Students’ poor performances in and apathy toward course work for LIBY 1010, Fundamentals of Information Literacy – a required class for incoming first-year students at California State University, Hayward (CSUH) – suggested a mismatch between students’ preferred learning styles and instructors’ teaching styles. Today’s 17- to 19-year-olds are pioneering Generation Y’s entry into the higher education system.

With the goal of improving students’ performances and attitudes, librarians at CSUH began researching the emergent literature on Generation Y’s learning styles.  From our research we have attempted to adapt our teaching methods and materials to better match the needs and preferences of Generation Y students.

Some changes made over the Spring and Fall Quarters 2001 illustrated here suggest both some basic learning style preferences of Generation Y students and the improvements in students’ achievement and attitudes that correlated with our changes in instructional methods and materials. Our experiences suggest that Gen Y students, like all students, learn more effectively when taught in accordance with their learning style preferences.