I agree that you should include a method that they can relate to, but I like to include many different styles to teach them to conform to new methods.
Christine,
yes, this helps all students learn to adapt & appreciate the different ways individuals approach problems.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
In career education is very important to know the characteristics of different generations of learners. Right now in my class, (I am a Gen Xer), I have a boomer, several Xers and mostly Gen Yers. I have to accommodate all of them. Without understanding how they learn, I would not be able to accomplish this task.
It is important to know the characteristics of generational learners because it is not unusual to have members from 2-3 or all of the generations in my program or classes. I can plan how to best deliver the information so the students learn. Knowing their characteristics helps me select methods of delivery.
Getting to know their learning styles gives an edge, technology savvy goes without saying. gadgets are a natural extension of their bodies. Unfortunately so are the cell phones.
Particularly in a career college setting, you may have students that are from all of the generational cohorts. Because of this, you need to be able to adapt your teaching strategies to accommodate this wide variety of learners.
It pays to know the characteristics of generational learners to be able to communicate to them in the way they are used to learning and be able to work with them within their natural biases. With that as a base one can incorporate other less familiar methods to prepare them for people who communicate and learn in ways different from what they are used to. For example the students will learn to appreciate the ability of the veterans to think logically and reach a conclusion and also see the value of developing a hypothesis and testing to see if it works.
Its important to understand the different generations learning characteristics so that your delivery methods can be changed to meet your audience. Sometimes the same information needs to be delivered several different ways so that all understand. Diversify to meet as many needs as possible.
In response, the value of knowing the characteristics of different generations of learners is priceless, finding out the differences can allow the instructor to use peer tutoring and also learning is a two way street, everyone can learn from one another.
I learned a lot in this section as I under valued the need for regular and real-time feedback on performance. I see that my xgen perspective misled me.
