I was born during the middle of the post-war Baby Boom and have always been proud to be a member of a generation that challenged everything. I think the Rolling Stones are the greatest musical group of all time, and still often hear their rendition of As Tears Go By in the back of my mind. I know all the words to Carole King’s Tapestry album (yes, I said album). Please don’t argue with me about who was the handsomest Beatle. Without equivocation, it’s Paul, although John always ran a close second.
For me, college was about breaking away from home and having new experiences with friends. No one I knew ever took a class that started at 11:00 a.m. because everyone gathered in the student union to watch All My Children. It was not just the women, but also the men who were also keeping up on the latest intrigue in Pine Valley and Erica Kane’s current dysfunctional love interest. Many of our varsity football players were there each day as well and could have told you all the intricate details of the plot line, subplots included. This was an important bonding experience for me and I remember those mornings sitting on the floor of the student union gathered around a television set far more than what I learned in English Literature of the Late Period or Introductory Geology.
My generation plodded our way along a defined career track to – what would hopefully be - a comfortable retirement in a small town next to a big city in a temperate climate.
For women of my generation, staying home and raising children without being in the workforce was not an option. So, most women found themselves working one full-time job in the workplace and a second one at home in the evenings. They felt equally guilty about the amount of effort they were giving to each and tiredness became a way of life. My generation plodded our way along a defined career track to – what would hopefully be - a comfortable retirement in a small town next to a big city in a temperate climate. Any deviation from that career track was a major life upheaval and frowned upon by our elders. Early retirement would be our reward for working three or four decades in the same profession. It was our path to the “Golden Years.” The decades in between were simply a way to get there.
My Millennial Students
Given this backdrop, one can understand why the young people in my college courses who are members of the Millennial Generation puzzle me. They live their lives with a different set of values than I lived mine. Their daily schedules exhaust me. They run from their first job to their second job, which they hold down while taking a full schedule of classes. After that, they volunteer their time. They might then attend a study group and finally end up at an intramural volleyball game late at night. They have no time for sitting on the floor of the student union wondering which unsuitable man Erica Kane will pair up with next.
Technology is an integral part of their lives and brings them immediacy of information that wasn’t open to me. Millennials always seem to be on their cell phones talking. I often wonder whom it is they are talking to and why it can’t wait an hour. The Internet is an integral part of each day for them. They know their way around e-mail, Adobe Acrobat, PhotoShop, Media Player, etc. I find these software applications still slightly anxiety provoking. When making course assignments, I jokingly tell my students where the library is located. “It’s the large structure just after the College of Natural Resources building,” I mention. They quietly laugh, but the truth is they don’t need to go there physically. They don’t need to roam the musty library stacks looking through journals for quantitative studies on the latest topic I have assigned them. The information they need is at their fingertips. This is, at once a loss, and a gain.
This generation routinely forges strong male/female friendships that wouldn’t have been possible in mine. Women of my generation didn’t have male roommates who were strictly platonic friends. We didn’t have men in our lives who were just buddies … remember When Harry Met Sally? It simply couldn’t be done. Even Harry and Sally couldn’t do it. Yet, the Millennial Generation seems to have breached this culturally sanctioned divide between the sexes. They are better for it.
FACETS—A Way to Understand the Differences
Somehow, this generation has been wise enough to recognize early that working until retirement at a job you don't like is a personal dead-end.
The study of the Millennial Generation through the FACETS program has helped me understand some of the differences between this generation and mine. One of the most enlightening pieces of information about the Millennial Generation indicated by Howe and Strauss, authors of Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation (2000), is that its members possess strong service ethics. I’ve observed this trait in my students repeatedly. Almost all of them volunteer their time with social service agencies. Their volunteer jobs are the last items in their busy schedules they would consider dropping. My students, who are majors in the School of Education, spend many hours in various assigned practica in classrooms with children and then volunteer to stay longer because they’ve grown attached to the children and the teacher. They volunteer to help children with varying types of disabilities and develop close ties with the children and their parents. My generation was afraid of people who were different. This generation embraces them. They have bridged this cultural divide, also. We are all better for it. I envy them this trait.
