Abstract:

Many educators have been using the same teaching and learning strategies regardless of what generation is in their classrooms. As of now, most of our classrooms’ groups are composed of members of Generation Z and some millennials. The newer generation (born between 1996 and 2012) of students has unique characteristics and expectations, especially since they were born alongside technological and communication boom that shaped every aspect of learning. Some characteristics that appear in every search about Generation Z are that they are more social, mobile-oriented, global, digital, entrepreneurial, experiential, and visual. With this information in mind, Professors Ballester and Brugueras have been applying, optimizing, and reflecting on the use of different teaching and learning strategies in a first-year course that they have been co-teaching for the last two years. This course exposes students to explore and reflect on the current economic situation of Puerto Rico and the potential alternatives for the future. The course continues with tools on the importance of personal finance and supports students in developing a personal brand as a strategy for their professional development. This course is taken as a requisite for students from the Business Development Program and as an elective for students from music, communication, judicial systems, among other majors.

The breakout session presentation will emphasize on the promotion and design of activities for:
- active learning and collaborative work,
- discussion-based and project-based learning methodologies,
- flipped classroom,
- creating multimedia projects (videos, podcasts, portfolio),
- news media and social media as pedagogical tools,
- use mobile devices and apps in the classroom

The breakout session will include examples and short active-exercises on how to incorporate transformative thinking strategies into the course activities and design. Also, the professors will present the outcomes of the semester-end course evaluations from the students and how these are an essential part of the ongoing reflection on how to improve the teaching and learning strategies for a transformative learning experience.

Keywords:

Active learning, collaborative work, discussion-based, project-based learning methodologies, flipped classroom, multimedia projects.