ADAPTING TO OR CHANGING OUR STUDENTS? Millennials" Learning Behaviour and Its Implications on Educational Management
Understanding their students is a part of educators' task. Knowledge of their students' social context of development may furnish teachers' effort to engage their students to active learning process. Moreover, the learner centred education paradigm needs teachers to be more concern on students as active learners by creating learning environment and educational management which are relevant to students' characteristics. Recently, the new generation, the millennials, are flourishing higher education. They are different from their predecessor cohorts as the millennials are digital natives who are born and grown by information, communication and technology. Many studies on millennial students indicate needs for teachers to change and follow the demands of this new generation. However, education is not always about just accepting recent generation's all styles and behavior. It involves broader process of changing, adapting and enhancing. This study aims to explore several teachers' lived experience on managing millennials' learning process, behaviour and the consequences for educational management and teachers' professional development. The data are collected through direct observation and reflective notes on daily teaching practices in language and social sciences classrooms. The study indicates that balancing between adapting and changing teaching learning process is required. There are several areas should be re considered. The first area is teachers should manage the on line and off line learning. Secondly, some positive technological impacted characters should be balanced by reviving previous characters or mindset. Thirdly, re designing learning environment should be taken into account. Fourthly, the educators should also adapt to technological changes and improve their knowledge and skills.