6.2 The Incoming

To a baby-boomer or someone brought up in the baby-boomer style, students graduating high school are ‘different’. While there was always a slow evolution, significant changes started with what is called the millennial generation and have continued. In the early 2000’s we were researching the Millennial phenomena at the post-secondary level. There were always individuals with Millennial traits, and there are always the exceptions, but the millennial traits seemed to describe the generation. The gulf between high school education and higher education also increased over time.



To an instructor from the Millennial+ generation, the incoming student behavior would be ‘different’, but not as different as when viewed from baby-boomer eyes.

Before the pandemic, the general traits of ‘fresh’ students...

• They were not allowed to make ‘mistakes’ and were usually told what to do, how to do it, how to always be successful. They expect guidance. They will not know how to react to the Socratic Method. This impacts their executive functions.
• They do not know how to deal with failures, making mistakes. They do not know how to admit them, discuss them, or reflect upon them.
• They probably did not have many teachers who were lavish with the red ink, because lots of red ink makes it hard to justify high marks (mark inflation). This creates over-confidence regarding knowledge, expertise, and opinions.
• They do not know how to deal with critical feedback; at a higher expectation level.
• They are used to frequent praise and kudo’s for doing anything and everything; the norm is to be noted, not just the above-average.
• They are not comfortable with making decisions and being held accountable unless they can discuss it with their social media circles.
• They are tone-deaf to the difference of must, can, may, should, could, etc. as everything is taken under advisement and they will want to use their own judgement in all matters; even to the point of interpreting requirements for assignments and such.
• Time management skills are impaired since there are few hard deadlines anymore in the secondary school system. Deadlines are not deadlines.
• They think they can multi-task with exceptional skill, but do not realize that it is impossible for most individuals to multi-task at the higher cognitive levels.
• They think that they are ‘important’ and almost all will think that they are above average when compared to the rest of the class. Self-awareness is not a strong suit.
• They think that ‘hard’ means long to do, not intellectual complexity or cognitive effort.

With the pandemic, there are added differences...

• Relying on online resources during assessments is common and while acknowledged as ‘cheating’, ‘everyone does it’. They have come to rely on online assessments and the helpful opportunities afforded by isolated, online activity. And, some do not know it is cheating.
• There might have been softer marking; not as much red ink. This will result in even greater over-confidence in their knowledge and abilities. And, softer assessments perhaps and lower expectations.
• They will have had limited experience with in-person examinations within a class setting or the ‘final exam’ situation with hundreds of other students in a large space.
• They might not have experience with five or six courses; they might have been in a quad system where they take two topics at a time. This will not provide the students with the time management and focusing skills needed to handle a full load; especially during test time.
• They might have had little team and joint project work and will struggle with working with others, collaborating, group activities.
• Not only is there helicopter parenting, but the parents might have been cheek-by-jowl with the students, intimately involved.

• Self-awareness is worse, few comparative points, little sharing of work, and few lessons about how to play together.
• They are not as mature and their executive functions are not as developed; although they think they are.
• The world has disappointed them. They had a good life, everything taken care of. And, then their parents could not fix the pandemic, lock-downs, not seeing their friends, etc. This affects their worldview, motivation, anxieties, and so forth. These feelings are real.

What you can do...

• We suggest that first year instructors slowly wean the students off the secondary school practices and behaviors. It is too much of a shock to change everything at once.
• When introducing a change, ensure that the students know what is different, why it is different, and are given some idea about how to deal with the change.
• Allow the students to experience the change without risk, be evaluated, practice, and then be evaluated on their learning.
• Use no-fault ‘options’ during the term; allow them to mess up once or twice as a get-out-of-jail card. Everyone has a bad day and the incoming students will have more than their share.
• Use reflection assignments oriented towards learning and self-awareness so that the students can understand practices and views; understanding how they impact both positively and negatively on their learning outcomes.
• Avoid giving rubrics in advance, have the students use self-judgement (with mercy), and then provide extended rubrics with dialog that show what the top responses were, what the common mistakes were, and how the assignment could have been done better. The teaching them to fish, versus giving them the fish. Then, have a complementary assessment that checks if the students ‘got it’.
• You can be prepared for more requests for help, guidance, and ‘what am I doing wrong’ sessions. Work with your TAs and have spare time in your own calendar. It will be used. The students will be worried and be anxious.
• Develop a buddy network or community of practice for instructors. These are unknown waters and no one has all of the answers. It is important to compare and learn together. It will be a multi-year, perhaps decades problem.

Further reading

• Erickson, B.L., Peters, C.B., and D.W. Strommer (2006). Teaching First-Year College Students - Revised and Expanded Edition of Teaching College Freshmen. (1st edition - 1991), Wiley.
• Standl, B., Wetzinger, E., Futschek, G. and E.A. Guenther (2018). First-year computer science students perception of lectures in relation to type of high-school education. 2018 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), pp. 1389-1394.