Mentoring the millennial: challenges in the classroom

Do the millennial pose challenges in the classroom? For the Gen X/Y teachers?

The teacher and the student represent different era. The teacher has come from a time of regulations, license raj, public sectors, large organizations, traditional values. The student is the digital native, born in the time of the 4th industrial revolution, characterized by disruptions in business, uncertainty, virtual reality, AI and Cloud Computing. The teacher and the student meet at the edge of two generational cohorts: one is Gen X or Y, the other is a millennial. Each is shaped by his era.

How different is he, the millennial? According to a research report cited in the Times, the millennial generation is very different: three times more narcissistic than the generation that's now 65 or older,  40%  expect promotion every two years, regardless of performance; fame-obsessed; but their development is stunted, more of them live with their parents than before. The statistic is based on researches and it certainly provides useful insights. But on the flip side, it also leads to stereotyping. There is a view that generational differences tend to be more of an overblown media obsession, and too much should not be read into the differences, which are mere manifestation of age old tensions between different generations.

Coming to the class room,in my experience for over a decade I have not seen any chasm so wide that it cannot be bridged with understanding. While the young students are digitally native, it is also true that many in the older generations are also digitally immersed. The interesting thing about these generational divides is that individuals often defy them, by swimming across, with a sort of neoteny and an inner youthfulness. And this has been true in all generational divides, I suppose.

A key feature of a millennial classroom is the preference for group work. This is also borne by researches that they( the millennial) love team work, use technology to interact with each other and seek information, and apply novel approaches to today’s problems. Researches have also indicated that teaching becomes effective when the faculty facilitates cooperation among students; prepares students for diversity and cross-cultural interaction; cultivates knowledge creation; and promotes active engagement inside and outside the classroom (Principles for teaching the millennial generation: innovative practices of um faculty. https://www.researchgate.net/publication).

Another critical trait of the millennial generation is the need for mentoring. In a study by Deloitte the millennial respondents said an ideal working week would include significantly more mentoring and coaching time than they currently receive.

The mentoring of the millennial demand innovative approach and application of principles of andragogy . For example, while discoursing on ethical leadership in business, I presented a situation and posed a question. ‘ If you were asked by an employee in a government office a bribe of an affordable amount to clear a Factory license, and you require the license badly to start operations, how many of you would not mind paying?’ Many hands went up, expectedly, because they are functionally oriented , no frills , largely hedonistic generation. I explored their moral reasoning ( as of Kohlberg) and made the point that it is the quality of reasoning to pay or not to pay that matters, and they could learn to look at their own reasoning and adapt a better reasoning. And then I waited for the inevitable question, ‘What would you have done?’, and this was the moment of truth of a mentor. I seized the moment and answered that in similar situations, I never paid , and the orgnizations did not punish me for inefficiency . Then I suggested that mismatched personal and organizational values caused severe stress , and it is therefore necessary to choose organizations based on values also. The millennial takes a position on values, not by because of a parental do and don't list , but because the decision is his after he has carefully weighed the pros and cons in his mind.