Somehow, this generation has been wise enough to recognize early that working until retirement at a job you don’t like is a personal dead-end. As Howe and Strauss state, “Millennials would rather strike a balance between what they have to do and what they want to do…”1 This unusually mature view held by the Millennial Generation has the potential to ensure that its members live truly fulfilling lives. My generation didn’t see what we wanted to do as important. We saw our careers as a means to an end. We should have learned how to strike a balance and make personal fulfillment a priority.
Howe and Strauss also identify some characteristics of the Millennial Generation that I hadn’t thought about previously. They indicate that this is an optimistic generation that accepts authority, follows rules, and respects their parent’s views on issues. How different this is from my generation when I was warned not to trust anyone over thirty. So, of course, I didn’t…until I turned forty.
Cooperative Learning to Teach Complex Skills
During the FACETS training, my colleague, Dr. Dayle Upham and I, became especially aware that Millennials respond well to opportunities to learn actively in cooperative group situations. This prompted us to develop, refine, and implement a joint five-week learning module entitled “Simulating the Individual Education Program Plan Writing Process” that is based on this learning style.
The development and writing of the Individual Education Program (IEP) is one of the most important components of the skill set required of a special education teacher, and one that each of our students in the Exceptional Education program needs to master. An IEP plan is a set of cohesive educational strategies specifically designed for students in grades pre-Kindergarten through 12 who have identified disabilities. The IEP document has been incorporated into educational planning for children with disabilities for approximately 25 years. It began as a one-page, hand-written educational plan for each child. Since that time, it has evolved into a complex, computerized task resulting in a document that consists of approximately 35 pages per child containing highly specific information written in behavioral terminology. A team of educational specialists that serves each school district prepares this document. The special educator is a crucial member of this team.
Prior to the FACETS training, I taught this skill through a traditional format. I lectured students about each part of the IEP. I had them practice writing each section, tested them for knowledge, and graded them. They listened politely, took notes copiously, completed their assignments… and promptly forgot what they had learned. I needed a better way to teach this skill if my students were to be successful as special educators.
Dr. Upham and I wanted to see if students would develop their skills to a deeper level by engaging in a realistic IEP simulation. In order to create the environment necessary to deliver this simulation, we needed to combine students from methods courses across two consecutive semesters. Exceptional Education Methods I and II were grouped for the purposes of this simulation. We form teams of students from each class who then write IEPs based on case studies we have written of children with disabilities. Each team has a leader that we designate. Within the team structure, there are specified jobs that team members are allowed to select. We provide the format, structure, and guidance; the students teach themselves.
Enhanced Perfomance
We discovered that teaching this complex skill through the framework of a simulation based on solving problems in cooperative groups led directly to a deeper understanding of the concepts involved.
As Dr. Upham and I implemented the pilot portion of the IEP simulation, we found that the information students learned through this group process became theirs rather than simply another academic exercise they completed that they would forget once the semester ended. We discovered that teaching this complex skill through the framework of a simulation based on solving problems in cooperative groups led directly to a deeper understanding of the concepts involved.Most importantly, their simulated IEPs were of the quality written by practicing teachers. I couldn’t say that for students during the previous semesters who had been taught through traditional formats.
Students from the pilot semester, spring 2005, indicated to us that they learned this complex task more thoroughly, felt more competent in completing it, enjoyed the association with each other, and taught each other well through the simulation. Below are comments from four students that were taken from an informal survey course survey:
- The whole process of writing an IEP was new to me and I was very apprehensive about beginning it. After finishing this project, I feel quite accomplished.
- The end project seems to tie everything that we had learned together. It was also nice to see the other group’s presentations as well as to get more ideas about certain characteristics of students that may be in our very own classes.
- At the beginning of the semester, I was nervous about learning to write an IEP and didn’t think I could do it, but someone was always there to answer my questions. Now I wonder what all the worry was about!
- It was truly a hands-on learning experience for me and I am looking forward to next semester so that I can further increase my skills.
Lessons Learned Through Collaboration
During the implementation of the pilot semester of the IEP simulation, Dr. Upham and I discovered several issues related to our own collaboration that could have become significant obstacles to developing the simulation. We managed to navigate these obstacles successfully and learned several important things during the process.
