Authenticity of learning

The authenticity of learning is the principle that learning activities are presented to participants with authentic examples, relevant information, and real-world application of the material being learned. When a learning experience is authentic, the learner is more readily able to perform the tasks and use the knowledge in real world settings.

Definition

Authentic learning is when real-world contexts, tasks, and goals are used in the learning exercise. Learning activities that mirror authentic settings are more closely aligned with what a participant will encounter after they move on from the learning experience, and thus they are more readily able to apply their learning to real-world settings.

Authentic learning is also often defined as the use of real-world problems, situations, and projects that learners are required to encounter and resolve.

Additional Information

From a perspective of situated cognition, a learner that encounters problems, challenges, tensions, and skills in real world settings will learn how to complete or solve such challenges in that specific setting. As school settings are not always structured to reflect real-world situations, it is argued by situated cognition proponents that students do not learn how to solve real problems. Instead, students only learn how to solve school problems in school contexts (such as memorizing facts, taking tests, and completing school projects). When asked to perform a task in a real-world setting, situated cognition proponents argue that they are less likely to complete it because they only learned how to memorize and recite facts and take tests, not actually perform the real-world skills that are needed in the workplace. However, when the real world and learning tasks align, students are able to more quickly see similarities between contexts and apply their knowledge and skills to the new context.

Most student-centered learning approaches specify that all activities within such learning environments should be authentic, or that they model or mirror real world tasks, skills, and work in the contexts that they are teaching. For instance, for someone learning computer science, a student-centered approach would specify that all of the activities should look like the actual coding, programming, software debugging, and problem solving skills that are used by experts in the field. Similarly, a history teacher who uses student-centered learning would argue that when students learn history, they should learn about not just the facts of events that occurred and people that existed, but also how to analyze and interpret historical data like historians do.

Through authentic learning, learners are better able to understand how to define complex and abstract concepts, which can be interpreted and understood in many different ways through multiple perspectives. Learners are also often able to interact with other people in authentic learning situations (such as peers, teachers, and experts), which also mimics the real-world problem solving and authentic work skills that are used when working within a discipline.

Because authentic learning is situated in real-world, complex settings, there are usually no single correct answers and the learning is open-ended. As a result, this requires the learner to engage in active learning by default instead of simply passively receiving and reciting information.

Authentic learning activities commonly have some of these traits:

• Looks similar to real-world problems and challenges that actually exist
• Mimic the same kinds of tasks and work that professionals do in the field, albeit simpler to help students learn
• Model the actual complexities of how things interact in real-world settings, such as people, organizations, objects, and forces
• Emphasis on projects that use actual skills used in the field, or solving problems, cases, or scenarios that simulate real-world situations

Tips and Tricks

• Think about what you would want your learners to be able to perform months or even years from now with the information and skills that they learned from the educational product. How would they use these knowledge and skills in their everyday lives? These are the kinds of tasks that are authentic and could be reflected in learning activities to maximize achievement and transfer of learning.
• Consider how the activities in your learning product "look like" real world tasks for the learning objectives that you are trying to accomplish. You may need to consult with an expert in the field to think about what kinds of tasks, projects, and work are performed by people who actually do this kind of work in real life.

Related Concepts

• Student-centered learning
• Active learning
• Passive learning
• Models and Frameworks
• Situated cognition
• Transfer of learning

Examples

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External Resources

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