them a bad grade.
James,
unfortunately the modern era with the highlighting of celebrities in every field & the social media myth that everyone cares about everything I do help contribute to these problems.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Although I fall within the range of Generation X if you go by the birth year ranges suggested for the different cohorts, my upbringing (in a rural area on the Atlantic seaboard) gives me much more in common with Boomers, at least where learning and education is concerned. My classrooms were all about rote memorization and learning the information provided, not about thinking critically and synthesizing information to come up with my own conclusions The students I teach, regardless of age, come from a very different cultural atmosphere (I'm in the greater Seattle area now), and I think that this, perhaps even as much as the generational differences, has a huge impact on student expectations and cultural mores. Even my "older" students expect a different approach to instruction and student participation. I have found that using media that relates to the students' lives is a great way to spark discussion, and it helps to keep them engaged enough to actually discuss the material that I assign. Has anyone else found a difference in regional education culture?
