Wrapping Up Authentic Learning

My final post of the basic ideas of authentic learning are based on an article I found by Educause:Advancing Learning Through IT Innovation. They obviously have motivation to support technology assisted curriculum. What follows is my summary of their support for the authentic learning and its effectiveness. I think it substantial and evidential, however I stress that I believe that authentic learning does not necessarily need technology to be effective. In fact good authentic curriculum doesn't, it just needs some, if not all real-world context.

Follows is more research-based background on authentic learning methods.

Authentic learning is inspired by educational researchers and cognitive scientists putting together a portrait of "the learner." The learner represents an individual's cognitive ability to retain or transfer information into long-term memory schema. Three things they have found to be consistent about a typical learner: learners look for connections, long-lived attachments come with practice (repetition in various ways) and new contexts need to be explored, including, and focussing on the social aspect of the learning setting.

Also included in the development of authentic learning theory is the role of the instructor or more knowledgeable peer. sometimes this person has blind spots. Customarily authentic learning includes peer review, in addition to instructor assessment. However, the necessity of the instructor and the efficacy and attitude the instructor promotes should not be forgotten and is considered necessary to the process.

With proper scaffolding, and real-world curriculum, students are pushed beyond lower-level thinking to more critical thinking, creativity, assimilation and synergy.

Assessment is the most important part of authentic learning: An educator can introduce authentic content, replacing textbooks with historical documents and scientific data from remote sensors. She can design problem-based activities to replace lectures. She can expect students to collaborate with one another (despite student resistance to these active requirements). She can even surrender some of her own power as an expert to join students as a colearners. And she can support all this innovation with visualizations, simulations, and interactive technologies. Still, she may not achieve her goals if she neglects to rethink her assessment strategies. Rather than relying on a single assessment method, instructors who adopt authentic learning methods must analyze multiple forms of evidence to measure student performance, including observations of student engagement and artifacts produced in the process of completing task (Oblinger, 2007).

Authentic learning brings change and challenge to the instructor and the student. However researchers feel that the hands-on real-world experience will create higher-level thinkers and learners.

Retrieved 11/11/10 from Authentic Learning for the 21st Century