The first Generation Z students have arrived, and with them comes a host of unique challenges that stretch our well-used and applied pedagogical strategies. These digital natives are more independent-minded than collaborative team players. Join one of our Sage Faculty Partners, Regina Durante, Ph.D., who will share fresh insights on what makes Gen Z so different, creative, and unique from students you have taught in the past, as well as strategies for reaching these students in your classrooms today.
Regina Durante, Ph.D., is a passionate political science educator with over 35 years of experience, including advocating online learning since 1998. At Galveston College in Texas, she ignites student interest in American Government, Texas Politics, and a wide range of topics on local, state, and national levels. Dr. Durante is a strong advocate for engaging teaching methods, utilizing online platforms to foster independent learning and connect students with critical concepts.
The first Generation Z students have arrived, and with them comes a host of unique challenges that stretch our well-used and applied pedagogical strategies. These digital natives are more independent-minded than collaborative team players. Join one of our Sage Faculty Partners, Regina Durante, Ph.D., who will share fresh insights on what makes Gen Z so different, creative, and unique from students you have taught in the past, as well as strategies for reaching these students in your classrooms today.
Regina Durante, Ph.D., is a passionate political science educator with over 35 years of experience, including advocating online learning since 1998. At Galveston College in Texas, she ignites student interest in American Government, Texas Politics, and a wide range of topics on local, state, and national levels. Dr. Durante is a strong advocate for engaging teaching methods, utilizing online platforms to foster independent learning and connect students with critical concepts.
To get started, I'd like to thank you all for joining us here today. My name is Stephanie Tacquard and I am the Engagement Program Manager here at Sage. It is my absolute honor today to introduce you to our speaker. This is one of Sage's own faculty partners, Regina Durante. And she's a Political Science and Government professor at Galveston college and Galveston, Texas. She has actually been an educator for over 35 years. And she's been teaching online since 1998, which, for Gen X are like me, that seems like it was just yesterday. But when I did the math, it was actually 26 years ago, which is a little scary to me. So she's been teaching online for some time. And in the last four years, Regina has actually been using Sage's online intuitive learning platform known as Sage Vantage, and both her online and in person courses. And she and her students love the instant feedback that it provides, you're going to hear more about instant feedback today, as well as the ease of reporting and student features that it has available. Even now Virginia's educational passion has always been around engaging the next generation with tools that connect to them, and concepts that allow them to become independent learners. And I'm so excited that Regina is here today to share with us what her research around Generation Z has revealed about their ways and their means of learning and the strategies that she uses to reach this unique cohort of students in today's classroom. And right now without any further ado, Regina, I turn it over to you. Thank you so much, here.
Regina Durante, Sage Faculty Partner and Political Science and Government Professor, Galveston College:Thank you, Steph, thank you, to all of you who have come and be willing to give up your time, I'm hoping that I can just share with you some of the insights of my research and practical experiences that I've encountered in my classroom, and those among my peers and my colleagues. And, and not just giving you some information about Generation Z. But really what I would love for you to be able to walk away with some very practical strategies that you can implement into your classroom, regardless of your discipline. So if we can get started, I'd like to just kind of identify who Generation Z are. And just let you know that in this presentation, I'm going to go over characteristics of Generation Z. And then I'm going to talk about the impact of digital distractions, which I'm quite sure we're all aware of with an iPhone on their lap in their hand, that this age, this generation, our digital learners, digital natives. And so they have only been a technology only generation. But applying that technology in terms of turning a document into a PDF and attaching it to an email, which they're not quite sure how to write and send it to you are somewhat foreign to them. And so there's a disconnect. For them. There's also the issue of mental health that this generation is being impacted with that previous generations have not, there are a couple of factors with that. Number one would be a generational impact or cohort effect, it's called, um, for this generation, that would have been COVID. But while most generations have one, such as like World War Two, or Vietnam, or Watergate or 911, this generation had a second one that has been ongoing, which is the fact that they've always had a cell phone in their hand, which has really made them different types of learners for a number of reasons. And we'll just touch on that. One of the impacts of that is the lack of critical thinking and perseverance that has not developed in this generation. So as I give some examples, by hopefully you'll be able to relate that you've seen those examples in your classroom, you've encountered them yourself. And then the last would be how to teach to their strengths, knowing what some of those issues are, how do you recalibrate your classroom, which you've taken an enormous amount of time to design and build, and you've created incredible rubrics. And you know, the assignment is fantastic. And then it just kind of falls flat. And so learning how to teach to those strengths will really make those new designs come alive. So just as a given an overall let's just talk about what ages we're talking about here. So the silent generation would be those that were born before World War Two. So we don't encounter many of those in our classroom today. Every now and then I'll have one or two who will pop in for a number of reasons. The next would be the baby boomers. And we know that generation many of us are at the tail end of baby boomers are we Baby Boomers. And so those are the ones who are getting ready to retire now, or they may be at the end of their career. The next would be Gen Xers. So President Obama is a Gen Xers. So if you think of that age group, that that would be the Gen Xers, the next would be millennials. Most of us have taught Millennials for the last 1520 years. And so we kind of know who they are, they had very distinct characteristics. And now in our classrooms, the 18 and 19 year old, it's the first generation of Generation Z, each generation will have three different segments to it, we're now