Adapting Instructional Techniques to Meet the Needs of a Research Paper

Adapting Instructional Techniques to Meet the Needs of a Multi-Generational Classroom - Research Paper Example From this study it is clear that adding the dimension of multi-generational interaction provides educators with challenges in trying to engage learners who are at different socialization levels in relationship to work and life experience. Looking at the concept of multi-generational integration towards learning can be assessed in relationship to social constructivism as it was discussed by both Piaget and Vygotsky. Learning through inventive systems like the internet or through face-to-face interaction in group learning, students can bridge gaps and increase the knowledge of one another through integration of the advantages of their age range. Adapting Instructional Techniques to Meet the Needs of a Multi-Generational Classroom Introduction The economic conditions are such that an increasing number of adults are returning to the classroom in order to further their education so that they can enter a first career or find a second career as their own has become a victim of economic hard times. Between 1970 and 2004 there was a 101% increase in the number of students attending college. According to the paper the advantages of age provides for a series of different perspectives to be brought into the condition of the classroom. The different generations will have sometimes conflicting perspectives on world events, the idealism of the very young tempered by the practicality of those who may be in their thirties. Even a short span of five years differences will have a very different perspective than the teenager fresh from high school. Work experience, the experience of paying bills, and the cognition of how world events evolve from one to the next as it is seen from more experienced eyes will all affect the learning capacity of the individual as they contemplate the information that they are receiving. The instructor will experience a series of challenges as they approach teaching in a multi-generational classroom.