First, collaboration is at once easier and more difficult than one might think. The support of another colleague with whom to bounce ideas around makes things easier. However, finding a healthy compromise between two sets of ideas isn’t always simple. Dr. Upham and I had a natural give-and-take, and our skills complemented each other. We also had innate respect for one another’s knowledge, which helped in the process. Without give-and-take and underlying respect, this collaboration probably wouldn’t have worked.
Second, the initial preparation for a simulation similar to this one is intense. Forms must be prepared. Case studies must be developed. Directions must be written and finalized. Weekends become work sessions. The logistics of grouping 60 students together across two semesters are complicated, and it is inevitable that mistakes will be made. During the pilot semester, we made a conscious decision to involve the students in helping us refine the program. They have been instrumental in accomplishing this task by forwarding ideas of high quality to us.
Third, the positives far outweigh the negatives. Collaborating with another colleague was an excellent experience. I learned from Dr. Upham and I hope she learned from me.
I like being the facilitator instead of the lecturer, and it has been surprisingly easy to make this change. I feel a sense of gratification while watching students come to consensus about an educational plan for a child with disabilities. I can almost see them make the leap from being a college student to a teacher.
I am looking forward to the fall 2005 semester when the full program will be implemented because I also find that I like learning in this way. I like being the facilitator instead of the lecturer, and it has been surprisingly easy to make this change. I feel a sense of gratification while watching students come to consensus about an educational plan for a child with disabilities. I can almost see them make the leap from being a college student to a teacher. Although this transformation almost always occurs during the second of the two semesters, I wasn’t privileged to see it when I taught the course in the conventional mode. Now it happens in front of me. I am thrilled about the pre-service teachers we are sending out to work with children.
Although I still think there is value in the traditional lecture/test method, I also think there is tremendous promise in active learning. I’m convinced that retention of knowledge and depth of understanding is greater.
Asides to Share
I have a couple of small asides to share. Last year, Carole King came to our campus to attend a political rally. I immediately cleared my schedule to see her. Most of the people who came to the rally were around my age and were just as excited as I about meeting this icon from 1960’s popular culture. Several of them brought their old copies of Tapestry for her to autograph. I had been too shy to do so although mine remains carefully stored in my basement. While waiting for her arrival, excited conversation among the Baby Boomers bubbled around the room. Several of us asked Millennials if they knew who Carole King was. The answer was always the same, “Well… I know she’s a singer.” When we mentioned some of her song titles, they pretended they recognized them, but I don’t think they really did. Even if they knew some of the words to You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman, I can guarantee you they didn’t know all the words to Tapestry.
Oh, and just in case you’ve been wondering who all of Erica’s husbands were, her full married name is Erica Kane Martin Brent Cudahy Chandler Montgomery Montgomery Chandler Marick. At least it was the last time I checked. I haven’t had time to sit on the floor of the student union lately to catch up on all the plot lines.
Afterthoughts—Looking Backward
Looking backward at my own higher education, I now wonder what I missed. I was the person who was good at listening, taking notes, and demonstrating my knowledge on tests. I responded well to traditional teaching methods, however, I wonder if my level of knowledge was as deep as it should have been – as deep as it could have been. I suspect it wasn’t.
I now find that the traits of Millennials that previously puzzled me are traits I understand more fully and am willing to embrace. Millennials have become much more intriguing to me and I’m open to learning from them. I intend to infuse active learning simulations into more of my courses.
Why couldn’t someone have done something like this for me?
Brief Bio: Christine earned her Ph.D. from the University of Utah. Prior to her experiences in higher education, she taught junior high school in Salt Lake City for many years. She began her university teaching at the Fort Hays State University in Kansas. She is currently an Associate Professor of Teacher Education at UW-SP where she teaches a variety of courses in exceptional education in both in special education and gifted education. She also coordinates a gifted summer practicum and two outreach programs in gifted education for children -- College Days for Kids, and Youth in College at UW-SP. Contact Christine at: cgould@uwsp.edu
1 Howe, N. and Strauss, W., Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation. (New York: Vintage Books, Random House, 2000), 182.