Gen Y and Paying Attention
I'm a Gen Y myself and teaching a lot of students who are mostly Gen Y. A question I have is with all the technology that Gen Y has avaible at their fingertips, that during a lecture, sitting and focusing on a subject, it becomes difficult for the student to focus. I've seen this happen to many students.
But if you get any of the Gen Y students working on something with their hands their focus is 100%. Is it possible that Gen Y is predisposed to ADD and ADHD because of the reliance on technology and having everything available right now at their fingertips?
Tyler,
this is a very interesting question & really could be viewed two ways. Are Gen Yers predisposed to ADD/ADHD or have we seen an increase in false diagnoses of ADD/ADHD because of the shorter attention spans? Either way, it's important for we instructors to be aware of how to best reach these students.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I think it becuase the have been trained to use cell phone and computors or all that has been put in front of them. That it is the 1st thing that can keep there focuse.
I think that many in this generation are said to have ADD/ADHD, when they do not. The are a group that is used to always being on the go, always having 10 things going on at once, and when they do not have that for periods of time, their attention span flies right out the window. As instructors, we need to keep things going and mix thing up every 10 or 15 minutes, to keep them engaged and more importantly, paying attention!
we seem to be a little to egar to label individuals, and this sometimes allows excuses for behaviors that are unacceptable, allows for the lack of meeting professional expectations, and decreases the level of accountability when leadership lacks good management skills.
I don't believe Gen Y has more true cases of ADD. I believe that Gen Y students are conditioned to multi-tasking thus the appearance of being ADD at times. It's the job of a strong instructor to utilize the skill of the multi-tasker to the classe's advantage through the use of more interactive activity.
This is true, everything is and has been through their entire lives absolutely at their fingertips. If they are hungry, fast food or one minute in the microwave.If they want to know something, Google it. Want to talk, call or text on the phone in their pocket. The list goes on.They have not had to really work for what they want. I have many students get upset because I ask them to think on their own to get an answer to a question. They get mad when I do not just tell them the answer. " You know it, why can't you just tell me!" Many of them were raised by video games. Unfortunately, they have been trained to beat the game, find the cheat code or find the short cut to win. A lot of them treat life in the same manner. How do you beat the system or find the short cut.
I am a Gen X'er and have been teaching for about 10 years. I have found teaching Gen Y'ers to be quite taxing due to a general lack of ability to stay focused and keep time on task. While the use of phones inside the classroom is forbidden, this does not seem to stop most of my students. It seems that frequent breaks allow them to leave the classroom for a few minutes, check their phones or whatever, and then return for another 45 minutes or so for more classroom time.
Scott,
I do think we need to do more with exploring the value of frequent breaks & helping our students in this way.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Scott,
I do think we need to do more with exploring the value of frequent breaks & helping our students in this way.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I'm not sure whether it's possible to be predisposed to ADD/ADHD, but at the behavioral level a significant pecentage of Gen Y exhibit the characteristics of persons who suffer from such ailments. While growing up with technology is certainly a contributing factor, I believe, other cultural forces create such disposition.
I'm a Gen X teaching Gen Y. I don't see why do we need to see their short attention span as negative, it provides me with the opportunity to cover multiple interrelated topics in a day. It also motivates me to research new strategies of teaching, to incorporate hands-on activities, as well as cooperative learning.
Ali ,
I would agree that the availability of technology has certainly contributed to shorter attention spans & a seeming restlesteness.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Ali ,
I would agree that the availability of technology has certainly contributed to shorter attention spans & a seeming restlesteness.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Tyler,
I would tend to agree that Gen X'ers do have a short attention span. When trying to give a short lecture, I find that most of my students’ minds will tend to wander after a few minutes, even if I am making them take notes on a subject. Like some other instructors also stated, I notice that if I have students work in groups, read a short article or watch a video clip in class, it keeps them more engaged than just lecturing. However, even when engaged many students are incapable of putting down their phone for more than a few minutes. While many teachers would call it a distraction, the Gen Y'ers would call it "multi-tasking." Any suggestions on how to solve this significant problem? I am sure it will only get worse for educators in the future.
Alicia,
this is definitely a significant challenge & I would agree that it seems we have to work harder to maintain the attention. I try to help the students see that multi-tasking really is not efficient & actually is detrimental.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I would agree its a combination of when they were born and a change in culture. You also have to remember the way most courses are set up do not allow a lot of hands on time. This means you see more bored students than other people.
I've had similar experiences with my Gen Y students. They seem less willing to struggle there way through a thought process and more willing to google to find out 23 other people's ideas. On the other hand, they can certainly find answers using their technology faster than any other group I have taught.
This is an interesting perspective, but when teaching in a multigenerational classroom this approach can be confusing for older students. Can you give some examples of how you break up information?
This seems to be very usefull: breaking things up in small, more easily digestable chunks. That's my challenge. To think in fresh terms about content delivery.
