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Characteristics of Y-Generation students

1. Short attention spans; want instantaneous gratification


2. Like structure, but a guiding structure not a straight-jacket
3. Tend to be more holistic thinkers than analytical thinkers
4. Y-generation students are looking for 1) real learning experiences and 2)
practical applications in real-world context
5. Need to feel in control of their own learning rather than the teacher.
6. Desire for teachers to act as their peers.
7. Prefer working in groups rather than individually.
8. Need to feel that they are important;
9. Prefer a visual and hands-on learning style. Memorization is not something
they will do.
10. Believe that learning should be fun

Effective teaching strategies to teach Y-generation


students
1. Use PowerPoint slides. Don't simply dump your notes on them. Make sure
that each slide covers a single idea/concept rather than many
ideas/concepts all meshed together. Present information visually where
possible. Text should be short and concise. Slides should be elaborated on,
not simply read out word for word. Use analogies to explain concepts. The
use of analogies is an extremely effective means of teaching an
idea/concept. This will help build onto a students prior knowledge and
experiences and give the idea/concept meaning.

2. Try to contain as many small victories and achievements throughout the


session as possible. If there are none then students will find themselves less
motivated to return.

3. Give students the opportunity to complete assignments graphically rather


than written where possible. For example, flowcharts, mind-maps may be a
suitable alternative to writing but still allow students to demonstrate their
understanding. Even a prepared template for a report where students are
asked to fill in a table may help rather than simply asking them to write a
traditional report.
4. Give students some control over their learning. Perhaps they can come up
with their own class activities or at least customise them to be more
aligned with what they see as meaningful and of interest to them. Also, in
a likewise fashion, give students some control over the assessment tasks
assigned to them. Of cause these must be aligned with and satisfy course
outcome requirements but there are many paths to the same destination.

5. Try to make lesson more fun, e.g., make use of crossword puzzles, games
etc

6. When a students needs help don't just give them the answer rather get them
to follow through their own logic and see if they can figure it out for
themselves. The former may be construed as, “I'll give you the answer as
your not smart enough to work it out for yourself”. Use hints, prompts and
questions to scaffold knowledge rather than simply giving it to them. This
encourages active learning rather than passive learning. Student will feel
better with themselves and more in control and anchored because they feel
that they have learnt something meaningful rather than simply presented
with an answer lacking in any meaning.

7. Teachers should have a spontaneous rather than a manufactured presence.


Y-generation students like real people rather than people who hide behind
a manufactured role.

8. Take an interest in the students progress. Occasionally conference with


students in regard to their progress and allow students to input how they
may address any learning problems they may be experiencing for
themselves. This makes them feel more in control of their learning rather
than dependent on the teacher but still feel cared for.

9. Demonstrate concepts visually wherever possible. Use visually oriented


steps to illustrate how to perform a task rather than merely written.

10. Also, where appropriate, avoid lecturing on pre-prepared solutions to


problems. Rather come up with problems that students find interesting and
solve the problem together as a class. This is good as it will motivate
students. Also, the struggle involved in solving a problem (this includes the
teacher's struggle with the problem as well) will be brought to the fore.
This struggle to find a solution to a problem is not made evident in pre-
prepared solutions to problem and as thus does not reflect reality. In fact, it
implicitly says to the students that if you cannot solve a problem nice and
easily as the teacher did (with the pre-prepared solution to the problem)
then you cannot handle the material. All-in-all it's important to impress
upon the students that the process of problem solving will always involve
some element of struggle and that this is OK as it's a creative inventive
process and not a given. So, letting students struggle with a problem but
also impressing that the struggle is OK (it's all part of the process) is
important.

11. The teacher cannot force knowledge onto students as such knowledge is
meaningless to the student (passive learning); learning must come from
within the student by building upon their own knowledge and experiences
(active learning) and the role of teacher as facilitator of this type of
learning. Handing control over the learning process to students also has the
benefit of reducing time spent on student management issues.

12. Have students work in groups when possible

Bibliography

Oblinger, D.G. & Oblinger, J.L. Educating the Net Generation, (2005), viewed 7
September 2007, http://www.educause.edu/educatingthenetgen

Teaching Information Literacy to Generation Y. (n.d). viewed 7 September 2007,


http://www.library.csuhayward.edu/staff/ginno/ACRL/default.htm

Experiences
I have tried to implement many of the above principles into my own teaching and
have felt that my students have benefited from them.

It's not always easy though as, for example, giving the time to scaffold a student's
learning is not always easy given the pressure of other students begging for your
attention. I guess that giving the answer to a student's question is a quick way to
move to the next student but I realize now that this is not a good thing.

Attempting to solve a problem using appropriate tools such a flowcharts, mind-


maps, hierarchies charts definitely helps. These tools allow the students to see the
big picture more easily than a sequentially written piece of text or verbal
presentation does and thereby more likely to persevere.

Also, now, being in the later stages of the programming course that I am delivering,
instead of elaborating on a pre-written piece of code to illustrate a solution to a pre-
defined problem, I ask my students for a problem of interest to them to solve and
then try to solve it together as a class. It also puts the teacher in a position where the
teacher has to expose his/her thinking processes unaided by a pre-prepared solution
as thus making the learning experience more real rather than artificially sanitized
which Y-generation generally dislike. This makes students feel more in control.

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