Teaching GenZ: Clarity, Care, and Connection

March 31st, 2026

By Peter van Leusen, Director, Digital Learning Initiatives

“Students today are different than they used to be!” — I’m not sure how often I have heard or reflected on this statement in recent months, whether as part of my own teaching or in frequent conversation with faculty. Of course, people, technologies, and societies change over time, yet what does this mean for higher education? I regularly read the annual Beloit Mindset List, published at the beginning of each academic year, often with a slight smile and sense of getting old(er). As I looked a bit more into this question, though, I dove deeper into the attitudes and behaviors of Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012; see LTH Quick Reference Guide), which currently makes up the majority of our traditional student body. Looking into their expectations for higher education, one idea stuck with me more than anything else: we may need to overcommunicate the value and expectations of learning in our courses, especially in times when the value of education is generally questioned.

In short, Gen Z is practical, career-focused, and constantly evaluating whether something is worth their time and effort. If we don’t make that value visible, they may disengage — even in well-designed and expertly-taught courses. One of the most compelling findings was how students interpret caring. It’s not just about being nice or approachable — it’s about how we teach and how our teaching is experienced by students. In fact, students in one study summed it up bluntly: “If they don’t care, I don’t care” (Miller & Mills, 2019). That’s quite the statement — I mean — I do care about my students and would argue that most of my colleagues do as well. Trying to identify more concrete examples, it turns out that good teaching practices are perceived as care, including clear expectations, organized instruction, adapting when students struggle, and making content understandable and relevant. Most importantly, we need to make caring visible and communicate it. This perspective suggests that communicating how we structure and deliver our engineering courses isn’t just about pedagogy and content expertise — it’s also about motivation and engagement.

Top 10 list for Teaching Gen Z Effectively

1. Clearly communicate expectations — and repeat them often.

2. Make the “why” of learning visible and tied to careers.

3. Show you care through your teaching practices.

4. Adapt your instruction based on student feedback.

5. Use hands-on, active learning whenever possible.

6. Incorporate collaboration and peer learning.

7. Be approachable and human in your interactions.

8. Use real-world, relatable examples.

9. Integrate technology in meaningful ways.

10. Challenge students while providing support and structure.

What is especially relevant for engineering education is how well this aligns with what we already know works — active learning, problem-solving, and real-world application. But the difference is in intentionality. It’s not enough to design a high quality course; we also need to explicitly signal its value, structure, and purpose to students along the way. That might mean narrating our decisions more (“Here’s why this assignment matters…”), being more transparent about expectations, or building in more frequent feedback loops.

For me, this raises an important question for our work at the Learning and Teaching Hub: how can we help faculty not just implement evidence-based practices, but also communicate them effectively to students? If Gen Z students are constantly asking, “Why does this matter?”— then perhaps one of our most powerful teaching tools is simply answering that question, early and often.

… and yes, students today are different than they used to be. Just like society is constantly changing (due to new technologies, policies, and practices) and, as a result, our behaviors, institutions of higher education need to adapt their teaching practices in order to stay relevant in preparing students effectively for their future — and ours.

_{Author’s Note: This article was drafted with the assistance of a generative AI tool to support wording and formatting; content generated by AI has been reviewed and approved by the author.}

References

Barnes & Noble College. (2018). Getting to know Gen Z: Exploring middle and high schoolers’ expectations for higher education. https://www.bncollege.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Gen-Z-Report.pdf

Evidence in Motion. (2024, August 20). How to Gen Z: Adapting teaching methods for the learning style of digital natives. https://eimpartnerships.com/articles/gen-z-learning-style-how-to-adapt-teaching-methods-for-digital-natives

Arizona State University, Learning and Teaching Hub. (n.d.), Generation Z https://lth.engineering.asu.edu/reference-guide/gen-z/

McBride, T. (2025, August 17). The unofficial Beloit Zeitgeist list for the class of 2029. http://themindsetlist.com/2025/08/the-unofficial-beloit-zeitgist-list-for-the-class-of-2029/

Miller, A. C., & Mills, B. (2019). “If they don’t care, I don’t care”: Millennial and Generation Z students and the impact of faculty caring. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 19(4), 78–89. https://doi.org/10.14434/josotl.v19i4.24167