Faculty Workshopwith Cara Meixner, Ph.D.January 16 & 17, 2014
Learn the characteristics of the Millennial Generation that distinguish them from other generations of college students.
Identify strategies that assist in successfully engaging these students, in the classroom.
Reflect on how knowledge about this generation can influence our work.
The Gaussian Distribution Most research sensitizes us to what’s happening around
the mean of a normal distribution. What about the outliers?
False Precision (Pew Trust) Level of arbitrariness in setting chronological bounds
Stereotype threat (Steele & Aronson) The risk of confirming, as self-characteristic, a
stereotype about one’s group.
Using the materials in front of you, please answer the questions below. Feel free to list, scribe, draw, or mind map your answers!
What characteristics do you believe apply to most of JMU’s traditionally aged undergraduate students?In what cases or scenarios are these characteristics misapplied or inappropriately stereotyped?
You have 10 minutes to complete this activity!
How others seeHow others seethis this
generation…generation…(for better and for worse)(for better and for worse)
Photos from Millennials Rising, Strauss & Howe
MOST LEAST
Techno-connected and dependent
Majority female Entitled Lack interpersonal skills Everyone gets a trophy Service minded Residential Compartmentalization
(work-play) Culturally aware
Not (all) tech-savvy Not all party Not all extraverts Don’t all want to be
spoon fed Disconnectedness in the
connectedness Not all wealthy Not all focused on grades Overcoming barriers to
be here Some work 8 to 5 Not all from NOVA and NJ
Confident Self-expressive Liberal Upbeat Open to change
TraditionalistsTraditionalists Baby BoomersBaby Boomers Gen XersGen Xers MillennialsMillennials
Born 1900-1945 Born 1946-1964 Born 1965-1980 Born 1981-1999
LoyalLoyal OptimisticOptimistic SkepticalSkeptical RealisticRealistic
Build a career legacy
Build a stellar career
Build a portable career
Build parallel careers
1. Weathered WWII
2. Smart3. Honest
1. Work ethic2. Respectful3. Values and
morals
1. Tech use2. Work ethic3. Traditional
values
1. Tech use2. Pop culture3. Tolerance
From When Generations Collide by Lynne C. Lancaster and David Stillman; and Pew Research Center
Generation differences are due to 1) life cycle effects, 2) period effects like recession, war, 3) cohort effects like trends within young adults (Pew Research Center, 2010)
The series of statements comes from the work of the Pew Research Center, which sampled a representative
cadre of 2,020 adults within the Millennial cohort. Data were also drawn from other Pew surveys on
changing attitudes toward work, gender differences, technology, and political ideology.
M = E * V – CMotivation is a product of what students expect and what they value, minus the
cost.
Flow Theory, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
How can these and other data influence or inform our work with learners in the classroom?
What is one concrete strategy you might enlist to engage millennial learners in a new way?
Excerpt from High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter, by George D. Kuh (AAC&U, 2008)
Enrollment (Fall 2011*)
Undergraduate: 17,900Graduate: 1,822Full-Time: 18,166Part-Time: 1,556In-State: 72.9%Out-of-State: 27.1%
Total enrollment: 19,722 (20,032 for 2012)
Average SAT = 1,147
Please see this Factsheet for more information.Check out diversity trends here.
Gender40% male, 60% female