A recent issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education contained an article entitled "Wake Up and Smell the New Epistemology." (Unfortunately the full text is only available to subscribers.) In this piece the author makes a strong case that recent generations of students in higher education have an entirely different way of viewing the world in general and education in particular.
In sum, today's students do not necessarily value knowledge for knowledge's sake and as a whole do not view their professors or institutions as authority figures who ipso facto should be imitated. This epistemology arises from the constant connectedness of this generation; they can go online and find any number of "experts" on any side of an issue. So the question from an academic standpoint is how to engage these students when otherwise they might be polite but entirely disengaged from the academic presentation.
The author argues that the solution lies in respect for this generation's ability to think on the one hand, and then engagement of students as thinkers themselves. Classroom teaching should not present information as assumed true or important, but rather students should be engaged to see value and worth in what is being presented.
This of course has implications for how I teach on the graduate level, but it also has implications for how the Church carries out its own teaching task.
Dr. Michael Burer is Assistant Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. He is the assistant project director for the NET Bible and has contributed various studies to the bible.org site. His first book - A New Reader's Lexicon of the Greek New Testament, co-authored with Jeff Miller - was published Fall of 2008. 
I think you mean "ipso facto" rather than "de facto."
Right you are. I did use de facto incorrectly here. Thanks for the correction!
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