reaching the very first of Generation Z, and you will probably identify some characteristics that all mentioned or talk about in this presentation. And then after that will be alpha and the Alpha generation. We don't we have not had them yet. Unless, of course, you have a very precocious and advanced student. I don't know how many heavy 11 year olds in their in their classes every now and then you come across someone who starts really young, but alphas the next one, and they are very different than Generation Z, as well. But today, we'll we'll be talking about Generation Z. So as we move along, I'm sure many of us are familiar with the Christmas story with Ralphie. And if you remember, one of the dilemmas Ralphie had was he would listen to his radio show every week, and he had his secret decoder ring. And he would get a little message at the end of the show, and he would decode it. And lo and behold, they were doing the last radio show of the series, and they gave him the final clue. And he takes his decoder upstairs and decodes it only to find out it was something so simple. And so basics, such as Be sure to drink your Ovaltine. So today, I'm going to try to give you a decoder ring that it sends to Generation Z, so that you can kind of unwrap this puzzle. So if we can move on, I'm going to give you some of the characteristics and then the behaviors that you'll see what those characteristics. So some of the really fantastic characteristics of Jenner Generation Z, with the loyalty, they're very, very loyal when they're committed, once they commit to a way of thinking or way of acting, or a project. They're very, very loyal to it. They're very, very thoughtful, in different ways than Millennials were. But they're very, very thoughtful in terms of making sure they're sensitive to those around them. They're very determined, there's a determination factor in this generation, that that is really hard to pull them back from once they believe that particular view is the way they need to go. And so being open to different perspectives is little difficult for them. They're compassionate, they're open minded to new ideas, and they have a strong sense of responsibility. But a different type of responsibility than millennials, their responsibility is to something a little bit different. And we'll talk about that as we go along. So some of those behaviors that you're going to see in the classroom, because of these characteristics are going to be there, we're going to be very eager to get things accomplished, but perhaps not in the way your rubric has laid out, and not along the timeline that you've given in your class, such as meeting a deadline. They're hardworking, they're very creative, they're highly motivated, so long as it taps to something that they can see a practical end to, that's going to impact the world in which they live. In terms of it being an abstract idea, they're not as motivated to get on board with that they have a strong desire to make a difference in the world around them, and then follow through with what they believe that difference needs to be. And so those are some of the behaviors that you you've probably have experienced along the way. So what does that mean to us as instructors? So what are the some of the strategies to tap into these strengths? And these really wonderful characteristics and behaviors that you want to implement in some way? So one of the things that that's a little different that you want to know is that generation Z, they are not independent, in the way that millennials or baby boomers were. They depend on their instructors and their peers as a resource for learning as opposed to taking ownership of that learning. So it would not, it's pretty common for students all say, let's sit down and talk about what your paper is going to be about. And I'll say so what have you looked at so far in terms of this issue, but I haven't looked at anything, Dr. Durante. Well, well, what do you mean and so what I'm just waiting to waiting for you to give me some guidance. Well, what resources do you think you Okay, um, I don't know, I don't know, what resources should I look at. And so they depend on those around them. And they depend on the instructors, more so than previous generations, which means they're not going to be independent learners. In the same way, your journey to get them to be an independent learner is going to look very differently. So theyare not collaborative, and they are not team members in the same way Millennials were, or perhaps men, many of us were group work is only going to take place after they'd have a chance to be and do an independent analysis of the topic, because there's a concern or a fear that I don't know exactly what that is. And I don't want others to kind of know what that is. So they will not engage in group work or collaborative work until they're pretty solid, on what it is it's going to be and what the outcome is going to be. So that's a little bit different. So trying to get them to do a project based project based assignment, or work collaboratively with teams is something they will not engage in quite as readily as previous generations, they're very much video based learners, you if you were to just put up PowerPoints, and lecture straight from a PowerPoint, there'll be on their phone, they will simply tune out, because the the studies have shown that the videos need to be three minutes or less, because that's about the max of their attention span. So to show a 40 minute documentary on World War Two, or on the, you know, on a STEM project yourself with is not going to hit them unless you chunk that information. So they also need to have something where they can demonstrate, they want you to demonstrate a task, so they can see what it looks like they can hear what it looks like before you ask them to engage in it. The last characteristic that's really very different is if you do not tie your rubrics, your assignments, your projects, to real world issues that they are currently experiencing, and those that they will face in their career. You've lost them, if there's no practical application to what you're asking them to do, and they've not been able to connect it to something they've already seen in the world, such as it's something that's more abstract, you've lost them. So it's pretty common for students to say, you know, we know students always say, Well, this be on the test? That's a question. You've done a phenomenal lecture, you've brought in PowerPoint, you brought in graphics, you brought in videos, and you think you're just, you know, firing on all of your pistons. And it's like, okay, who has questions, this is going to be on the test. And there's a reason that they're asked that more so than other generations? And I'll say, Well, I mean, asking questions about what I just lectured on. We just talked about, why do I need to know this? And that's a question that kept coming up more and more over the last number of years more so than previous years. Why do I need to learn this? At what, why don't what am I going to do with this when I leave, and for me, I teach government. And