Students Have Changed--Should You Change Too?

Mariëlle Hoefnagels

Have you ever complained about the attitude or work ethic of a generation younger than your own?  Have you ever called them lazy?  Or slackers?  Or just wondered why the same teaching methods that worked so well for you seem to fall flat with younger students?

When it comes to generations, one size does not fit all.  That is the theme of a book called When Generations Collide, by Lynne C. Lancaster and David Stillman (2002, Harper Business).  I read this book on a recent road trip and, although it is primarily intended for a business audience, it also had a strong message for anyone working with people from different generations.  To be successful, you must understand that different forces, operating at different times, shape people in entirely different ways.  

The book divides people into four generations:  Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials.  Traditionalists (born before 1945) grew up in times of war and scarcity, so they learned to set aside their individual needs and work as a team to accomplish tremendous tasks.  As a generation, they are particularly loyal to the military, government, and other institutions that provided the hierarchy and framework necessary for their generation to do such remarkable things.

In contrast, Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) grew up in prosperous times, when consumer goods were becoming abundant and TV was just becoming a force.  Prosperity gave Baby Boomers a sense of optimism.  At the same time, Boomers are a huge cohort, 80 million strong.  They have had to compete all their lives for the best jobs and promotions.

The Baby Boomers’ children, born 1965-1980, are called Generation X.  These people have grown up in times of AIDS, government scandal, corporate crime, and divorce; they tend to distrust institutions and relationships.  The book describes them with the word “skeptical.”

Millennials form the youngest generation, born after 1980.  Most Millennials can’t remember a time without cell phones, pagers, and the internet.  They are in near-constant communication with each other and are accustomed to having instant access to information of all sorts.  This generation is therefore best described as collaborative.

Understanding the social forces that have shaped the generations has helped me to appreciate that one teaching method may not work for all students for all time.  If you are a competitive Baby Boomer or a skeptical Generation Xer, for example, you may have disliked group work all your life; you may even avoid assigning it to your own students.  Most of your Millennial students, however, are totally comfortable working together to negotiate solutions.

After reading this book, I am more sensitive to the idea that what worked when I was a student might not work as well for this Millennial generation.  I have therefore started to give up a little lecture time to incorporate more short, in-class collaborative exercises that allow students to work together.

The literature on education is full of fads, suggesting that the old ways were awful and the new ways are the only way to be a good teacher.  I disagree.  My intuition tells me that the teacher’s personality and attitude are at least as important as the techniques he or she uses.  At the same time, understanding the social context of each generation may help us adjust our strategies to better serve our current audience.

Mariëlle Hoefnagels is an assistant professor in the Departments of Zoology and Botany-Microbiology at the University of Oklahoma. She is also a co-author on Life, a general biology textbook pusblished by McGraw-Hill.