Nadine Barrett-Maitland | Using ancient methodology to teach Gen Zs and digital natives

THE CONTINUOUS decline in the CSEC results is cause for concern. For several years, the results have been declining, albeit with some sporadic improvements. This year is no different, with only 18 per cent of the present cohort getting over five subjects that could allow them to matriculate to some universities.

Additionally, reports indicate that many of the 38.9 per cent of students who were successful in the CSEC exams just scraped through (grade three), which is the lowest passing grade. As frightening as this is, it is consistent with the trend. A study conducted over 10 years ago, revealed that just over 30 per cent of students who enter high school complete CSEC exams.

DIGITAL NATIVES AND MILLENNIALS

Digital natives are persons who grew up in the information age. This group is extremely comfortable with technology and uses it effortlessly. Technology is an intrinsic part of the digital native’s social, educational and professional life. The millennials are persons born between 1980 and 2000. They are followed by the Generation Z (Gen Z) and others who were born after the year 2000. The Gen Z and beyond groups have spent almost their entire life in the digital world.

SOME NEW TEACHING METHODS

While some may argue that there are significant dangers with the Internet, the vast amount of data and knowledge that can be found on the Internet is unmatched. It is arguably a vehicle that, if used responsibly, could transform a society in ways that would not be possible without tech. There are numerous, inexpensive technological tools available on the Internet that can be used to support both learners and educators.

Teaching digital natives requires creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. While chalk and talk still has its place, it will take more to reach this generation. We need to reach them where they are by including technology use in our delivery of lessons and assignments. Many students are bored and uninterested in the traditional ways we deliver content in classes.

Technological tools such as gamification, virtual and augmented realities and artificial intelligence are just a few things that can be used in the classroom, some of which can be done using the very smartphones we now have. Let them use ChatGPT and YouTube to their benefit; it is useless to tell them not to. Instead, educators need to facilitate critical reading and thinking that will cause our students to go beyond copying the information from these platforms.

Gamification is a great tool for teaching mathematics and science. It uses elements of ordinary games such as points, leader boards and badges in a non-game environment. Games can be used as a one-off lesson or for an entire course. They can be designed as video games, apps, car or dice games. Gamification is one way we can help to reduce the anxiety that students often experience with subjects which often result in demotivation. Evidence shows that students who are exposed to gamification in their math class were more motivated and outperformed their peers who were not exposed to these experiences. Studies indicate that the using gamification in schools have improved fluency and achievement tests competency.

Virtual and augmented reality allow students to be in virtual environments similar to their everyday environments. Concepts are no longer just in text but take on concrete elements, as students can touch and feel things virtually. One example is biology, where students can see the heart or any internal organ lifted outside the body, and literally hear it beating, through the use of technology. The text will concretise the concept, while the technology facilitates experiential learning. Students can safely perform experiments in the virtual space that would be impossible in the physical labs. They can take more risks and learn by doing the unthinkable.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to develop lessons based on the students’ learning styles, their weak areas, and even develop practice exercises to improve students’ proficiency. It can be a writing companion that provides suggestions during writer’s block. AI can help educators with lesson planning, lesson development, grading and a myriad of things. The key to reaping the benefits of technology is to make it work for you, and not be a slave to technology. Ensure that we retain our basic human skills of critical reading and thinking. This will keep us ahead of the machine, and we don’t need to worry about it replacing us.

Teaching this generation the old way can be likened to a ‘square peg being placed in a round space’. We need to invest more into the education sector, include technological tools and training our educators how to incorporate technology in their delivery and assignments. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, this could a start, or one way that we could implement a low-cost start to addressing the issue. The steady decline in the results calls for an overhaul of the system.

What is taking us so long to identify and address some of the possible causes? Every year we do post-mortems and then return to business as usual. The old fixes are not working. Let us try some new ones. We need to put a long-term strategy in place, with some short-term, measurable milestones. This is a call to action. Education is the vehicle out of poverty. It’s one way to reduce crime. Surely, greater attention needs to be paid to fixing the problem of low academic achievement in ways that yield lasting results.

Dr Nadine Barrett-Maitland is senior lecturer in the School of Computing and Information Technology at the University of Technology, Jamaica. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com