so I tell them any problem you have in life, it's probably going to be because government created it. And you're probably going to have to go to government to solve it, which is the problem they created for you. So a lot of what I teach has very practical applications, but I have to be sure to express that and explain it at the beginning in order to get their buy in. So let me let me just move on a little bit. And let me just talk a little bit about the digital distractions that we see in our classroom. So Need I say the word cellphone. So there was a University of Nebraska study out of Lincoln in 2019. And it surveyed college students, and they examined classroom learning distractions, and what causes those digital devices to come out for non class purposes. So what this survey and there were there were 986 respondents in 37 states and 47 respondents throughout Canada. So they found 19.4% of classroom time of using a digital device was for non class purposes. So one of the things I incorporated into my rubric and I'm sorry, into my syllabus, which I had never before was I said at the top of my syllabus, if you're going to be bidding on a pair of shoes on eBay, or if you're scrolling on Amazon, because you need to Put your food order in, perhaps my class is not the class for you, Class time is not the time to be doing that. So phones down phones out, let's put them away, let's let's use other mechanisms to learn this material. On average respondent use the device 9.06% of the time during a typical school day. So they're constantly going to their phone, and they're constantly scrolling and they're constantly looking. And all those distractions, then impede the whole learning process. And on a weighted average are the respondents indicators. And this one really got me when I was reading this study, that 7.8% C students said that I'll turn off my cell phone, if you give me extra credit on a final grade, which totally floored me, because from my perspective, you're asking me to give you something for nothing. And I thought, well, that's a little immoral and unethical, I can't put my chocolate align by summing the scale for you. But they didn't think twice about saying, well, then I will put my phone down. And so it started to turn into a negotiation sessions. And I'm not there to negotiate with, that's not my role as a professor or as an instructor. So I had to learn how to quickly move around that so that I could get them to understand the importance and the relevance of them choosing to put that phone down of them choosing that you have to do the work and not depend that OSHA negotiate at the end of the semester for extra grades, because no, no, I'm not going to do that. So we can move on. I'm going to tell you now a little bit about AI, and technology. So how do you create an immersive experience for your students. So I'm going to highlight for you Gen Z are called digital natives. This means that they have little or absolutely no memory of the world as it existed before smartphones. Whereas all of us, for the most part, lives through the computer and internet revolution, revolution. And what that means is, we remember when we didn't have internet or when internet was just coming and we hit dial dial up. And if you remember that sound when your phone was dialing up, you know, you hear that sound. Now it brings back like, Oh, I remember that, you know, when I was a kid, and so forth. And so we all grew as technology grew, where you had Atari and Sony, PlayStation and so forth. And then, you know, we start to get smaller, you know, thin TVs, and then we get phones. And then we got smartphones. And this generation has only ever known smartphones, they only know what it is to have an iPad, or a small computer or smartphone in their hand. They don't know what it is to not have any technology around them. So the other thing is they may need so as the digital digital natives, they're expert at swiping and knowing all the new technology. But how do you apply that to actual life outside of swiping or looking at Instagram is something they don't know how to do such as I referenced earlier, they don't know what a PDF is. They don't know how to attach it to an email. And they do not know how to write an email. So it is not uncommon for me to get and maybe many of you can relate. It's not uncommon for me to get an email, like I do not understand the question. No. Good morning, dear Dr. Durante, I was going over test four, I was looking at chapter six. None of that simply I do not understand the question. And I have an LMS canvas, which many of us I know are familiar with. And Canvas will tell me who the student is and what course they're in. And if I did not have those two pieces of information, we have no idea who the student is. So I have to email back. Well, what question, what are you working on? Like? What I don't know what you're asking all those who, what, when, why. Then they don't know to ask that they don't think to ask those things. It's their emails or almost like text messages because they're used to doing that. So they write their emails the same way they'll text, which is kind of instant. And so many colleges are putting a credentialed a micro credential, little mini course together for freshmen coming in, where they learn things like this is email. This is a PDF. This is how you do this. And they're very simple, quick courses because what we discovered very quickly was they did not use the same technology in the same way that we did. And they did not apply those those strategies to simple things like an email So the other thing is this generation is the most diverse group that you've encountered, they are used to constant change, there's been many things that have gone on in their generation, besides technology that's moved along very quickly, we've had many international events that have happened that have changed a lot of things. And so they're very, very diverse, in terms of accepting a lot of different ideas, and different ways. And that's just normal for them. But, but on the same end, they're not able to process all of what that means. The next component I really want to just mention is this is the most experienced, standardized generation that we've had, they only no standardized testing. So many of them have those state exams, and you cannot get on to the next class, you cannot graduate from high school, if you do not master what you need to master to get on to the next class or graduate. And so they're used to standardized testing, and that kind of pigeonhole them into a certain way of looking at school looking at information, how much do I have to absorb, I only need to know what I need to know. So I can get on to what it is I need to do. So having to apply that knowledge or explain it and use it in various applications is not not is not something that was required them as it was for generations before. So when you get that question, is this going to be on the test? There's a reason why they're asking that because that's the only way they know to demonstrate that they know something, or they've mastered it, what is am I going to