In light of the second total lockdown happening nationwide effective 1st June and after observing the pandemic’s impact to students’ learning experiences, Dr Revathi Sagadavan shares insights on the learning preferences of Generation Z (Gen Z), along with tips for educators who want to create a more personalised and effective learning experience for their students.
Transformation of learning preferences in higher education
With the rise of digital transformation and the rapid adoption of increased technological advancements across industries as a result of COVID-19 and IR 4.0, Dr Revathi shared that as a lecturer, it was important for her to understand the generation she was teaching in order to come up with solutions to better teach and engage with them.
“On a macro level, it was also crucial to gather data on Gen Z and their learning preferences in order to develop more effective and impactful education policies, methods and processes for higher education institutions across Malaysia,” she explained.
Dr Revathi Sagadavan completed her research on “Learning Preferences Transformation in Tertiary Education” to better understand the learning preferences of the Gen Z
Thus, as a result, Dr Revathi completed her research on “Learning Preferences Transformation in Tertiary Education”, which ultimately received publications in the eighth volume of the International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering (IJRTE). She explained that her research was centered around famous psychologist David Kolb’s experiential learning theory, while the study’s assessment model was influenced by Richard M. Felder and Linda K. Silverman’s Index of Learning Styles (ILS).
The Senior Lecturer at INTI International University further shared that her study was completed with 384 respondents, aged between 17 to 24, consisting of students from different ethnic groups who studied at public and private institutions across Malaysia.
Understanding Gen Z’s learning preferences
Based on her research, Dr Revathi found that apart from wanting to interact with their teachers physically, 60.9% of Malaysia’s Gen Z preferred to interact with them via social media platforms. Most of her respondents reported a stronger preference for platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.
“My co-researcher and I found that Gen Z reported being less likely to use emails as communication tools (29%) because they preferred more informal means of communication that platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and Facebook allow,” she explained.
Dr Revathi is a Senior Lecturer at INTI International University’s Faculty of Business and Communication
Dr Revathi added that her study also revealed that Gen Z preferred to be more independent and self-reliant, as the majority of the respondents reported wanting to take greater personal accountability for their learning as opposed to relying on their lecturers or friends for help.
On her thoughts of this particular finding in her research, Dr Revathi shared that the insight made sense since Gen Z are known to be “digital natives” who have had access to smart phones and mass amounts of information from when they were really young.
She further revealed that this early access could also be an influencing factor in her next finding where she found Malaysia’s Gen Z reporting to be better visual and sequential learners as opposed to being more active and intuitive learners.
Suggested teaching and learning methods for Malaysia’s Gen Z
From the insights she gathered through her research on Malaysia’s Gen Z and their learning preferences, Dr Revathi shared a few tips she thought could be helpful for educators and institutions to adopt, especially as we undergo a second round of total lockdown.
“While my research shows that students are more inclined to being visual and sequential learners, it is best to try and understand each student’s preferred learning styles because each individual’s learning preference is unique.
“For visual learners, educators can incorporate more diagrams, photographs or videos in their materials, while encouraging students to create mind maps or color-coded notes to help with their learning,” explained Dr Revathi.
She added, “For sequential learners, it is best to help guide students by filling in skipped steps when assessing their work, or relating your teachings to current affairs in order to help expand their worldview.”
Dr Revathi (center bottom) in a virtual discussion highlighting how Generation Z learns
On an institutional level, Dr Revathi shared that similar to how a few lecturers at INTI are teaching their students, education institutions could also start implementing the use of social media into their curricula since emails no longer stand as strongly with the generation today.
“Last year, my colleagues, Yeo Sue-Jane and Mike Teo were highlighted for their initiatives in fostering closer connections with their students despite the physical restrictions of COVID-19. Sue-Jane shared how effective using Instagram became for her class , while Mike shared how he incorporated more props, visuals and videos in his class as he was teaching from a distance ,” shared Dr Revathi.
“Both of them reported higher student engagement and were able to interact and connect with their students more as a result. It is no surprise since these methods and platforms work with the generation today,” she added.