Learning Needs Across Generations: A Comparative Analysis

This essay critically analyzes the learning needs of different generations, including Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z, highlighting how cultural, economic, and technological influences shape their mindsets and learning preferences. It examines the shift in learning practices from task-oriented approaches in the Baby Boomer era to self-reliance in Generation X and the increasing emphasis on community development and flexibility in the Millennial generation. The essay also explores the impact of technology on Generation Z's learning needs. The essay references research by Bang et al. (2016), Li et al. (2017), Parsons et al. (2020), and Hills et al. (2017) to support its arguments, demonstrating how social needs and discourses transform learning requirements across generations. The essay underscores the importance of adapting educational curricula to accommodate these diverse and evolving needs, particularly in the context of rapidly advancing digital technology.

Running Head: LEARNING ACROSS GENERATIONS
LEARNING ACROSS GENERATIONS
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Learning and development are depended on the age and intellect of a person. Henceforth,
it the curriculum are also set accordingly to age of the learner. In response to this, this essay is
going to discuss learning needs of the people across generations and figuring out their distinctive
needs that influence the desire to learn.
According to the research of Bang et al. (2016) it can be stated that generations are
always influenced by the cultural, economic and the technological influences and it is also the
cornerstone of their mind-set and beliefs. The demands and needs of the millennial who are born
between 1981 and 1996 are very much different than the requirements of the baby boomers who
born between 1946 and 1964 or the generation Z born after 2000. It can be argued that the
changing social changes and market demands infuse with the demands and requirements of the
people across generations so that the learning process is also shifted accordingly.
For instance, baby boomers were belonged to the post world war II period and witnessed
destruction and extinction of society and mankind. Therefore, the socio-political situation made
them strong and determined enough to bring a positive transformation across the world. In
response to this, the learning practice was also shaped in the form of task oriented and driven by
achievements (Li et al. 2017). Moreover, physical hardship was also considered to be a major
characteristics of the learning and development of the people that ushered a set of skills for
physical upliftment and skills.
The impact of the learning and development of the baby boomers had been transcended
into the learning demands of the generation X as well where the basic features of the people was
depended on self-reliance. From the research of Parsons et al. (2020) it can be derived that
generation X were very impatient and goal-centric but they wanted freedom to make their own

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decisions. In response to this, the learning designs were also developed by the same way where a
personality building and making up self-confidence took the major part of the learning and
development curriculum.
The self-oriented measures of Generation X took a great turn for the next generations
who are identified as generation Y or Millennial. The millennial people are well aware of their
self-actualisation and skill. However, the progress in technology started influencing them a lot so
that they also looked toward the community development as well. The learning and development
mechanism provided enough flexibility at work and they learned to less stick to the rules of the
past. Therefore, the practice of innovative thought process became take part in the learning
process more intricately.
Finally, in case of Generation Z or people who born in and after 2000 the entire learning
practice is focused on the tech-aware process. In other words, Hills et al. (2017) commented that
with the advent of cutting edge technologies it became an important aspect for the generation Z
to incorporate the learning of technology has become the core of learning practice. Therefore, it
can be concluded that social needs and discourses are always influenced people over time and
transformed the learning needs across generation.

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Reference
Bang, M., Faber, L., Gurneau, J., Marin, A. and Soto, C., 2016. Community-based design
research: Learning across generations and strategic transformations of institutional relations
toward axiological innovations. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 23(1), pp.28-41.
Hills, C.M., Levett-Jones, T., Lapkin, S. and Warren-Forward, H., 2017. Generation Y health
professional students’ preferred teaching and learning approaches: a systematic review. The
Open Journal of Occupational Therapy, 5(1), p.12.
Li, Y., Ouyang, W., Zhou, B., Wang, K. and Wang, X., 2017. Scene graph generation from
objects, phrases and region captions. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on
Computer Vision (pp. 1261-1270).
Parsons, D., MacCallum, K., Schofield, L., Johnstone, A. and Coulter, S.K., 2020. Next-
Generation Digital Curricula for Future Teaching and Learning. In Emerging Technologies and
Pedagogies in the Curriculum (pp. 3-19). Springer, Singapore.