From Entitlement to Engagement: Affirming Millennial Students' Egos in the Higher Education Classroom : New Directions for Teaching and Learning, Number 135

This volume addresses theories and practices surrounding the entitled, self-absorbed students called Millennials. Stereotypical Millennials are often addicted to gadgets, demand service more than education, and hold narrow perspectives about themselves and those around them; when seen through this lens, Millennial students can understandably frustrate the most dedicated of professors. The contributors show how new and better educational outcomes can emerge if professors reconsider Millennials. First and foremost, many of these students simply don’t fit their stereotype. Beyond that, the authors urge faculty to question commonly held assumptions, showing them how to reevaluate their pedagogical practices, relationships with students, and the norms of college classrooms. Contributors focus on practical means to achieve new and more evocative outcomes by treating Millennial students as serious collaborators in the learning process, thereby helping those students to more closely identify with their own education. The assignments that professors give, the treatment of topics that they broach, and the digital tools that they ask students to employ can shift students’ concerns away from a narrow focus on impersonal, technical mastery of content and toward seeing themselves as Millennial thinkers who fuse their lives with their learning. This is the 135th volume of this Jossey-Bass higher education series. New Directions for Teaching and Learning offers a comprehensive range of ideas and techniques for improving college teaching based on the experience of seasoned instructors and the latest findings of educational and psychological researchers. Annotation This volume addresses theories and practices surrounding the entitled, self-absorbed students called Millennials. Stereotypical Millennials are often addicted to gadgets, demand service more than education, and hold narrow perspectives about themselves and those around them; when seen through this lens, Millennial students can understandably frustrate the most dedicated of professors. The contributors show how new and better educational outcomes can emerge if professors reconsider Millennials. First and foremost, many of these students simply don't fit their stereotype. Beyond that, the authors urge faculty to question commonly held assumptions, showing them how to reevaluate their pedagogical practices, relationships with students, and the norms of college classrooms. Contributors focus on practical means to achieve new and more evocative outcomes by treating Millennial students as serious collaborators in the learning process, thereby helping those students to more closely identify with their own education. The assignments that professors give, the treatment of topics that they broach, and the digital tools that they ask students to employ can shift students' concerns away from a narrow focus on impersonal, technical mastery of content and toward seeing themselves as Millennial thinkers who fuse their lives with their learning.This is the 135th volume of this Jossey-Bass higher education series. New Directions for Teaching and Learning offers a comprehensive range of ideas and techniques for improving college teaching based on the experience of seasoned instructors and the latest findings of educational and psychological researchers This volume addresses theories and practices surrounding the entitled, self-absorbed students called Millennials. Stereotyped Millennials are often addicted to gadgets, demand service more than education, and hold narrow perspectives about themselves and those around them; when seen through this lens, Millennial students can understandably frustrate the most dedicated of professors. The contributors to this volume show how new and better educational outcomes can emerge if professors reconsider Millennials. First and foremost, many of these students simply don't fit their stereotype. Beyond that, the authors urge faculty to question commonly held assumptions, showing them how to reevaluate their pedagogical practices, relationships with students, and the norms of college classrooms. Contributors focus on practical means to achieve new and more evocative outcomes by treating Millennial students as serious collaborators in the learning process, thereby helping those students to more closely identify with their own education. The assignments that professors give, the treatment of topics that they broach, and the digital tools that they ask students to employ can shift students' concerns away from a narrow focus on impersonal, technical mastery of content and toward seeing themselves as Millennial thinkers who fuse their lives with their learning. Rethinking the structural architecture of the college classroom / Kevin Jack Hagopian Navigating the paradox of the student ego / Dave S. Knowlton What students say about their own sense of entitlement / Darren S. Fullerton The syllabus: a place to engage students' egos / Mark Canada Faciltating class sessions for ego-piercing engagement / Stephen Lippmann Immersion in political action: creating disciplinary thinking and student commitment / Karen Kelly Selves, lives, and videotape: leveraging self-revelation through narrative pedagogy / Alison G. Reeves Activating ego engagement through social media integration in the large lecture hall / C. Michael Elavsky Affirming ego through out-of-class interactions: a practitioners' view / Heather M. Knowlton Engaging Millennial students in social justice from initial class meetings to service learning / Jonathan J. Cavallero From consumers to citizens: student-directed goal setting and assessment / David R. Coon, Ingrid Walker The bruised ego syndrome: its etiology and cure / Bruce W. Speck.