Digital Natives, Analogue Pedagogy? Teacher-Student Dynamics Across the Generation Z Divide in Romanian Secondary Education

Generation Z students bring digital fluency, shortened attention rhythms, and a preference for experiential learning into classrooms still shaped by pre-digital pedagogy. This mixed-methods study examines how 100 Romanian secondary-school teachers perceive and respond to the generational characteristics of their students, complemented by focus-group interviews with 10 middle- and high-school students. Results reveal a pronounced awareness–practice gap: while 85% of teachers report familiarity with Generation Z traits and 88% acknowledge the need for pedagogical adaptation, only 44% successfully diversify their methods to the point where difficulties diminish. Students, in turn, describe teaching as insufficiently responsive to their learning preferences. The study identifies attention maintenance, student disengagement, and disciplinary tensions as the dominant challenges, and shows that teachers who employ blended, interactive, and technology-enhanced strategies report significantly fewer classroom difficulties. These findings carry practical implications for teacher professional development in digitally evolving educational contexts.