While faculty focus on Millennials, few faculty realize that they have been teaching this next generation of students, Generation Z, (IGen) for at least the last four years now. This session asks: How can faculty attempt to transform their students if they do not know who they are?

Data, based on several surveys find that Generation Z students are different from Millennials in significant ways. These include having less focus, being better at multitasking, show more grade bargaining, and are entrepreneurial, global, diverse, and digital. As a result, these students are unlike Millennials in the classroom.

While this little talked about generation has largely dominated classrooms as early as 2013, we are still studying them. They are even 25% of today’s overall population.

Faculty will learn about these characteristics and explore current transformative pedagogical strategies focusing on this new cohort. Audience members will be engaged through discussing their pedagogical techniques that have worked and learn more by bouncing ideas off the two Generation Z students on the panel. Faculty will leave the panel looking at their students in news ways and will be better prepared to engage them in new ways.

While faculty focus on Millennials, few faculty realize that they have been actually teaching this next generation of students, Generation Z, (IGen) for at least the last four years now. This session asks: How can faculty attempt to transform their students if they do not know who they are?

Data, based on several surveys (i.e., 2013 Ameritrade, Pew Research Center survey, Northeastern University, Barnes & Noble, and Adobe Education Creativity Study, etc.), find that Generation Z students are different from Millennials in significant ways. These include having less focus, being better at multitasking, show more grade bargaining, as well as more independent, entrepreneurial, global, diverse, and digital. As a result, these students are unlike Millennials in the classroom.

For example, Generation Z students nearly 30% more likely than Millennials to report that technology in class facilitates their learning more quickly than traditional teaching methods. In addition, this generation is much more likely to find that technology, such as learning apps in the classroom makes learning more fun, according to a Quizlet survey.

While this little talked about generation has largely dominated classrooms as early as 2013, we are still studying them. They are even 25% of today’s overall population.

Faculty will learn about these characteristics and explore current transformative pedagogical strategies focusing on this new cohort. Audience members will be engaged through discussing their pedagogical techniques that have worked and learn more by bouncing ideas off the two Generation Z students on the panel. Faculty will leave the panel looking at their students in news ways and will be better prepared to engage them in new ways.

Ameritrade. (2013). Generation Z and money survey 2013: Understanding tomorrow's investors (Research report). Retrieved from https://s1.q4cdn.com/959385532/files/doc_downloads/research/Gen_Z_and_Money_2013_Research_Report_Sept_2013_FINAL.pdf

Dorsey, J. (2016). iGen tech disruption: 2016 national study on technology and the generation after millennials (White paper). Retrieved from the Center for Generational Kinetics website: http://3pur2814p18t46fuop22hvvu.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/iGen-Gen-Z-Tech-Disruption-Research-White-Paper-c-2016-Center-for-Generational-Kinetics.pdf

Trifecta Research. (2015). Generation Z media consumption habits (Research report). Retrieved from http://trifectaresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Generation-Z-Sample-Trifecta-Research-Deliverable.pdf

Adobe Education Creativity Study. (2016). GEN Z in the classroom: Creating the future. Retrieved from Adobe website: http://www.adobeeducate.com/genz/

The Center for Generational Kinetics & Dorsey, J. (2016). iGen's political & civic outlook: 2016 national study on the unexpected viewpoints on the generation after the millennials (White paper). Retrieved from http://3pur2814p18t46fuop22hvvu.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/iGen-Gen-Z-Political-Civic-Outlook-Research-White-Paper-c-2016-The-Center-for-Generational-Kinetics.pdf

Kingston, A. (2014). Get ready for generation Z: They're smarter than boomers and way more ambitious than millennials. Retrieved from Maclean's website: http://www.macleans.ca/society/life/get-ready-for-generation-z/

The Hartman Group. (2016). New kids on the block: A first look at Gen Z. Retrieved from Forbes website: https://www.forbes.com/sites/thehartmangroup/2016/03/31/new-kids-on-the-block-a-first-look-at-gen-z/#59d093381bab

Seemiller, C. & Grace, M. (2016). Generation Z goes to college. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Stillman, D. & Stillman, J. (2017). Gen Z at work: How the next generation is transforming the workplace. Harper Collins.

Twenge, J. M. (2017). iGen: Why today's super-connected kids are growing up less rebellious, more tolerant, less happy--and completely unprepared for adulthood--and what that means for the rest of us. Atria Books.

30-Minute Roundtable Session

Communicating Transformative Learning