Millennial Undergrads Apparently Are Now Graduate Students

Neil Howe and William Strauss's (2000) Millennials Rising had a profound effect on the ways  Administrators and (many) Faculty in higher education thought about serving the generation spanning (roughly) 1980 - 1994.  [See also Howe's subsequent handbook (2003), Millennials Go To College: Strategies for a New Generation on Campus—Recruiting and Admissions, Student Life, and the Classroom, and Strauss and Howe's Millennials as Graduate Students (2007)].  The authors have spurred some strong reaction to what others think is stereotyping.  OK, maybe so, but nonetheless their efforts have given us a useful means for identifying key sociological factors that play into this generation's success (or not) in college.

Generally, this generation has been sheltered, feels safe, is team-oriented, has very high expectations (but often no idea how to reach them), is plugged into tech 24/7, and likewise connected to their parents as no other generation.  Reality for them is no longer real.  By virtue of  their typing, texting, joy sticks, touch screens, and Wii, they have even given birth to a new kind of learning preference:  kinesthetic.  They are impatient, claim to be able to multi-task, and generally consider themselves consumers with the right to shape learning experiences by virtue of their desires, not necessarily yours.  That said,  even if occasionally insanely demanding, they respond pretty well to authority (provided you clearly set boundaries).  And why not?  For the most part they've heard from birth their parents, teachers, coaches, and peers telling them that they are special.  I guess it's also easy to feel that way during a time of nearly unchecked economic growth (the 1986 Crash notwithstanding).  As a by-product of their tech-savvy, they are seemingly more globally connected than any previous group.  They claim to respect Diversity and demand interdisciplinary programs, but have a difficult time with sophisticated intercultural interaction.  Finally, this generation feels pressured in ways that former generations have not.

I've presented dozens of workshops on how we might think about teaching this generation as undergrads.  A few of them have devolved into discussions prompted by angry faculty commenting about this generation's increasing incivility, unwillingness to think, and most often, their incessant demand for  wanting to know just "What's on the test?"  [I must add that a lot of these comments came from Gen-Xers (Who distrust everyone and feel like they've made it by virtue of just their own efforts.) and some late Baby Boomers, like me (Whose parents were so damn glad we left the house, they often moved without telling us.).]  It's the "Just-give-me-the-facts,-man" issue I'd like to address briefly today.  And I'd like to focus on the new wave of Millennials as Graduate Students. [See Debra W. Stewart's fine piece describing the challenges we face educating and accommodating this group, Getting It Right:  Graduate Schools Respond to the Millennial Challenge (2007).]

I see approximately 500 - 600 grad students annually in my MSU TAP workshop series, and about 100 or so when I travel.  I assess these experiences formatively and summatively, and have noticed over the last four years that I'm increasingly getting participant requests just to tell them "...what they need to know."  In a recent workshop, "Talking about Teaching in the Interview," five attendees (out of 60) complained that they didn't like to have to respond to questions unanticipated.  8 remarked that I should have spent more time on giving them "the answers." 10 wished that I had just told them what to do.  Remember, this was a workshop focused on the interview, one in which I provide supplemental materials and a well-defined process to help them come to their own answers for the anticipated  and surprise questions they are likely to get (You can take a look at the workshop template and many of the supplemental resources here, http://tap.msu.edu/workshops/resources.aspx .  Scroll down.). 

So, I decided to a look back at 20 workshops to see if I could spot a trend in the comments that mirrored those I glommed on to in my most recent assessment.   I also took a quick look at two TA Seminar evaluations. (The TA Seminar is a type of orientation for new TAs.)  Keep in mind that I think I am hearing more faculty and TAs comment about how hard it is to teach Millennial undergrads. Honestly, when I tried to track trends, nothing significant stood out.  If anything, certain workshops elicited more of these types of "just give me the facts, man" responses than others. It could be that my efforts to engage new teachers reflectively on some difficult topics is falling flat in some cases.  In others, it seems to work.  That said,  I'm thinking a little more about how to balance the "tips stuff," which I think my grads are increasingly demanding, and my reflective approach.

So, Millennial Grads are here, and some of them seem to behave in ways that resemble the undergraduate behaviors that drive faculty and TAs crazy.  Perhaps it's not surprising then that in the hundreds of class evaluations I've conducted over the years, I've been occasionally puzzled as to how completely unreflective educational experiences garner high student evaluations.

So, I'm rethinking how written and web-based materials can give participants enough of "the facts" to put them in a position to work through the reflective exercises I use.  I often send out materials a head of time, but have been blamed for "...making workshop participants work."  I'm not kidding.   Oh, wait, did I mention that this generation reads more on-line than it does in print? And that they are chronically unprepared for class?