be graded for this. If I turn assignments out, and I say, this is for your interest, if you'd like to read it, and I see how many clicks it got. Maybe one, if I say this is going to be on the test, you're going to be tested on this and you need to know it, the majority of them will click on it. So the other thing that this generation is a little different is they lack patience. And they lack patience is a different way that perhaps a young adult may lack patience. They lack patience, because they're used to things instantly. So if I turn my assay they Simon is due at 1159 on Sunday. It is very common for me to come to the office at 730 or eight and have two or three emails from students. You did not read my paper, when will you be grading my paper? I want my grade. I want my paper graded by nine o'clock, I need to know what my grade is. What did I get on that? What did I get on my paper. And I have to explain to my students that I'm a human being. I sleep in the middle of the night, I'm not up all night doing assignments. I'm not grading at three o'clock in the morning, I am not a bot, an actual human. And so I have to actually say that to them, because they're not trying to be rude or disrespectful. They simply are expecting an instant response. And for however, you know, absurd that may sound why would they think you'd be grading three or four in the morning? They don't even think in that way. They think, why is my grade not there. And they're not processing all the components that go into what it takes to grade. So sometimes my students thought I was a bot. I'm kind of known as like the email Queen on my campus. I'm known to return emails quickly. And I'm very exact. And I ask questions back to my students. When I get that email that says I don't understand the question. You know, sometimes you want to say, What do you mean? How can you write me an email like that, but I understand they're not trying to be evasive or disrespectful, they, they simply don't understand all those components that go into professional communication. So at the beginning of the semester, I have to make sure that I show my students pictures of my family, my children, my dogs, I let them know, you know, I'm involved in the community, I'm active here, I do things and on weekends, even though my syllabus says I'm not returning emails over the weekend, all still on Monday morning, we'll have 2825 17 emails from students. And they'll start off by saying, I know you're not going to return this, but I can't do this. I don't understand this. And then I find out they didn't do the assignment at all, because they didn't have an answer that they were depending on me as the instructor to give them. So I have to explain to them I'm not about AI. I'm a human person. So AI is here forever. And we're all facing challenges with AI. So I'm just going to tell you one way that I've learned to work with AI with my students so that they become independent learners, because because we all know, suddenly, you know, you do a discussion board and a semester or two ago, I suddenly had graduate level answers online, why? It's on the questions I put out. And they were interacting with each other on these graduate level answers. And I'm teaching 200 level students and I know 10 years ago, I didn't get those kinds of responses. So I know they're picking up they're doing AI. So it's here. So let's, how do we get this generation to not use it as a tool to let somebody else do their thinking, but to enable them to learn how to think for themselves because that's, that's really what we're trying to accomplish. So I've created with my bot, Microsoft has copilot, and I'm sure many of your colleges will have AI programs that they subscribe to. I've called my boss, the governor, because I teach government. So he's the governor right, I'll be back. And what I'm training my butt to do, because I teach Socratic Glee, which means I never really answer a question I walk my students through how to find the answer for themselves. Because five years from now, I'm not going to be around to answer that question. You need to know how to answer how to find those answers for yourself based on whatever it is you need at that time in your life. So I'm training my Governator Socrative. CLI, so that as I segment through their research paper, they have a section, the bot will then they have to go to the bot and the bot will say did you is that aligned with the rubric? Let's go go back and look at the rubric. Are you sure that section actually puts in what the rubric says you need to put in whatever that may look like for you, for me is Are you sure you included the interest group? Are you sure you included? How much that interest group donated to the candidate? Are you sure you included this? And those are all part of my rubric. So the governor is going to walk them through? And not give them the answer. But simply make them mindful? Are you sure here's the rubric, does your paragraph do with that rubric says and if the student thinks that it does, then they move forward. And what that does for the student is it it gives them the opportunity to review things, to check their own work to not be dependent on the feedback that I'm going to give them? It enables them to make sure if they don't have it oh, oh, that's right, it does say that. And so then they go back and they put it in. So when I get that part of the paper, I do my research papers and five different sections, two modules, and they cannot the next module will not open up until they've successfully completed that one module before. So rather than me having to give all this feedback, we're get a paper, a section of the paper that has nothing to do with what I asked them to do. And I'm like, I don't understand, can you explain to me why you looked your paper this way, when this is a government class. And the rubric told you to make sure you include four particular components, and you don't have any of them in this. So I'm going to use AI, I'm going to use the technology at hand, which my students are very comfortable with. And I'm going to have my bot, move me through, I have my have the move my move them through so that they will my bot will student, my students. And in a sense, I'm training my bot, to have my students be the teacher of their own work, rather than me than having to get comments and say, Look, I'm taking 10 points off of this. So you can't redo this correct this and moving on. I'm going to implement technology that they're comfortable with. And I'm going to flip the whole paradigm on them. And I'm going to make them the teacher and owner of their own work. So that's that's one way I think that that that this generation will respond to the next. The next thing of this generation that's very, very different are the mental health concerns that we as professionals are seen in the classroom. I have never encountered so many students that come to me with some serious mental health concerns. And there's a number of reasons for that we have a full generation that's grown up on attention deficit information. The cellphone that's been in their hand has caused