Spring 2014 FOCUS Conference
Cara Meixner, Ph.D.
James Madison University

Learn the characteristics of the Millennial
Generation that distinguish them from other
generations of college students.

Identify strategies that assist as we successfully
engage these students (and not necessarily their
parents) in university programs and services.

Reflect on how knowledge about this generation
can influence our work.
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The Gaussian Distribution
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False Precision (Pew Trust)
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Most research sensitizes us to what’s happening around the
mean of a normal distribution. What about the outliers?
Level of arbitrariness in setting chronological bounds
Stereotype threat (Steele & Aronson)
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The risk of confirming, as self-characteristic, a stereotype
about one’s group.
Generation differences are due to 1) life cycle effects, 2) period effects
like recession, war, 3) cohort effects like trends within young adults (Pew
Research Center, 2010)
Traditionalists
Baby Boomers
Gen Xers
Millennials
Born 1900-1945
Born 1946-1964
Born 1965-1980
Born 1981-1999
Loyal
Optimistic
Skeptical
Realistic
Build a career
legacy
Build a stellar
career
Build a portable
career
Build parallel
careers
1. Weathered
WWII
2. Smart
3. Honest
1. Work ethic
2. Respectful
3. Values and
morals
1. Tech use
2. Work ethic
3. Traditional
values
1. Tech use
2. Pop culture
3. Tolerance
From When Generations Collide by Lynne C. Lancaster and David Stillman; and Pew Research Center
Turn to one or two others. Introduce yourself, noting the
generation to which you belong, and discuss the following:
1.
2.
What characteristics do you believe apply to most of the
traditionally aged undergraduate students with whom you
intersect or work?
In what cases or scenarios are these characteristics
misapplied or inappropriately stereotyped?
You have 10 minutes.
How others see
this generation…
(for better and for worse)
Photos from Millennials Rising, Strauss & Howe
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Techno-connected and
dependent
Majority female
Entitled
Lack interpersonal skills
Everyone gets a trophy
Service minded
Residential
Compartmentalization
(work-play)
Culturally aware
MOST
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Not (all) tech-savvy
Disconnectedness in the
connectedness
Not all wealthy
Overcoming barriers to be
in college
Some work 8 to 5
Not all extraverts
Don’t all want to be spoon
fed
Not all focused on grades
LEAST
 Confident
 Self-expressive
 Liberal
 Upbeat
 Open
to change
0%
100%
The series of statements comes from the work of the Pew
Research Center, which sampled a representative cadre of
2,020 adults within the Millennial cohort.
Data were also drawn from other Pew surveys on changing
attitudes toward work, gender differences, technology, and
political ideology.
What’s problematic about these?
1.A parent purchases textbooks for the first year seminar and
asks me if she can attend the class via SKYPE.
2.A father, talking to an admission officer, says: “We are worried
that if we don’t register early, we won’t get into the classes we
want.” (Slippery Rock University)
PANIC Zone
Stretch
Comfort
Panic: over stressed, fearful,
exhausted, fed up,
disinclined
Stretch: willing to risk,
uncomfortable, disoriented,
alive, anticipating,
challenged
Comfort: safe, stable,
comfortable, unchallenged,
relaxed, reliable
Figure 1. Comfort zone model. Adapted from
Pannicucci (2007). Cornerstones of adventure
education.
Red line = the learning zone
 Yes, there is a science to this…
neurogenesis and neuroplasticity.
 Development of the late adolescent
(16+) brain – the “hot” topic at the
World Congress on Brain Injury 2012
(Lyn Turkstra, 2012)
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Executive functioning- control,
abstraction, sense of time
 So what? They love to talk
about themselves and are
learning to “code” for others.
Synaptic plasticity: + and –
 So what? There’s heightened
vulnerability to positive stimuli
Nucleus accumbens (brain’s reward
system) has greater activity than that
of adults or children
 So what? They love risk!
The brain continues to develop well beyond
childhood. These images of the human brain
show the loss of brain cells between the ages
of 5 and 20 (warmer colors indicate more cells,
cooler colors indicate less). Brain cell “pruning”
is an active developmental process that results
in increased reasoning skills.
Image adapted from Gogtay N, et al. Dynamic mapping of
human cortical development during childhood through early
adulthood. PNAS 2004;101(21): 8174 - 79, Fig. 3.
Excerpt from High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and
Why They Matter, by George D. Kuh (AAC&U, 2008)
M=E*V–C
Motivation is a product of what students expect and what they value, minus the cost.
Flow Theory, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
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How can these and other data
influence or inform our work with
university students?

What is one concrete strategy you
might enlist to engage with
millennial learners in a new way?
[email protected]