Who are Gen Z Students, and What are they Like?
Teachers who want to meet the needs of Generation Z students know that they bring different interests and learning needs to the classroom.
Teachers must also change their teaching methods to match the needs of Gen Z students to get their attention and engage them.
Who are Generation Z Students?
According to the Pew Research Center (2018), members of Generation Z are those born after 1997.
Pew researchers found that in the United States, nearly half of them, or 48%, are racial or ethnic minorities. Twenty-five percent identify as Hispanic, 13% as Black, 6% as Asian, and 4% as other races.
Most Gen Z children live in the country’s metropolitan areas, with only 12% living in rural areas.
Generation Z students live in the “digital age.” They use smartphones, e-readers, digital assistants, laptops, and iPads. They text their friends, download music, and create and share digital pictures online.
Gen Z students communicate on social media networks and are “connected” nearly every waking hour of the day.
While they “live online,” Gen Z students also trust what they see and read online. A study by Adweek showed that 72% of Gen Z students want a website to know what they are looking for when searching it.
Many are willing to trust their favorite brands with their personal information as long as the website gives them what they want.
Meeting the Learning Needs of Gen Z Students in the Classroom
Generation Z students like autonomy and personalization in their learning. According to Fisher (2016), they have grown up expecting everything to be personalized just for them—from playlists to newsfeeds to products.
Researchers, Seemiller & Grace (2017), found that some Gen Z students like learning in a social setting where they can build relationships with others.
Gen Z students grew up on short “how to” videos from YouTube and “googling” information they wanted to know on the spot. T
Gen Z students want active learning and engagement rather than lectures. They learn by doing and experimenting. They enjoy being shown how to do something rather than hearing about it. Gen Z students are entrepreneurial in nature and often express interest in starting their own businesses.
The Impact of COVID-19 on Gen Z Student Learning
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (McCoy, 2020) have found that Gen Z students prefer “in-person” group activities, printed materials, and interactions with teachers over digital learning. However, they did still enjoy learning via YouTube (59%) and learning apps (47%).
While Gen Z students are better at focusing in the classroom than their predecessors, they do have shorter attention spans, so active learning methods are a must.
The study’s conclusion recommended that teachers use a blend of traditional face-to-face teaching methods supported by online learning activities, including the use of digital devices.
Meeting the Needs of Your Gen Z Students
Teachers can meet the learning needs of Gen Z students by providing self-paced and self-directed learning opportunities. By providing bite-sized, time-efficient, and focused learning, teachers can increase student engagement.
Generation Z is more career-focused than previous generations. To increase interest, help them connect mastering the content in front of them with career advancement. Gen Z students also value altruism. Gen Z students will respond better if you can help them see how their learning contributes to the greater good.
Gen Z students value diversity, so it is important to create inclusive classroom environments where all students feel welcome and valued. Gen Z students enjoy sharing their ideas and learning with others, and many would enjoy tutoring their peers on content they have already mastered.
People struggle with large amounts of text in their daily lives. Readers must read, analyze, synthesize, and respond—often with a sense of urgency and immediacy—to the information they are presented with.
The jobs most of our students will do in the future are likely not even created. As a result, our teaching must leave behind the obsolete “factory model” and capture the realities of life in the 21st century and beyond.
We must prepare our students to be strong readers, thinkers, questioners, and managers of text and information. Education must prepare students to meet the demands of a yet undefined world. Like it or not – that is what being a teacher in the 21st century requires of all of us.
You Might Be Interested In The Following Blog Post:
Fake News – How to Analyze Online Information
Or my ASCD book Literacy Strategies for Grades 4-12: Reinforcing the Threads of Reading.