many issues in terms of their cognition, and their the, the frontal lobes in the part of the of their brain that are not closing and the same capacity that they have in previous generations. And I'm not going to go into the medical biology of the brain of this or so forth. But what we're seeing is that 50% of our students ages 18 to 25 I will tell you they have mental health issues, and that it's worse this year than it was last year. And when I first started, when I first started to see this, I went to my Dean and I said, I'm, I'm, I'm not a, I'm not a mental health professional, that I'm equipped to do this. I'm a professor of government, I, I teach government, I'm not quite sure how to handle that, because, because it was just something that I had never really had to address before. And so while all of our colleges have these resources that our students can go to, almost none of them knew that we had them. And the college did not really make them make the students aware of them, because it wasn't something that they nobody that students had never really tapped into before. And so when I would go to the head of those departments, I'd say, I'm kind of seeing this and they all had the research, they're like, yes, we know this generation is doing this and that, but but you've got, homie that because when I get an email from a student that I kind of red flag, I'm, I'm like, I'm not quite sure what to do with this. I feel like if I answer it one way, it could trigger this that way, I'm not, I'm not secure in that because I don't, that's not what I do. And so I had to take the time to really tap into what my counseling department knew. And all that research that combined with what I was doing as a professional in terms of pedagogy, and classroom strategies, and writing rubrics, and including technology, I had not thought about because I've never had to do this before, think about the mental health aspect of my students and COVID. So we call that a, a generational effect or cohort effect. And every generation has it World War Two, Vietnam, Watergate 90 leverage this generation, it was COVID. And, of course, that impacted this generation in far greater ways than we ever could have imagined by shutting down, businesses shutting down society shutting down schools. And so they were driven to their phones even more, and made themselves even more isolated, and move themselves into their individual little silos. While that kind of was what they knew. It impacted them in some very, very negative ways. And one of them was the increase in social media, and the cyber bullying, which suddenly surfaced when we started to see suicide rates, which is among the highest of girls. Between the ages actually, there's 150% increase in suicide rates between the ages of 1010 years old to 14 year old girls. And it's been over the last 10 years, which is when this generation moved from into adolescence, high school, and now College, and it's directly linked to social media exposure, and a cyber bullying. And prior to this, the generation that had the highest rate of suicide, we are 90 year olds, your senior citizens, your elderly, because by the time you hit 90 or 92, everyone you knew was gone. And you started to live a very isolated life. And as we know, no one can be human alone, where our human nature is designed to live in relationship and community and engagement out in the real world. So combined with COVID, combined with cyber bullying in which a lot of parents were not aware of, we started to see suicide rates increase. So as a 92 year old when you turn around, you know, you know, when you get together with your friends, you know, that you've been friends with for years, and you say, oh, remember when we went Mrs. Hyde against class, and remember, when Janet blah, blah, did this, or, you know, Simon did this, and everybody laughs because everybody connected to that event. And by the time you've gotten to 90s, there isn't anybody around who remembers any of that. And so that's why, historically, that's been the highest demographic for suicide. This generation is beating them by outstanding numbers. And so when those students come into my class, or when I get an email, and think I think the student is depressed, I'm not an expert on depression. I have to kind of hit what those highlights are. And kind of go to the resources at my college and say, and usually what without saying the student's name, I'll say do you have any data on this, and so forth enough, I think it's something I need to escalate, I will bring it in a confidential manner to the one person who handles that, I'm not going to go to my dean on that, because that's not really what he or she addresses. So because of that, you're seeing some character, you're seeing some behaviors, withdrawal, lack of response in class, not completing assignments that your other classes previously had had completed. And those are some of the reasons for it. The other issue I really wanted to address was the lack of critical thinking and perseverance of this generation. It's, it really hit me when I would address certain things, and they would have no idea how to answer them, or how to problem solve. So in a nutshell, critical thinking is an intellectual discipline that involves very ala elements of thought, right, throughout generations. So what exactly what are those components of critical thinking when we say, Oh, they lack critical thinking skills. And though we say that a lot of folks, a lot of instructors, or individuals are not really quite sure exactly what it means they just know, it's just other students. I don't know, I just know, they're not thinking critically. So let's just dissect that a little bit. So that hopefully, some of this will resonate with you. So some of those elements are purpose and problem identification, they cannot identify a problem. And then if you if you bring to their attention, what the problem is, they don't understand the purpose of the problem. They don't understand the purpose of a solution, they're not able to connect the problem to what's in front of them. And that purpose. The next one is concept clarification. Well, you and I may think nothing of reading a concept and saying, Oh, I get that. Yeah, I understand that. I know, I don't understand that social contract concept. In government, I understand what Madison was talking about. I'm speaking government terms here now. So because that's my wheelhouse. They they need to have a concept dissected step by step by step. And sometimes at the, you know, several years ago, I would think, how, how can they not know what that is? It's because they did not have that experience. Remember, we talked about, it has to have a practical application, and you have to tap it into something that they've experienced in life, they've missed out because they were on their phones, or their iPads or the computer all the time, they missed out on that engagement to help you understand these concepts. So having to discover the discovery of an assumption is something that's very, very foreign to them. Some of us were just go ahead, well, I can assume through