Book Review: The Global Acheivement Gap: Chapter Five

Chapter 5 entitled Motivating Today's Students-and Tomorrow's Workers, Mr. Wagner asks the question, "What does it take to bring out the best in young people today, both in school and the workplace?" Both educators and business people are worried about the decline in the work ethics of young people in America. Educators complain that they do not read, they do not do their homework, they do not proofread their papers, they have no respect for authority, and they just really do not seem to care. The concerns are the same for business owners who hire young people. They agree that work ethic is not the same as it was 5 years ago.

The first point Mr. Wagner made about young people today are growing up in a very different world from the environment of generations before them really made me think about how different young peoples lives are today from years prior.  According to John Seely Brown, they are referred to as the "Net Generation", they are growing up digital. He made a comparison that I found interesting.  Browns view is that the internet will have as transformative an effect on how future generations learn, work, and play as the introduction of electricity had on daily life in the nineteenth century. He also thinks we are just beginning to see the effect that the World Wide Web and other technologies, especially on the younger people who have grown up with new and different communication, information, and creative tools.

The second point that made a lot of sense to me is that young people today are used to the constant connection to other people. They have all kinds of communicating software to stay in touch with their friends such as; My Space and Face book. I know this is true of my son who is in 8th grade.  The worst punishment I can hand down is taking his I-phone.  He is so used to the constant connection and he hates when I take his connection away.

The third point that made a lot of sense to me is that young people are used to what Mr. Wagner referred to as Instant Gratification.  Young people thrive in the world of ever-changing information, updates, and immediate access to whatever they want.  I think it has made young people more demanding and less patient because they do not have to wait for anything.

The fourth point I found interesting was that the use of the internet has transformed how young people today learn.  They do want to read long passages of text, because they are so used to the multimedia learning experiences. They do not to be taught by lecture style of learning.  They want more interaction and crave class discussion. They want to look up information on-line instead of looking through books. This is going to affect teachers and how teachers need to teach this new generation. I think teachers are going to have to reinvent how they perform lessons.  A lecture and a reading assignment is not enough. Young people get bored and then their motivation is gone.  Teachers are going to have to find a way to make learning a discovery. Young people want to be challenged to think and to solve problems, and teachers and future teachers need to learn how to motivate them.