1. ANDREANA M. GRIMALDO ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS DEVELOPMENTAL MATH COACH QUINSIGAMOND COMMUNITY COLLEGE WORCESTER, MA

2. Creating a Balanced Learning Environment for Today’s Student
Challenge:
First time in history that we have 4 generations working together and learning together.
Unique situation
Talk about 4 generations
Different dates to define each generation
General descriptions; not specific for individual people
Formed by parents from previous generation
Formed by noteworthy events

3. Veteran Generation 1922 – 1945 Age: 67 – 90 Faculty, adjunct faculty,
Not many students

4. Veteran Generation Pictures of what defines the veteran generation
Age:
World War II
Stock Market Crash, Black Tuesday, Oct 29, 1929
Depression-era Parents
Farm to factories

5. Veteran Generation Education Characteristics 0% QCC Students
Traditional classroom
Formal
Straight forward information
Tact and respect
Characteristics
Respect for authority
Formal
Duty before pleasure
Rule followers
Left side characteristics; right side education needs
Age
Important happenings:
World War II
Stock Market Crash, Black Tuesday, Oct 29, 1929
Depression-era Parents
Farm to factories
Characteristics
Consistent
Uniform
Conform
Respect for authority
Duty before pleasure
Rule followers
Honor
Hard work
Dedication/sacrifice
Education
Traditional classroom
Formal
Straight forward information
Build skills privately
Tact and respect 5

6. Baby Boomer Generation
1946 – 1964
Age:

7. Baby Boomer Generation
Pictures of what defines the baby boomer generation
Age:
Recipients of advances in science, raised in a world of optimism, science could conquer all
Woodstock
JFK Assassination
MLK Assassination
Man walking on moon
Modern medicine, vaccines, science solved all
Science
Many current world leaders are from this generation

8. Baby Boomer Generation
Education
3% QCC Students
Traditional classroom
Independent
Lifelong learners
Characteristics
Optimistic
Demand fairness
Driven/workaholics
Good team players
Age:
Life long learners
Characteristics
Optimistic
Sensitive to feedback
Don’t like authority
Workaholics
Try to be the best
Driven
Over-confident
Demand
Education
Filled classrooms to overflowing
Traditional classroom
Motivated by winning
Learn to learn (life long learners) 8

9. Generation X
1965 – 1980
Age:

10. Generation X Pictures of what defines the Generation x 1965-1980
Age:
Watergate scandal and distrust of politicians
Single families/divorce
Energy crisis
Massive layoffs
Bill Clinton
Stock market crash
Soaring national debt
Beginning of Technology. Would always grow up with it.

11. Generation X Characteristics Education Value efficiency
Tolerant of differences
Work for money, not for fun
Family is important
Education
22% QCC Students
DO!
Clear goals
Don’t waste time
Visual
Use technology
Left side characteristics; right side education needs
Age:
Characteristics
Group oriented
Work for money, not enjoyment
Don’t expect to earn as much as parents
Family is important
Hard workers but not obsessive
Boomer parents say they are slackers, whiners, poor work ethic, lazy, negative
Drop in degrees for males
Education
Clear goals
Allow choices and options
Technology
Will meet requirement but not obsess over it. Learn by sample and do; Gen x like to DO!
Keep handouts clean to the point, white space, bullets
Visual learners: sesame street, 11

12. Generation Y Millennium Generation
1981 – 2000
Age:

13. Generation Y Millennium Generation
Pictures of what defines the Gen Y
Age:
Technology: smaller and faster
Communication
Facebook
Grew up in a different world due to Sept 11
Very structured world: play groups, did not play outside, music class, lessons, individualized instruction,
Most diverse group in history
Members are born to the most diverse mix of parents from teenagers to middle-aged moms.
1/3 of this generation was born to single, unwed mothers.