deductive logic, that this will be the end result. They're not able to do that. And I would think they how are they not able to do that. And I had to understand that they had no experience in learning those steps of deductive logic, moving yourself down to that scientific reasoning component that we all learn in the scientific method in discovering things to deduce Is this correct? Is this not correct? And so part of that, that we all learned with that scientific experimentation or understanding the research of how to get to an answer, we learned to take various components, different points of view, pull them together to come to a conclusion, they're not able to do that. And even though they're the most diverse group of generations, they do not they cannot look at a problem. from various points of view, they're very singular, and how they look at something, the options of what something else could be, is not something that they have experience with, and you have to walk them through that step by step. The next one is, is really huge. They are not able to connect what their behavior is today, to implications and consequences down the road. And employers will see this when students when they hire individuals, and they quit after six months. And remember, we talked about that perseverance that they lack they lack of perseverance, more so than other generations, they give up. And so they'll just walk off the job. And, and so what does that look like, though, in terms of us as instructors in the classroom? Students will say, I'm just not going to do three of those assignments. Dr. Durante because I'm okay if I just take a I'm okay, if I end up with a C, and I'll say but I don't know. If you don't know that you'll end up with a sea of pink. Slime is when you need to understand that, that you have to do them. And so they'll say I've already calculated already know that if I skip these three assignments, I'll end up with a 71. I said, but there are eight more outstanding assignments, you can't put in those correct variables to exactly what you're gonna get on each of those assignments, banking, you're getting 100, all on all on all of them, or 90 on all of them. And you're going to end up with a 71. And part of me was like, why would you not want to achieve a b by simply doing the assignments? So they're not, they're not connecting what that behavior means that decision today means down down the road. So in a career end, it means they're not thinking, well, maybe the next employer is not going to hire me, because I've quit my last two jobs. After three months, they're going to say, Well, why would I hire you, they're not connecting, that what they're not learning now is going to build what they're going to need the next semester or down the road. So it's not uncommon for me to get towards the last two weeks of the semester, and they suddenly realize I have a 67. And then the negotiation, is there anything I can do for extra credit, and my syllabus is really lays this out pretty clear. And I review it multiple times, you know, there is no extra credit. And I've, you know, you should have done those assignments, you know, and all of that. And so they're like, you know, and sometimes I say I break it down for them, I said, you know, did only answered more and more questions, made a difference. So let's stop that. And let's make sure we can get to where you need to be. And so the ability to reflect based on evidence in front of them, is not meaningful to them. When they move on to the next class, they're going to do the same thing unless you connect it to real world. So part of that perseverance is the courage to not give up when you're confronted with difficult situations or failure, this generation will give up very easily. And I'll just settle for this. That's okay. I'm not going to do that assignment. And so I'm, I'm kind of, I kind of had to begin to really understand what did that mean, because these wonderful adults, these were caring adults, they're compassionate, they're thoughtful, they're mindful, they care about so many things, why are you willing to not persevere, and so they learn very differently from the world that they grew up in, that was very different from us. And they have a very unique worldview on things that differs from previous generations. But again, it can be very singular. So unless they've had practical experience, it's not going to be very relatable to them. Unless they've had real world experience, they've actually gone through something, they're not going to be able to relate to it, they're not going to be able to problem solve what they need to do. So when you're doing your assignments, if you can tap your assignments into something that's practical, if you can tap their assignments into asking the class at the beginning of the semester, about some real world experiences, they'll be able to solve that problem because they have experience and having, having touched it, having seen it, having heard it, having lived through it, and so forth. So they'll be able to problem solve much better if you're able to build on what it is their strengths are. So just a little bit about their characteristics, their motivations, and their learning preferences that are very different than previous generations. They, as I talked about, at the beginning of our webinar, the the wonderful characteristics of this generation is really outstanding. And so what does that mean in terms of them accomplishing things, they have to be motivated by something that's going to be meaningful and impactful to their lives at that moment, or something that they can see they'll gain by doing whatever it is you've required them to do? I want it now. Instant gratification instantly, why have you not graded my research paper? And that email I see was sent at 628 in the morning. I had a student student once, who emailed at two in the morning, emailed at four in the morning, emailed at 615 in the morning, I'm not even in my office and in front of my computer. And at eight o'clock, that student went in demanding to speak to the vice president of my college, stating Dr. Durante refuses to return any of my emails. And of course because my administration knows me so well, the student did not tell them, they sent emails at two in the morning for the morning, and at six in the morning, which I don't know about any of you. I'm asleep at two in the morning, I'm not grading papers. And so the student was really agitated, that I did not instantly respond to them. And I have to explain I'm not a I'm not a bot. So because of COVID, and all their shutdowns that impacted their high school years, and those really formative years, in terms of when you move into adulthood, they became even more siloed. So what you would like to do is, is, as an educator, kind of rethink, and redesign some of your coursework or some of your assignments and maybe just start with one on a strength based coach, find out what the strength is for the students in your class, and maybe just tweak one particular assignment, that's not a major percentage of their grade, towards their strength based and then