Millennials in Higher Education: Do They Really Learn Differently

Abstract

Background: Effective skill development remains an important vehicle for national prosperity. Aswhat appeared to work with their predecessor generation (Gen X) does not have the same results with Millennials many educators today are experimenting with pedagogies to effectively train Millennials. Globally, it is becoming evident that the Millennials in higher education learn very differently than their predecessors. Purpose: Our study provides comparisons on three learning parameters of learning affectivity, goal orientation and competition between Gen X & Millennials.. Methods: To study whether the learning attributes are similar or they differ across the two generations we compared the means of the three attributes under consideration. Results: We find Millennials to be different from Gen X across the three studied parameters suggesting that teaching pedagogies require a rethink for Millennials. Conclusions: These results could be useful in designing appropriate teaching pedagogies that are likely to improve Millennials’ learning.