Teaching Generation Z

William Gleberzon and Jacqueline Petropoulos

This panel discusses some of the challenges we have encountered teaching the “new millennial” generation of students and the teaching strategies we have used to meet these challenges.  The first panelist discusses the problem of students who do not complete their readings on time and how he gets them to do so. He also discusses the lack of attendance and expectation of high grades common among this cohort of students.  He then shares strategies to motivate students to attend classes.  The second panelist discusses the use of experiential education as a means to reach out to today’s students who seem more interested in the integration of practical and academic knowledge.  With examples of how she has implemented experiential education into subjects that are traditionally text-based, such as English Literature, she argues this approach serves as an important complement to, and motivator for, student engagement with course reading material.