Learning Styles for the Millennial Generation

Learning Styles for the Millennial Generation

               A student’s learning habits are unique aspects to education that cannot be designed to suit everyone’s needs. The way a student learns is an individualistic approach and what might work for one student does not necessarily work for another. The current students being taught are part of the Millennial Generation. After surveying multiple students of the Millennial Generation there are several basic trends in how students prefer to learn. The data revealed that those of the Millennial Generation prefer to be engaged in class through group discussion, understand their material through real-life application and they value a relationship with their teacher as well.

Born in the years 1982 to 2002, the Millennial Generation has changed the pedagogy of American education.  While there are a variety of different learning styles, auditory, visual, and kinesthetic to name a few, there is no right way for a student to learn and there is no single way for a student to learn. In the survey the following observations were noticed:

               Students of the Millennial Generation have been noticed to be more group-oriented, technologically savvy and infinitely curious as to how the material they are learning affects their daily lives. Based on how social the Millennial Generation it is important to keep this in mind when applying their personalities to the different learning strategies. The Millennial Generation is considered to be the most diverse generation in U.S. history, and when combined with the various technologies used to communicate with one another it is no wonder that the Millennial Generation is highly integrated with the world around them.

               Learning styles are dynamic, versatile qualities that can be adopted and acquired through adjustment over time. There are multiple models used to categorize learning styles including, David Kolb’s, Honey and Mumford’s, Anthony Gregorc’s, Sudbury model of democratic education, and Fleming’s VAK/VARK model. While these models have their own theories and separate goals in trying to dissect the ways students learns a common trend these models seem to come back to is the concrete versus the abstract. Educators seem to try to find the best ways for students to digest both concrete and abstract and how to develop strength in these aspects. It is now the challenge for those who create the pedagogy for the Millennial Generation to form curriculum that stimulates these students to learn beyond the classroom and apply it to the outside world.

               When considering the learning styles of the Millennial Generation it is important to focus on group engagement, one on one development, and structure. In each of the learning styles there is a structure formatted to help students clearly understand concepts whether it be through visual, auditory, or kinesthetic processing. Those of the Millennial Generation are infinitely curious and constantly seek out advice and improvement. As diverse as the Millennial Generation is there is a common link in social interaction and through community engagement as students, learning will progress for future generations to come.