085: The Classes Everyone Loves to Hate: Fixing General Education

Solutions for Higher Education with Southern Utah University President Scott L Wyatt

Show Notes:

President Scott L Wyatt and Steve Meredith are joined by Beth McMurtrie, senior writer for The Chronicle for Higher Education. They discuss McMurtrie's article "Fixing the Courses that Everybody Loves to Hate" and how the student success movement has adjusted in light of Generation Z students flooding college campuses.

Featured Quotes:

This generation, Gen Z they call it, is an interesting one. They're quite practical, they're kind of skeptical, they’re very comfortable with being self-taught, they learn a lot of stuff from YouTube and other means, they don’t necessarily assume the teacher has all of the answers. So, they kind of…they're challenging them in a way saying, "Explain to me why I should care." And I think a good teacher should be able to do that, right? They should be able to stop and say, "This stuff does matter."
Beth McMurtrie, The Chronicle of Higher Education

Somebody called what happens in the classroom a donut hole in the student success movement. People talk about nudges, they talk about chatbots, they talk about all sorts of things outside of the classroom that might keep students in college, but they don’t really talk about the core of their experience which is what happens in the classroom day in and day out. What are you learning? Do you feel engaged? Do you feel connected? Do you feel like you belong? Do you feel like you’re learning how to do college?
Beth McMurtrie, The Chronicle of Higher Education

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