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The Postmodern Paradox

Teachers and Learners in Conflict

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The Global Context

• The replacement of the ‘prototypical student’ by the disengaged, entitled, consumer student

• The unwillingness to take on adult roles, creating a ‘protracted adolescence’

• The importance of technology• The pressures of internationalisation• Public criticism leading to externally driven

reform• No ‘jobs for life’

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Who are they?

• Born 1945-62 Baby Boomers• Born 1963-78 Generation X – ‘anything

is possible, as long as you're willing to throw money at it’ ‘disaffected and directionless’ ‘I want my MTV’

•Born 1979-99 Generation Y• Born 2000+ New Silent Generation

-‘withdrawn, cautious, unimaginative, indifferent, unadventurous and silent.’

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Generation Y have grown up with

• The Internet and the World Wide Web for the general user

• PCs requiring few keyboard skills

• Sophisticated computer graphics

• Cellular phones

• Instant messaging

• DVD

• Digital Audio - Mp3, iPod

• TiVo DVR devices

• HDTV

• Broadband Internet

• Digital Cameras

• Camera phones

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Generation Y

• Respond to visual stimuli• Have great hand-eye coordination• Are able to multi-task BUT• Have a concentration span of ten

minutes or less• Have a poor sense of real time

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Generation Y Learners

• Do not like school

• Expect entertainment and are easily bored

• Are not into books, reading or study

• Are not motivated to do "school work”

• Have a consumer mentality and want to negotiate

• View education as a commodity to be acquired through purchase

• See education as being passively acquired

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Generation Y Learners

• Have poorly developed developmental goals

• Possess lower academic skills• Function at lower cognitive levels• Expect academic success with little

effort• Believe they are entitled to good grades• Benefit from ‘grade inflation’

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What we provide

• loosely organised, unfocused curriculum

• undefined learning outcomes• classes that emphasise passive listening • lectures that transmit low-level

information • assessments of learning that demand only

the recall of memorised material or low-level comprehension of concepts

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What we provide

• Instuctors who have not been taught how to teach

• Teachers as ‘Experts’• Teachers who are comfortable with

reflective learning. Students prefer active learning.

• Baby Boom generation teachers. • Traditional classes, academic

processes and products. • Short term academic goals.

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Learner Outcomes

• Good reading comprehension

• Poor analysis or application skills

• Poor problem solving and reasoning skills • Poor appreciation of scientific methods • Poor memory and reasoning • Poor language skills • Focus on performance goals over learning goals • Surface learning over deep learning • A lack of general and global knowledge• Poorly developed higher level cognitive skills

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A Conclusion

In fact there is limited evidence of a significant difference between students who take courses and students who do not.

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A Paradigm Shift

‘The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them’

(Albert Einstein)

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Defining Objectives

‘Any instructor who is not familiar with Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives should be hornswoggled.’

(Dr. Mark Taylor)

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The Learning School

“an organisation that facilitates the learning of all its members and continuously transforms itself.”

(M. Pedlar)

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The Learning School

• creates substantive change in individual learners.

• engages learners as full partners in the learning process. Learners assume primary responsibility for their own choices.

• creates and offers as many options for learning as possible.

• assists learners to form and participate in collaborative learning activities.

• defines the roles of teachers by the needs of the learners.

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Technology

‘they have told me that they don't want personal contact with their instructors. They have stated that they want to "be left alone" to merely complete assignments and get the work out of the way.’

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Technology

‘A sense of ownership of learning is one of the traits of successful online learners, and I feel concern that students are signing up for online classes out of convenience, without any understanding of the trade-off they are accepting for the benefit.’

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Fundamental Changes

• The student-teacher relationship

• Student and teacher responsibilities

• The students• The teacher’s role

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Overcoming Obstacles

• Change instructor beliefs and behaviour

• Diversify instructor skills• Provide environment and technology• Train learners• Provide administrative support• Make changes in academic

scheduling

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The Teacher’s Role in Change

• Identify external goals• Create student ownership of goals• Offer learning options• Provide a variety of learning methods• Act as a resource• Assess against external criteria• Concentrate on higher levels of learning• Increase activity in learning• Give meaningful assessments

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Acknowledgements

This presentation draws on the work of

• Mark L Taylor (Arkansas State University) - Generation Next

• Terry O’Banion (LICC) - The Learning College

• Lion F Gardiner (Rutgers University) - Research into change in education

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Thank you for listening

www.stevedarn.com