So now we have Dr. AA and Dr. JA, congratulations! I wonder how much the "stare" and what it seems to be showing is a result of (a generation of) learning from screens that do not expect eye contact, rather than teachers who do. Perhaps even being parented by screens more than parents who expect eye contact - and by eye contact I mean the whole interpersonal relationship that goes with it, not just where they are looking.
This reminds me of the show The White Lotus, where generations at a resort try to navigate life with different communication styles, norms, and beliefs—and the stares! I also believe the Gen Z stare isn’t a symptom of weakness, it’s a signal. Could we entertain a counterpoint? Maybe they’re not disengaged, maybe they’re processing before responding, choosing to add value rather than clutter . If I notice it, I tend to ask, 'What are you thinking? Tell me more," and then we connect!
In my classes, there is no opportunity for the stares; it is fast-paced, and engagement is not only required in this setting, it is also practiced through my learn-by-doing pedagogy and UDL principles, which focus on developing communication skills (research shows😉).
Great work here Dr.a one thing that resonates with me is when you bring up the importance of mentors,onboarding, and training. I wouldn’t be where I am today without people taking risk on me teaching me to navigate research, networking, and learning new skills in the classroom!
It feels like Gen Z's elder millennial parents lived through the Great Recession, and emphasized how important it was for students to have a college degree rather than how important it was to learn new skills while in college. It could explain why there is such a mismatch in new grads and employers.
I am a bit surprised to see you present this as a new development given the unemployment rate for recent grads was higher than the national unemployment rate back in 2019. Outside the pandemic, this has been a trend for the past 6 years. I'm sure the pandemic and AI has accelerated the issue, but it's not clear how to reverse this trend.
I do think colleges are more to blame than you insinuate. Either we aren't in tune with the skills our students need to know or we aren't willing to change what we're doing. At an institutional level, I tend to believe the latter. So many educators hate the idea of college being a "job training" program, but the days of broadly educating college graduates may coming to an end.
The calcification of higher ed is probably something we can all tell lots of stories about. Turnover in higher ed is pretty low, and its so easy to keep showing the same PowerPoint slides year after year. One of the constant themes in econ ed is the prevalence of chalk and talk in principles classes. We are constantly told that we need to change the way we teach to make classes more interactive. This has been going on for at least a decade, and probably more like two decades. No. We do not like change in higher ed.
Is there any research or sources out there that note what kind of skills econ grads should have in today's workplace? I'm sure there is something generic about quantitative skills, but is there anything specific?
It almost feels like we're trying to prepare our students to be generalists rather than specialists. They leave our program, taking a single course in R and/or STATA, but don't learn nearly enough to be proficient for the entry-level jobs that require proficiency in something.
To clarify, I do acknowledge that the unemployment issue has been ongoing for some time. The new part is the social media trend, and the increased reluctance to work with Gen Z. From my conversation with HR folks they see a clear divide between Gen Z that started college before Covid and the Gen Zers that started post Covid. So there is more to look into there.
As far as college, we could improve our efforts to connect with industry and welcome innovation/change. I can go on and on about how resistant higher ed is to change.
I greatly appreciate how you’ve highlighted how Gen Z need to send stronger signals by using more old-school methods, i.e networking and referrals.
The concept of “day one ready” might be an illusion. For Gen Z, with little or no experience, there still is the time to learn, understand, and properly apply what they’ve learned in the classroom to their work. Onboarding and training still matter.
So now we have Dr. AA and Dr. JA, congratulations! I wonder how much the "stare" and what it seems to be showing is a result of (a generation of) learning from screens that do not expect eye contact, rather than teachers who do. Perhaps even being parented by screens more than parents who expect eye contact - and by eye contact I mean the whole interpersonal relationship that goes with it, not just where they are looking.
This reminds me of the show The White Lotus, where generations at a resort try to navigate life with different communication styles, norms, and beliefs—and the stares! I also believe the Gen Z stare isn’t a symptom of weakness, it’s a signal. Could we entertain a counterpoint? Maybe they’re not disengaged, maybe they’re processing before responding, choosing to add value rather than clutter . If I notice it, I tend to ask, 'What are you thinking? Tell me more," and then we connect!
In my classes, there is no opportunity for the stares; it is fast-paced, and engagement is not only required in this setting, it is also practiced through my learn-by-doing pedagogy and UDL principles, which focus on developing communication skills (research shows😉).
I am excited to follow this conversation!
You do this well. Seeing you in class and managing your space is a great example of how to build rapport.
They're buffering.
Great work here Dr.a one thing that resonates with me is when you bring up the importance of mentors,onboarding, and training. I wouldn’t be where I am today without people taking risk on me teaching me to navigate research, networking, and learning new skills in the classroom!
Thank you, Jackson. Your experience is exactly why I beleive in the importance of our Haile Research Lab
It feels like Gen Z's elder millennial parents lived through the Great Recession, and emphasized how important it was for students to have a college degree rather than how important it was to learn new skills while in college. It could explain why there is such a mismatch in new grads and employers.
I am a bit surprised to see you present this as a new development given the unemployment rate for recent grads was higher than the national unemployment rate back in 2019. Outside the pandemic, this has been a trend for the past 6 years. I'm sure the pandemic and AI has accelerated the issue, but it's not clear how to reverse this trend.
I do think colleges are more to blame than you insinuate. Either we aren't in tune with the skills our students need to know or we aren't willing to change what we're doing. At an institutional level, I tend to believe the latter. So many educators hate the idea of college being a "job training" program, but the days of broadly educating college graduates may coming to an end.
The calcification of higher ed is probably something we can all tell lots of stories about. Turnover in higher ed is pretty low, and its so easy to keep showing the same PowerPoint slides year after year. One of the constant themes in econ ed is the prevalence of chalk and talk in principles classes. We are constantly told that we need to change the way we teach to make classes more interactive. This has been going on for at least a decade, and probably more like two decades. No. We do not like change in higher ed.
Is there any research or sources out there that note what kind of skills econ grads should have in today's workplace? I'm sure there is something generic about quantitative skills, but is there anything specific?
It almost feels like we're trying to prepare our students to be generalists rather than specialists. They leave our program, taking a single course in R and/or STATA, but don't learn nearly enough to be proficient for the entry-level jobs that require proficiency in something.
The only thing I have seen is some work by Cloda Jenkins in the U.K on the employablity skills for economics majors https://economicsnetwork.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Ashley/Report%20for%20website%20-%20Final_0.pdf
To clarify, I do acknowledge that the unemployment issue has been ongoing for some time. The new part is the social media trend, and the increased reluctance to work with Gen Z. From my conversation with HR folks they see a clear divide between Gen Z that started college before Covid and the Gen Zers that started post Covid. So there is more to look into there.
As far as college, we could improve our efforts to connect with industry and welcome innovation/change. I can go on and on about how resistant higher ed is to change.
I greatly appreciate how you’ve highlighted how Gen Z need to send stronger signals by using more old-school methods, i.e networking and referrals.
The concept of “day one ready” might be an illusion. For Gen Z, with little or no experience, there still is the time to learn, understand, and properly apply what they’ve learned in the classroom to their work. Onboarding and training still matter.
Thanks, Jonathan. We have our work cut out for us in higher ed.