Authentic Learning Experiences

 

Authentic Learning Experiences

As a middle school history teacher there is a constant struggle to find or create engaging lessons so that my students find a way to at least appreciate history if not learn to love it as much as I do. I have heard about Project Based Learning but never seem to find anything that is the right fit for my classroom. Authentic Learning Experiences, according to the Horizon report, is an umbrella under which Project Based Learning would fall. The Horizon report includes the “Solvable Challenge” of Authentic Learning Experiences among the significant challenges impeding technology adoption in K-12 education, stating that they “bring students in touch with real-world problems and work solutions.”

Authentic Learning Experiences can be implemented in all classrooms but I am sure I am not the only teacher who has been intimidated at the thought of creating one from scratch. Through my research I was introduced to “Post-Hole” Problems, a shorter, less intensive version. Examples provided included a third-year German course tasked with choosing which items within an art collection would be deemed “degenerate” in the eyes of the Nazi Ministry of Propaganda. (Stepien & Gallager, 1993) This article alone has me excited to implement similar ideas into my class in a coming unit.

An additional concern I have had was that if I implemented Project-Based Learning my students would not have the content knowledge they need to be successful on the district provided unit assessments. It is pointed out that students still need to learn content knowledge and that research shows that, when done well, there is no harm to traditional test scores. (Larmer, 2018)

Finally, although I have worked in other ways to make lessons more learner-centered, I have wondered also what my role must become. In reality, my role should develop into more of a guiding role which comes more naturally to me anyway. In Authentic Learning Experiences the role of the teacher is to help students develop the skills to self-regulate their learning. (Roman et al., 2020)

One quick glance at any teacher forum would show that the importance of Authentic Learning Experiences have never been more evident than when we were all sent home and students were asked to own their education in a manner no one anticipated a few short weeks before. With the newest  variant and spike in cases it seems that we aren’t past the shut-downs and remote learning and more opportunities to solve this solvable challenge and hopefully bridge the learning gaps our students face.

 

Horizon's Report https://library.educause.edu/~/media/files/library/2017/11/2017hrk12EN.pdf

Larmer, J. (2018). Project-based learning in social studies. Social Education 82(1), 20-23. https://www.socialstudies.org/publications/socialeducation/january-february2018 

Roman, T., Callison, M., Myers, R., Berry, A. (2020). Facilitating authentic learning experiences in distance education: embedding research-based practices into an online peer feedback tool. TechTrends (2020) 64, 591-605. http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.shsu.edu/10.1007/s11528-020-00496-2 

.Stepien, W., Gallagher, S. (1993). Problem-based learning: as authentic as it gets. Educational Leadership v50 n7, 25-28.