14. Generation Y Millennium Generation
Education
75% QCC Students
DO!
Use technology
Constant feedback
Clear/precise goals
Customize learning
Characteristics
Diverse
Powerful
Structured childhood
Impatient
Optimistic
Technology
Left side characteristics; right side education needs
Age:
Characteristics
Born to the most diverse group of parents
Grown up in a highly structured, busy, over-planned environment
Confident
Optimistic
Feel valued
Will comprise 1/3 of the countries population
Weak on interpersonal skills
Education
Technology and teamwork
Expect good grades
Multi-task
Weak on interpersonal skills, hands-on learners
Need choices, customize, instant feedback
Need interaction
Need clear expectations, all criteria
“Will this be on the test”.
Get bored quickly, need to be interactive.
Constant feedback; need to know how they are doing 14

15. Generation Z 2001-present Age: 0-11
Pictures of what defines generation z

16. 21st Century Pedagogy Learner-centered curriculum Value of assignment
Outcome focused
Customizable
Variety of evaluation methods
Incorporate technology
Visual
Clear, concise expectations/goals
Learner Centered curriculum
Value of assignment-if either the value of the information or the number of points earned by spending the time to do an assignment is not clear, students will not devote their time to the work.
Outcome focused: Outcomes are more important than process in terms of learning. Today’s students have had access to incredible amounts of information from birth – more by age five than their great grandparents experienced in a lifetime.
Customizable: today’s youth have always been able to customize their world; phones, facebook, etc.
Variety of evaluation methods:
Incorporate technology….MUST!!!!
Visual: Today’s youth are the most visual of all. They have grown up on visual media.
Clear, concise expectations: Gen x and Y focus on the end result not the process for getting there.

17. COURSE REDESIGN Everyone is being told to “fix” the problem.
Redesigning remedial/developmental level and freshman level.
Pressure from all around to “Redesign”
Be mindful of your institution, your students, your institution mission, etc

18. QCC Course Redesign Course Redesign
About 10 years ago, QCC received a Title III grant to focus on developmental math and English, ORT, professional development. QCC redesign of all dev math courses:
over 80% of students test into dev math;
poor study skills; long history of failure.
Had large number of dev math sec;
large number dev math adjunct faculty;
inconsistent grading and deliv of objs;
increasing poor performance of students
What did we do?
standardized curriculum;
mandatory dept final exam;
employed coaching model;
created MML master courses
overall inc in success rates
Colleague and I worked together on the team to implement changes
Pushed MyMathLab and found students love it, worked hard, etc.
Training sessions for all faculty in MML
……PROBLEM…….

19. The Problem… The problem:
Students were reading the book EVEN LESS than before, and (not READING)
jumping right into Do HW in MML and write on scrap (if they write it at all!) (not DOing the math) (with tech they bypassed paper completely…)
poor ORGANIZATION/study skills
So we decided to create a workbook for our students, with streamlined presentation (so they’ll READ it) and lots of space for them to DO the math (in organized way)… paired with MML course…

20. Bring Back Paper!
D: Here’s a sample of what we created for our students back in 2006 … (version 1)
- Main Idea/Notes – Bite sized info; students will actually READ it
- Example
- Your Turn with space and guidance – students will DO the math, and write it in an ORGANIZED way in a binder
(brief success description… next slide)

21. Face-to-face and online class
With Paper
Face-to-face and online class
pass rates increased.
A: For years now, D and I have brought back paper to ALL our classrooms – traditional, online, computer classroom, hybrid, with strong success…
…Very briefly describe use/success in
A – Traditional and computer based – 10 percentage points inc over institutional redesign pass rates (get eT ready)
D – Online – for first time ever, ave pass rate on par with institutional redesign pass rates
Even with better success rates, A and I wanted more for our students – we wanted paper and technology seamlessly merged together… built from the ground up…

22. The Power Is in the Pairing
We teamed with Pearson and created MML for INTRO Algebra that you see today … where the power is in the pairing . Heavy pairing of technology with the structure of paper.
Worktext: Streamlined presentation of main concepts, key examples, rules, and procedures with plenty of space for students to practice solving problems.
eText: Expands upon the streamlined worktext with videos for every example, more information, FAQ’s, animations, and lots and lots of problem-solving practice. 22

23. QUESTIONS???