){kind=logo}
){kind=icon}
){kind=logo}
){kind=icon}
Gen Z are 100% digital natives. They are creative, self-taught, multi-screen, and multitasking. Quite a challenge for traditional education.
The development of competency-based curricula is oriented to the progressive and gradual learning of the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values that students will have to develop throughout their academic training. Often this sequence, added to the energy and enthusiasm of young entering first-year students, intensifies the need to interact early with reality. Therefore, it is crucial to know who our students are, how they learn, and what they hope to achieve at the end of their studies. This approach becomes essential for student retention at universities.
The Centennials, or Generation Z, born beginning from 1995, whose ages currently range from 14 to 23 years, grew up in a technological revolution in full, in the context of the internet and social networks. They are individuals who connect naturally to the virtual world, and they consider that part of their community. They are creative, self-taught, multi-screen, and multitasking, definitely 100% digital natives. Much of their previous learning experience came from the internet, a fact that is challenging for traditional education.
According to a study carried out by Pearson in 2018, regarding the vision that Gen Z has about the role of technology in education, it was found that 47% spend more than three hours a day on a video platform, 59% prefer to use YouTube for learning, and 39% prefer that the instruction be directed by a teacher.
In a survey applied by Dell Technologies to 12,000 high school and university students around the world, 52% commented that they feel confident about the technical skills they possess requested by employers. However, they are unsure about having the soft skills required to perform a job. Therefore, they perceive the need to develop competencies, such as critical thinking, logical thinking, and decision-making. They allude to the implementation of other types of formative experiences (such as what we share in this article). Students expect schools to teach them how to learn, not just what to learn.
Three qualities of Gen Z
It is estimated that by the end of this year, Generation Z will make up 20% of the multigenerational workforce. According to (Aguirre 2019), there are three qualities of Gen Z that we must strive to strengthen in them through educational projects.
Three qualities of Gen Z
-
Easy adaptability to work contexts
-
The pragmatism they can achieve
-
Their integration with other generations in today’s workforce, namely, Baby boomers, Gen X, and Millennials
The challenge for higher education is to connect Gen Z with a digital imprint to real environments, where problems can be addressed from new teaching methodologies with the help of technology. This classroom approach to reality implies the didactic renewal of teaching practice, i.e., new ways of teaching and evaluating by the teacher and the use of new digital platforms to support that process, just as we are doing today with the transformation of online education in a time of pandemic. The Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science, and Culture (OEI) emphasizes that the new training must be a source for acquiring not only knowledge but also the competencies to modify it, adapt it, update it, and put it in the service to society.
Active and experiential learning projects
In 2018, the Technological University of Chile INACAP developed two projects for first-year students majoring in Social Work; these projects were characterized by having an early connection with the real world. It is noteworthy that, because of their vocation, the students in this major demonstrate a firm conviction about the need for social transformation. These projects were developed based on the two educational strategies of active and experiential learning, namely, service-learning and project-based learning (PBL). The activities were carried out in the August-December 2018 semester with the participation of students from other careers of Pedagogy in Middle Education, Musical Arts, and Civil Construction and Design.
Students were challenged to develop:
-
A campaign to prevent breast cancer and human papillomavirus
-
Adapt a cellar in a home for older adults, which would allow them to store kinesiology machines and implements that had been donated or managed under the direction of the rehabilitation program.
For the breast cancer and human papillomavirus prevention campaign, students from the Design and the Social Work programs planned a socio-educative campaign to raise awareness at the Ñuñoa de Santiago commune about the issues of health and self-care. Social Work students applied surveys to health services users. They carried information to the Design students that allowed them to create an educational campaign with relevant messages and engaging graphics that culminated in a University dependencies fair open to the public.
“The classroom approach to reality implies the didactic renewal of teaching practice, i.e., new ways of teaching and evaluating and the use of new digital platforms to support that process, just as we are doing today with the transformation of online education in the time of the pandemic.”
For the remodeling of the cellar in the home of older adults, the Social Work students interviewed the staff who provide direct patient care. They delved into the principal operational difficulties, which turned up the need to optimize space and mobility inside the enclosure. The students from the school of Construction designed the cellar as a solution and built it. Simultaneously, students studying Pedagogy in Education and Musical Arts joined. They took advantage of the Social Work diagnostic spaces to perform musical memory workshops, narrative workshops, and play activities, among other socialization activities of the older adults.
To evaluate these proposals, we considered the potential impact of the project on the community and the feasibility of the different careers (majors) working together, always emphasizing a positive experience for the students. The objective of these projects was to increase the students’ social and environmental vocations, their flexibility and disciplinary elasti
city, assertiveness, search for consensus, critical thinking, and teamwork. Another goal was to strengthen the bond with people in the community and the impact of their interventions. In both projects, the student evaluation results were satisfactory, resulting in an average 30% improvement in grades and 50% more attendance in activities. At the end of the educational experiences, we gave a Likert-type questionnaire to the participating students. More than 70% indicated “agree” and “very much agree” that the experience was successful, which impacted student satisfaction with their training positively.
These unprecedented experiences led by the academic area and the university administration demonstrate the relevance of incorporating early learning practices in a multidisciplinary and complex context. This is one where the new profiles of students are recognized, allowing them to connect effectively with real institutions and social actors of the community, generating ethical commitment to their surroundings in a protected learning environment that requires a high commitment from the educational community.
These competencies and skills strengthen the professional training of the so-called Generation Z by opening the way and creating possibilities for future employability. It is a generation that will motivate the creation of new forms of work and labor contexts in a society more and more complex and changing. We invite professors in higher education to explore educational practices where students connect to their environment early. The pedagogical practices should address the social complexity and direct experience of the students in a reality that is physically close but unknown to them. Doing so will serve to develop in them the social and citizenship skills they need to be considered for employment.
About the authors
Christian Quinteros Flores (cquinteros@inacap.cl) is a social worker. He has a master’s in Political Science and currently seeking his Ph.D. in Land Management and Sustainable Development. He is an Academic and Specialty Coordinator of the Social Work career at the Technological University of Chile INACAP.
Drina Migone Rettig (dmigone@inacap.cl) is an architect. Master in HR. Academic Director, Headquarters of the Technological University of Chile INACAP.
References
Aguirre, Diego (2019). Pragmáticos, integradores y adaptables: el perfil laboral de los centennials chilenos. Diario El Mercurio, Economía y Negocios, enero 2019. Retrieved from http://www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id=538085
Dell Technologies Inc (2020). Gen Z is here. Are you ready?. Retrieved from: https://www.delltechnologies.com/en-us/perspectives/gen-z.htm
Organización de Estados Iberoamericanos para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura (OEI) (2019). Diagnóstico de la Educación Superior en Iberoamérica. Retrieved from: https://www.oei.es/Ciencia/Noticia/la-calidad-es-el-gran-reto-al-que-se-enfrenta
Pearson Education Inc (2018). Meeting the expectations of Gen Z in higher ed. Retrieved from: https://www.pearson.com/us/content/dam/one-dot-com/one-dot-com/us/en/files/PSONA5646-8150_TIDL_GenZ_Infographic_Print_FINAL.pdf
){kind=icon}
){kind=icon}
This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 
)