"Millennial Perspectives and Priorities"

Abstract

Prioritizing student voice, this study investigated the perspectives of undergraduate students in relation to their preferences and priorities for how they desired to experience teaching and learning. While not experts, our assumption was that undergraduate students, because of their relatively long experience as students, would be closely in touch with how they preferred to learn. Employing a mixed method, randomly selected students (N=291 of 3,000) completed a brief online survey, and we followed with qualitative focus groups and individual interviews in order to confirm the quantitative data and deepen our understanding of the student perspective. Findings pointed toward particular student preferences and priorities for: teacher behaviors like caring, passion, and enthusiasm, the communication of clear expectations, course alignment between course content taught and tests, a desire for more real-world applications, and active learning opportunities, all of which, in turn, were generally linked by students to their improved attention, intensity of focus, and ability to engage both in the classroom and during homework.