Download PDF
CC BY 4.0 · Indian J Plast Surg 2024; 57(S 01): S5-S8
DOI: 10.1055/s-0044-1793818
Guest Editorial

Students Have Changed; Medical Teachers Should Change Too

Surajit Bhattacharya 
1   Division of Plastic Surgery, Department of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, Ajanta Hospital, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
,
Kaushik Bhattacharya 
2   Department of Surgery, Mata Gujri Memorial Medical College and Lions Seva Kendra Hospital, Kishanganj, Bihar, India
,
Neeta Bhattacharya
3   Department of Radiodiagnosis, Medanta Hospital, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
› Author Affiliations Funding None.
› Further Information
Also available at
   Permissions and Reprints

Today's students have not just changed incrementally from those of the past, nor simply changed their slang, clothes, body adornments, or styles, as has happened between generations previously. A really big discontinuity has taken place. One might even call it a “singularity” – an event which changes things so fundamentally that there is absolutely no going back. This so-called “singularity” is the arrival and rapid dissemination of digital technology in the last decades of the 20th century.

–Marc Prensky

Apart from being an academic teacher par excellence, a medical college faculty member must take on multifaceted roles including scheduling the annual timetable and serving as syllabus coordinator, clinician, undergraduate/postgraduate internal and external examiner, mentor, facilitator, researcher with good publication, postgraduate dissertation guide, and conference delegate/speaker.[1] Each new generation of students will bring changes to teaching and learning. Medical teachers continually find themselves adapting to the instructional style to account for their interests, struggles, and goals. But one thing that will not change is the trend toward a more digital world. As the educational landscape continues to evolve, teachers are faced with the task of understanding and adapting to the unique characteristics of the Generation Z (Gen Z) students they teach today. Gen Z students possess distinct traits shaped by their experiences with technology, globalization, artificial intelligence, and social media. As teachers, understanding these traits is crucial for fostering an inclusive, engaging, and effective learning environment.



Publication History

Article published online:
20 November 2024

© 2024. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Thieme Medical and Scientific Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
A-12, 2nd Floor, Sector 2, Noida-201301 UP, India