Authentic Learning by Drew Barclay

Authentic Learning

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From the tree of Contructivist Theory branches the instructional model of Authentic Learning, Put simply, authentic learning places an emphasis on student-driven, real-world discovery and application of critical thinking processing and skills that are built in reference to a reality-based problem. Students work both independently and collaboratively to prepare hypotheses, test solutions and consider real-world influences and applications.
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Description of Model and Relation to the Associated Theory

 Within the constructivist theory comes two major ideas:
1) "[...] knowledge is constructed by the individual through his or her interactions with the community and the environment" (Harasim, 2012)
2) "How the learner understands the world, in terns of biological developmental stages [and] hoe meanings and understandings grow out of social encounters" (Harasim, 2012).

Therefore, this instructional theory focuses on not only the individual students growth and "successive knowledge building activities" (sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational) as outlined by such psychologists as Piaget, but also the idea that social and environmental interaction is key in developing true cognitive and metacognitive functions.

Therefore, it makes sense that such a model that places a focus on the real-world environment and students becoming active participants within the lesson and with one another would spawn from such a theory.

Model: At a Glance 

Authentic Learning, or "learning by doing" is instruction that places an emphasis on constructing activities and employing strategies that take a concept or skill that a teacher wishes to instill in students and places that skill/ability into real-world application. Within the world, infants to adults meet problems and must develop solutions. Authentic Learning aims to replicate the type on "on-the-spot" learning (known as assimilation or accommodation) one must perform within the real world and alter academic tasks to follow a similar strategy - taking advantage of the brain's natural ability to interpret, understand and solve problems.
____________________________________________________________________________ Construcivist Learning -> Students learn through social and environmental interaction

Authentic Learning - > Academia posed in the real-world (socially and environmentally)
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Sample Lesson Utilizing Authentic Learning Strategies

Excerpt from "The Components of Authentic Learning” by Audrey Rule:
 
"The four themes supporting authentic learning are:

1. An activity that involves real-world problems and that mimics the work of professionals; the activity involves presentation of findings to audiences beyond the classroom.
2. Use of open-ended inquiry, thinking skills and metacognition.
3. Students engage in discourse and social learning in a community of learners.
4. Students direct their own learning in project work" (Rule, 2006).

Sample Science Lesson - Building understanding of the energy production in plants:

First, students are given the background information of how plants produce energy through photosynthesis, and what effects the energy production has on the plant (benefits, developmental changes, etc).

Next, the teacher poses a question:

"What might happen if a plant has less access to light than other plants?"

Students make hypotheses - becoming active learners, engaged with the concept and taking a vested interested in their learning.

To develop this interest and make his/her students feel like "emotional stakeholders in the problem", the teacher takes students into the field to interact with their environment, and discuss the real-world application of the concept (Rule, 2006)

 
Students then cover half of their selected plants - changing and manipulating the environment around them to see the affects of the concept in the real-world, in front of their very eyes. They world with the soil, study the plant in detail, record growth data, and track the weathering effects sustained by the plant.

Lastly, students come and check their hypotheses with the data presented by the end of the exercise. They check their initial hypotheses, and reflect upon the process, their own mode of thinking, their own rationale, and have effectively seen a learning concept "in action", placed in the real world, and thus, the concept has been transferred "authentically".

 This lesson Meets the requirements of an 'authentic learning" exercise for the following reasons:
1) The sustainability of plant-life is a real-world issue faced by farm workers and other horticulturalists and those in the agricultural field.
2) The "unknown" aspects of experimentation and forming hypotheses meet the definition of an "open-ended inquiry". Furthermore, students are tasked with checking what they have perceived in the real environment with their initial thoughts - engaging in metacognition.
3) Working in pairs, groups, or discussing whole-class allows for a forum of ideas and social discourse to develop effectively.
4) Students are in control - directing their own actions, data-gathering, and are responsible for setting up, reporting and concluding their own experiment.

Related Websites: 

1) Authentic Learning Series: 15 Classroom Literacy Ideas for Early Childhood
https://www.nwea.org/blog/2013/authentic-learning-classroom-literacy-ideas-early-childhood/
[This site reviews some ways teachers could incorporate literacy-based authentic learning practiced in early development (K-5)].

2) North Dakota: Teaching With Technology Initiative http://www.ndtwt.org/Blackboard/P2SST2/authenticlearning.htm 
[This site outlines the authentic learning theory in more detail, reiterating the importance of real-world connection, and poses some ideas of how students may be able to produce data or engage in authentic learning with some use of technology incorporated.

3)  Project Based Learning: What does it take for a project to be authentic? http://www.edutopia.org/blog/authentic-project-based-learning-john-larmer
[This site outlines projects that are described as "not authentic", "somewhat authentic" and "fully authentic", and gives descriptions and examples for each. It can be used as a way to check if a proposed strategy or exercise can be deemed truly authentic or not. It reviews more application-based guidelines for utilizing authentic learning in a project setting].

 Works Cited:

Harasim, L. M. (2012). Learning theory and online technologies. New York, NY: Routledge. 

 

Rule, A. (2006, August). The Components of Authentic Learning. Journal of Authentic Learning, 3(1), 1-110. Retrieved from http://www.ernweb.com/educational-research-articles/the-four-characteristics-of-authentic-learning/