kind of, kind of learn from that. And, you know, I've had students say to me, rather than doing a presentation, Dr. duranie, can I can I just show a bunch of photographs? I said, I said to this one student, well, what words, are you going to put those photographs? Well, I don't think I need to write anything, I think I just need to show the picture. And I can just kind of talk about it as I go along. And I said, Would you like me to not have any words in my lectures that kind of just talk about it. And so I was a little thrown aback by that. But there, the student, the student was saying, I really just want to do something that's visual. So maybe do video, have a student do a video, focus on the skills that they have to their strengths, and maybe adapt some of your assignments. And rather than a traditional research paper, is there another way you can approach that I had a class, once I had a couple of students, they wrote a play, which was so much more than the research paper would have asked them to do. They wrote a play and they performed it, and the students got it, it was a concept. So I would encourage you, your students for you to focus on what it is they do best. And then kind of adapt based on their strengths and what they do best to your, your strategies in the classroom and the assignments that you have. So the other thing is because they are not collaborative, they're not collaborative workers. And of course, when you go to work, you have to work collaboratively. But they want to master something on their own before they dip their toe into the water, and expose that they maybe have weaknesses or don't know things for a host of reasons. So if you're going to use group work, one of the areas might be you, you match up somebody who's a strategic thinker, who's able to brainstorm and analyze things very well, with somebody who has what's called a theme domain, who's better able to effectively communicate the data and the ideas. And if you put them together, they will pull on each other's strengths. And you'll have a more complete presentation. So that's, that's one of the things that I started to do, I started to identify who was more analytical, who is more visual, and kind of pair them up, because they're, they each pull to each other's strengths and weaknesses. So I think the last thing that I kind of want to say is that you, you're going to have to meet them in the middle, you're going so in this in the way that you journeyed with your previous generation students, you're going to have to meet them in the middle in more ways than you did before, based on their strengths, and the way they think. And so when you do that you're going to journey along with your students in a different kind of way than you did previously. My students are almost tethered to me at the beginning of the semester. And I'd like to think at the end of the semester, I've untethered them, and they've learned to fly on their own independently to solve whatever those issues are. And that builds trust, trust, and that develops a relationship. And I think it's part of the why five years later, I have students that I taught five, six years ago, email me and say, will you write me a recommendation? I'm applying to graduate school? Because I built that relationship and I built that trust and I really took the time, which I'm gonna be honest, was very exhausting. My summers were spent Haysbert How am I going to not do that again in the fall because that was an utter failure in the spring. I took the time to do that. And it really made a meaningful impact in their lives. So I'm more than happy to answer any questions that you may have. At this point, I hope some of what I've given you is helpful and meaningful in certain ways.
Stephanie Tacquard, Engagement Program Manager, Sage Publishing:Regina, thank you so much. We do have about 10 minutes now for questions, and we've had quite a few come through the chat. Before I get into the questions really quickly, I want to address a few things. I've been in touch with marketing, we will get out next week to you not only the recording for this, but we're also going to get out for you the slide deck. So you've got access to the slide deck, and I'll see what I can do, working on getting all the questions together, and maybe getting Regina to answer them. And we can send out a document as well, with all the questions and answers if we don't have time to answer them all today. So I've created a list of questions and the order in which they've been received. So the first one, it was a great question, Regina, it was can you clarify, determination versus open minded, open minded. So if Gen Z is not very willing to see another point of view, because they're so determined?
Regina Durante, Sage Faculty Partner and Political Science and Government Professor, Galveston College:They get fixed on a very particular solution, or a very particular way of doing something, and then they're very determined to follow through on that path. And so what does that look like for me in the classroom? The students say, Well, I'm going to use these resources. And I'm only going to address this. And when I say well, there's other perspectives you need to bring in, or there's additional data that you need to be bring in to really flush out to fully answer whatever that problem is, whatever it needs to be addressed, I get a lot of pushback on that, they're very determined that what they're doing is the best way to do it, the correct way to do it. And having to pull in different information that they're not familiar with, is just something they're not comfortable with. Because in their minds, I have to go back and read all that I have to go back and learn all of that. And I know this, and I've learned this. So I just want to do I just want to include that in what I'm doing, which of course, then I should get to that because you're not answering the question. So So I hope that helps clarify a little bit.
Stephanie Tacquard, Engagement Program Manager, Sage Publishing:It does. And thank you. I do have a question in the chat really quick, there will be a way to share the recording with other professors. So the email that you'll receive, you can actually share the link with them. So that's not a problem as well. Next question we have for you, Regina is knowing how grading is tied to Gen Z's motivation for learning. Do you perceive the"ungrading" movement working for them? Should there be any adjustments to the method? If so? And if you other questions, I see some folks have hands raised, throw those in the chat for me. If you've got any other questions, and Regina, back to you, sorry.
Regina Durante, Sage Faculty Partner and Political Science and Government Professor, Galveston College:So "ungrading" in terms, can you just clarify on grading because because...
Stephanie Tacquard, Engagement Program Manager, Sage Publishing:I think what we'rse talking about is, rather than you maybe doing a completion as opposed to the grading or hey, here's just an assignment for you. So not necessarily grading it for an actual grade is what I'm understanding the question to say.
