Generation Z Goes to College.

Baer, Linda L.

by Corey Seemiller and Meghan Grace

Jossey-Bass 2016

286 pages

ISBN 978-1119143451

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE AUTHORS

COREY SEEMILLER is a faculty member in the department of Leadership Studies in Education and Organizations at Wright State University. She is the author of The Student Leadership Competencies Guidebook (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and has over 20 years of experience in higher education.

MEGHAN GRACE is a new professional serving as member orientation director for Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity at Wright State University. She interacts directly with new students from Generation Z in her day-to-day work.

The authors work with university leadership programs serving thousands of students each year.

SUMMARY AND PURPOSE

There is little extensive research on Generation Z students, those born between 1995 and 2010. As Generation Z students start to attend college, Seemiller and Grace believe that higher education institutions could benefit from better understanding their perspectives. The authors use findings from a survey of over 1,100 Generation Z college students and other current research to assess characteristics, aspirations, learning styles, actions, and motivators. They believe this will help higher education staff better understand and relate to this unique generation. The authors interpret and outline the implications of the data and offer higher education administrators, student affairs professionals, and faculty members recommendations for program, process, and curriculum changes that will maximize the educational impact on Generation Z students.

DESCRIPTION

Seemiller and Grace provide a readable book that describes how Generation Z is similar to and different from other student groups. The survey they used focused on the characteristics, outlooks, and trends of current college students born 1995 or later as they relate to their experience in higher education. The authors focused on styles and motivators; how these students learn, engage, communicate, and form relationships; and pertinent social issues and outlook on life.

The authors used a three-pronged approach to the survey work. First, they e-mailed a call for institutional partners through a number of professional student affairs organizations. Second, they posted a call on social media, including the Student Affairs Professional Group on Facebook and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Student Leadership Programs Knowledge Community on Facebook. Third, they sent personalized messages to 50 of the people in their professional networks. The result was the securing of 15 institutional partners, each of which then forwarded the survey to students. The survey included quantitative questions and open-ended questions to gather qualitative data. The authors used several learning style models, multiple intelligences models, and measures of optimism and outlook. They point out that there were limitations to the survey in that there were no single-gender institutions, historically Black colleges, religiously affiliated institutions, or for-profit colleges included. They admit that with a final number of 613 participants, there was not widespread representation across the Generation Z student population. While the book presents many interesting facts about the demographics of Generation Z, it is important to note that the sample used was not random. The qualitative picture is helpful but it would certainly strengthen the literature to have a larger, more comprehensive, and random sample to use in drawing conclusions.

COMPARISON TO OTHER BOOKS IN THE FIELD

Comparing Generation Z to the generations described in Paul Taylor's The Next America: Boomers, Millennials, and the Looming Generational Showdown (PublicAffairs, 2014) adds another dimension to understanding the changing dynamics of the American demographic landscape. Taylor provides an interesting overview of the American population using Pew Research Center surveys, including extensive archives of public opinion surveys and demographic data, across generations of Americans. Taylor paints a profile of the Silent Generation, the Boomers, Gen X, and the Millennials that provides insights that include social, cultural, economic, and demographic trends. Leaders can better anticipate long-term implications for college attendance, persistence, completion, and sustainability when they improve their understanding of how the generations view education, work, family, and leisure time. Taylor's work does not include descriptions of Generation Z.

Another recent work, Becoming a Student-Ready College by Tia Brown McNair, Susan Albertine, Michelle Asha Cooper, Nicole McDonald, and Thomas Major, Jr. (Jossey-Bass, 2016), focuses on developing campus leadership to increase their knowledge of the 21st-century student. The authors suggest that higher education needs a "paradigm shift" in which faculty and administrators embrace their responsibility for serving students. They reflect that "with the face of American higher education changing, it is imperative that we embrace new models of education and support services that can accommodate today's college students" (p. 15).

EVALUATION

Generation Z Goes to College provides an interesting portrait of the students beginning to attend college now. The authors describe what they find to be the beliefs and perspectives of this generation; the roles communication, technology, and social media play in the lives of these students; and how they relate to friends, family, and learning. While not based on a large random sample of student responses, the study does use powerful qualitative techniques to describe what this demographic cohort cares about, how they engage, and how they feel about work and their future. The chapter on maximizing learning is insightful and provides great opportunity to expand the way higher education plans the physical environment: facilities, learning environments, libraries, and tools for learning. In addition, the chapter on working with Generation Z provides important ideas and challenges to help higher education leadership "create and adjust policies, practices, curriculum, programs, environments, and cultures to best educate, relate to, and work with Generation Z" (p. 191). Especially useful are the six types of strategies to assist college administrators, planners, faculty, and staff in higher education in focusing on the curricular, co-curricular, and technological support of learning. These six types are: relational, operational, instructional, programmatic, developmental, and technological. The authors provide some interesting suggestions on planning facilities that support Generation Z learning styles and preferences: "Generation Z students are in many ways like every other generation before and yet vastly different at the same time. Nevertheless, there are clues to help uncover how to best engage these students in higher education" (p. 224).

As we better understand the diverse Generation Z student cohort, we in higher education can improve student persistence, completion, satisfaction, and success. The challenge is staying current and relevant to an ever-changing learner population. Generation Z Goes to College provides insight and opportunities to continuously improve what we do to optimize the student learning environment.

Reviewed by Linda L. Baer

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

DR. LINDA BAER is a senior fellow with Civitas Learning and has spent more than 30 years in executive positions in higher education with a focus on transformative leadership, building analytical capabilities, and thriving in challenging times. She has served on the Society for College and University Planning National Board.