Teaching the Millennial Generation
If you’re an educator, you’ve probably encountered the alien species that was born subsequent to 1980. These Gen Y’s are much decried by those with greyer hair for their lack of attention spans, sense of entitlement and unwilingness to graft.
The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”
— attributed to Socrates by Plato.
But, perhaps, this generation of learners are simply most in tune with cutting edge ways of learning, as supported by education research…
Here is a great talk from Danielle Hart, MD from the Department of Emergency Medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center. She tells us how the so-called ‘Millenial Generation’ learn best and how teachers can maximise their students’ learning by adapting to their needs. If your approach to teaching is centered on passive learning through lectures, then it is time to evolve!
Further reading
- Wiesbauer F. Teaching Masterclass: The Psychology of Learning. Medmastery
Chris is an Intensivist and ECMO specialist at the Alfred ICU in Melbourne. He is also a Clinical Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University. He is a co-founder of the Australia and New Zealand Clinician Educator Network (ANZCEN) and is the Lead for the ANZCEN Clinician Educator Incubator programme. He is on the Board of Directors for the Intensive Care Foundation and is a First Part Examiner for the College of Intensive Care Medicine. He is an internationally recognised Clinician Educator with a passion for helping clinicians learn and for improving the clinical performance of individuals and collectives.
After finishing his medical degree at the University of Auckland, he continued post-graduate training in New Zealand as well as Australia’s Northern Territory, Perth and Melbourne. He has completed fellowship training in both intensive care medicine and emergency medicine, as well as post-graduate training in biochemistry, clinical toxicology, clinical epidemiology, and health professional education.
He is actively involved in in using translational simulation to improve patient care and the design of processes and systems at Alfred Health. He coordinates the Alfred ICU’s education and simulation programmes and runs the unit’s education website, INTENSIVE. He created the ‘Critically Ill Airway’ course and teaches on numerous courses around the world. He is one of the founders of the FOAM movement (Free Open-Access Medical education) and is co-creator of litfl.com, the RAGE podcast, the Resuscitology course, and the SMACC conference.
His one great achievement is being the father of three amazing children.
On Twitter, he is @precordialthump.
| INTENSIVE | RAGE | Resuscitology | SMACC