Regina Durante, Sage Faculty Partner and Political Science and Government Professor, Galveston College:Okay, I've not encountered from my students within the last five, four years, they will not do a blessed thing. Unless there's a grade attached to it, doing something for the sake of learning it, because it's meaningful for me down the road is not something I've encountered. So doing something, taking the time in class to do a project of some sort, and then not getting a grade for it is, is not what takes place in my classroom. And I've not encountered that. I I've encountered the opposite. Is this going to be on the test? Am I going to be graded on this? Do I need to do this for a grade, that when I could assignments out, like advantage, like this is a really good thing. Go ahead and read this. I said at the beginning of the presentation, maybe get one click. But if I say well, this is going to apply to a grade, everybody's going to click on it. So I I'm not. I've used real life scenarios and projects in terms of I've had students go out and do internships instead of traditional assessments in the classroom and so forth. But they came back and did presentations and they were graded for that. So I've not encountered any experience with we're going to do this not get graded for it. Yeah, so I hope that I hope that helps my I find the opposite. If there's not a grade attached to it, they're not doing it. I see no purpose for it...put a grade on everything! And weigh it carefully.
Stephanie Tacquard, Engagement Program Manager, Sage Publishing:Great, I think...So next question that we have, they teach a clinical class where students are required to apply the theory that they learned in other classes within their class. So they wanted to know if you had tips on helping them get out of their pursuit for grades, and into here and now responding to clients. So students are decompensating in her class, because the traditional learning methods don't necessarily work in the clinical setting. And they often wait, you know, half the quarter of writing the process as a result.
Regina Durante, Sage Faculty Partner and Political Science and Government Professor, Galveston College:So if I can, if I can just clarify that you're saying, you have a project in your class, and that project incorporates concepts or theories that are related to your field in medicine? I think so you're okay, so you're asking the students to pull it together? So is that I think that's what you're asking, How do I incorporate? Yes? Yes. Okay. So I can tell you what, how I have done that. Because there are obvious concepts that fall when I'm teaching government into sociology, criminal justice, psychology. And when students have pulled those in, I take, I have to take the time with my, with the students, more so than when I did millennials, because they kind of knew how to do this with that critical thinking component that's kind of missing, sit down and say, Tell me the concepts. Show me, I want you to map this for me, to show me how you're mapping the integration of those concepts. And what that's going to look like in terms of what it is I need you to accomplish here. So what I've had to do is take the time with the individual students in that case, and I've had to have them map for themselves and teach it to me, rather than me giving them the answer and say, you're going to do it this way. Because that would be the easy way for me to do it. But they're going to walk out, not really knowing how to do it. So and because I teach Socratic Glee, and I really never answer anything I'm all about, show me or let me show you how to do this for yourself. That's how I've addressed it with an inter disciplinary approach, which I know some departments do. So I don't really touch into the medical component of what I do. But I do sociology, criminology, and I do psychology in terms of those concepts. And also history overlaps a lot. And so that's kind of what I do. I have the students come in, and I have them map, how it's going to interconnect, and then we kind of move forward from there.
Stephanie Tacquard, Engagement Program Manager, Sage Publishing:Fantastic. Thank you. And I think we have time for one last question. I do want to be cognizant of everyone's time. And thank you all again today for joining. Like I said, we're gonna get these questions all put into a document and get that sent out to you if we didn't get to your question. So some of the instructors were curious to know if if you engage students, and this was interesting, but if you work for school that enables the students, for example, one of the universities they work for allow students to submit any assignment late. While they're only allowed to subtract a maximum of 10% of their assignment grade for late submissions. They we've had students turn papers in on the last day of their course for assignments from the first two weeks. So what would you recommend for a professor working for a school that's actually enabling the students and not requiring them to?
Regina Durante, Sage Faculty Partner and Political Science and Government Professor, Galveston College:Well, you know, that's really tough. At my college, we have absolute academic freedom, the college and departments do not put protocols or restrictions or so forth on any of us in terms of how we design and build our courses. So if you are I, you know, I guess I would say that's really something you need to go to your dean or your admin about. Because the best way I've been able to solve a problem when I've been asked when administration has said, Let's do this, I go with the data. And the data proves or shows or supports my position that this is not a good policy. Let me tell you what's happening. You know, I'm getting 38 papers on the last day, and you're asking me to turn grades in two days later, and I cannot do quality work under those circumstances. So I've expressed in the past, you're asking me to do something that is not humanly possible. And it's really not in the best interest of my students. And let me show you the numbers. And let me show you what I've experienced as to why I don't know that I can really do this policy because personally, I believe that's really does a disservice to my students. So I think going with your data might be a good solution and narratives go with the stories that your students have told you and go with the frustrations you are having to grade all these papers and Do you expect me to turn in the grades? You know, at the end of the day, remember I say to the administration and my my colleagues, my signature is not for sale. I'm not going to put my signature on a transcript and award a student, three credits, if in fact, they've not done that work, and if you've put them behind the eight ball, so So we kind of have to partner together. I think that's kind of the approach that I might want to take. And I did see a question... I'm sorry, does that help you did that? Did that give you any kind of help at all?
Stephanie Tacquard, Engagement Program Manager, Sage Publishing:I think it did. Unfortunately, we are over time. All right. I want to thank everyone again for joining us here for our Sage talk today with Dr. Durante. And, Regina, we can't thank you enough. And again, thank you for joining.
Regina Durante, Sage Faculty Partner and Political Science and Government Professor, Galveston College:Thank you so much.