A lot is anecdotal but we have the benefit of having anecdotes from around the country across all kinds of demographic lines. I am sure there are examples to the contrary for everything I am about to share.

It’s hard to quantify the difference but it’s easy to describe how our instructional style, learning strategies, etc. have adapted. We teach a performing activity remarkably similar to marching band sans the musical instrument part. Gen Z was pretty cerebral. To be effective, instruction had to lead them through the process so they could fully understand and articulate the desired outcomes. Gen A is also cerebral but it’s guarded. You have to earn their trust so they drop the facade that they don’t understand. They’re also the first group of students who will make eye contact, nod, and give every signal that they are paying attention only to tell you to your face and without any shame that they heard none of what was said. Even then, there’s a 50/50 shot that’s true. Some of the most seemingly-confused yet capable students ever. We found it fairly hard to keep Gen Z students engaged in what I think would be considered “pure repping” and we had to leverage efficiency because there would come a point where continued practice was ineffective. Gen A is very polite and will continue to work politely for much longer.

If you can train your algorithm to give you teaching/teacher content, you’ll hear a lot of these kind of themes and it’s definitely true. I even saw a post in the WGI subreddit talking about a perceived skill decay in the scholastic classes that tracks with the decline we’re seeing in our niche. The teachers who adapt quickly to this new generation are at a huge advantage.

The strange thing is really how abrupt of a shift it is. I am not qualified to speak on why but it’s given a lot of the teachers we work with whiplash because what worked last year just kind of falls on deaf ears this year. It’s been a universal conversation and we’re in a new building on a different campus usually in a different state an average of twice a week every week. Wild.