Read the following characteristics of iGen'ers (Twenge, 2021). Which of the following statements surprise you most?

 

iGen'ers are:

  • Much more tolerant of others - different cultures, sexual orientations, races
  • More cautious, less risk taking
  • Less drinking and drug taking in high school
  • Less likely to go to church
  • More likely to think for themselves and not believe authority figures in church or government
  • Delaying having serious romantic relationships
  • Less teen pregnancy
  • Fewer run aways
  • Delaying driving, and fewer teen driving accidents
  • Less time spent in shopping malls
  • Less likely to go out to see a movie
  • More likely to use Instagram than Facebook

On the potentially negative side, iGens are known for:

  • Less "in person" and "face to face" contact with others due to more time connecting via smart phones
  • Heavy use of gaming
  • Less reading of books, and newspapers
  • Grew up more supervised, more protected than prior generations
  • Less experience with teen jobs and earning money in high school
  • May stay up till 2 AM using smart phone and social media
  • Possibly more depressed than prior generations
  • Feels more lonely, and not needed
  • Possibly a higher suicide rate

teenagers phonesTeenagers come to the class with learning habits, with a learning experience, both positive and negative, successful and less successful. At their age, they are very sensitive and very critical at the same time. Even though their behaviour can be sometimes erratic, they are willing to learn, they have various interests and come to class with certain expectations and needs.

Even though technology can be amusing and fun (for a while), it is a teacher who has to understand their needs, know their experience, and decide how to involve them in the lessons, how to make them active in a class and how to support them. Preparing interesting and engaging lessons that make use of their need for creativity, exploration; allowing them to take responsibility, to build their autonomous space and reach self-actualisation might be also a significant step to creating a good teacher-student rapport that supports successful teaching results.


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