2.) Understand the Millennial Generation as learners or professionals.
According to Wikipedia, “Millennials, also known as Generation Y (or simply Gen Y), are
the demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media
use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s as ending birth years, with 1981
to 1996 a widely accepted definition. Millennials are sometimes referred to as "echo boomers" due to a major
surge in birth rates in the 1980s and 1990s, and because millennials are often the children of the baby boomers.
The characteristics of millennials vary by region and by individual, and the group experiences a variety of social
and economic conditions, but they are generally marked by their coming of age in the Information Age, and
are comfortable in their usage of digital technologies and social media.” (2019, as updated). Through the
evolution of the society, technology, communication, and such. The millennials tend to expand their knowledge
proportionally to the evolution. Millennial Generation is the largest and the most diverse generation according
to an article of Michele Monaco, MS, ATC and Malissa Martin, EdD, ATC, CSCS. The researchers found out
from an article compared to the predecessors of the Millennial Generation, their collective personalities,
thinking, and educational possibilities are very unique to traditional practices and also in educational
environments.
In this generation, they are lacking of professional boundaries that resulted by socialization, lack
of critical thinking skills, and unrealistic expectations. “The Millennials want to spend less time on tasks
and reach success with little effort.” (Monaco, 2007). It takes a lot of effort and courage to look things in
a different perspective, the researchers also found out on what are at stakes to understand
learners/professional of this generation; as the researchers said earlier, this generation is the most
computer literate generation to enter the society, so based on an article (Efront) Millennials prefer broad
classification of learning strategies. This generation is more on visual, auditory, and even kinesthetic
needs. So, the Millennials need technologies and experience change in delivery formats to maintain
interest because they have short span of attention – they quickly move on to the other form of learning.
The most common environment of this generation involves less lectures and more collaboration with
peers. They tend to be one message away from each other, but the disadvantage is that the people around
him/her tend to be further away from him/her.
Hypothetically, there are several characteristics in connection to defining characters that may
break/meet the universal expectations; as individuals, they think outside the box and concern – to live in
a changing world, millennials are creative. They always think about new ideas to help hot issues that
spread widely throughout the world. They are super educated – in connection to technologies,
technologies cater almost all information about anything that the Earth consists. So, they are more
updated and smart than the other generation has passed. On the other hand, millennials also have
disadvantages that may break expectations of the majority. Not all in this generation is super educated
some of them are lazy and always take for granted – they always take education for granted and cheating
is rampant in this generation. That is not learning, that is taking for granted. Lastly, the most important
why the break the expectations of the majority are that they are unprofessional, in connection to learning
and profession, these millennials tend to be numb and blind and deaf. They don’t learn from their
experiences/mistakes and tend to be careless on themselves and towards the environment, that is why
they are unprofessional that breaks the universal expectations. The researchers summarize that
millennials are having an equilibrium (balance) in the society due to their contribution and the negativity
behind millennials.
References:
https://natajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.4085/1947-380X-2.2.42
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennials#targetText=Millennials%2C%20also%20known%20as%20Gene
ration,1996%20a%20widely%20accepted%20definition.
https://www.efrontlearning.com/blog/2016/03/5-strategies-to-engage-the-millennials.html
https://www.lifehack.org/articles/work/16-advantages-having-millennials-the-workplace.html
