An Introduction to Authentic Learning
“Authenticity consists in having a true and lucid
consciousness of the situation, in assuming the
responsibilities and risks that it involves in
accepting it in pride or humiliation, sometimes in
horror or hate.”
(Sartre, 1965: 90)
The Theory of Authentic Pedagogy
Authentic pedagogy is based on the premise that students’ work should prepare
them for the intellectual work that their various roles in society will demand of them
and involves “intellectual accomplishments that are worthwhile, significant and
meaningful” (Newmann, 1996: 23). This theory has been extended into the
development of three criteria for authentic intellectual achievement (Newmann,
1996):
1. Student construction of knowledge ie.students need to construct their knowledge,
building on what they already know (as in constructivist theory). Students are
thus involved in organising, interpreting, evaluating, or synthesising prior
knowledge to solve new problems. Instruction focuses on the development of
concepts and deep understanding through cognitive development or knowledgebuilding, rather than developing behaviours or skills (Fosnot, 1996). Learning is
thus an active process, with teaching providing a means of facilitating active
student mental processing (Gagne, 1985).
2. Discipline inquiry - involves use of a prior knowledge base, in-depth
understanding, and elaborated communication. Students acquire a necessary
base of facts, vocabularies, concepts and theories, however the power of this
knowledge lies in its use by students to gain a deeper understanding of specific
problems. They use complex forms of communication both to conduct their work
and present their ideas.
3. Value beyond the classroom ie. to “have meaning or value apart from
documenting the competence of the learner” (Newman, Secada, & Wehlage,
1995 p.11). Learning activities may include integrating students' experiences
outside the classroom into the curriculum, or involving students in new activities
beyond their educational environment. The concept of value beyond the
classroom involves transferring/applying knowledge to an area that:
 has personal significance for the students;
 has relevance to the ‘real world’;
 has value to society.
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Newmann and Associates (cited in Elmore & Rothman, 1999: 75) restructured these
three criteria into four standards associated with authentic pedagogy:
Higher-Order Thinking - students are involved in manipulating information and
ideas by synthesising, generalising, explaining, hypothesising, or arriving at
conclusions that produce new meaning and understandings for them.
Deep Knowledge – students consider the central idea of a topic or discipline
with enough thoroughness to explain connections and relations and to
produce relatively complex understandings.
Substantive Conversation - students engage in extended conversational
exchanges with the tutor or their peers about subject matter in a way that
builds an improved and shared understanding of ideas or topics.
Connections to the World Beyond the Classroom - Students make
connections between substantive knowledge and either public problems or
personal experiences.
These four standards provide a useful template for focusing consideration of the
curriculum and its assessment.
The Practice of Authentic Pedagogy
The term “authentic learning” is generally used to refer to the discussion, exploration
and tackling of real-world problems and projects. Core elements of authentic
learning are that it should:
 be learner-centred;
 involve active learning;
 use authentic tasks.
Authentic tasks:
 have real-world relevance;
 are ill-defined, requiring students to define tasks and sub-tasks to complete the
activity;
 comprise complex tasks to be investigated over an extended period of time;
 provide the opportunity to examine the task from alternative perspectives, using a
variety of resources;
 provide the opportunity for collaboration;
 provide the opportunity to reflect;
 can be integrated and applied across different subject areas and beyond domainspecific outcomes;
 are seamlessly integrated with assessment;
 allow for competing solutions and diversity of outcomes.
Within our teaching we are aiming to ensure that students not only know the content
of the discipline when they graduate, but are able to use the acquired knowledge and
skills in the real world. To achieve this, assessment must inform us whether students
can apply what they have learned in authentic situations. For example, if we want to
know if our students can interpret literature, test a hypothesis, develop a business
plan, converse in a foreign language, or apply other knowledge and skills they have
learned, then authentic assessments will provide the most direct evidence.
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Authentic learning is a pedagogical approach that allows students to explore,
discuss, and meaningfully construct concepts and relationships in contexts that
involve real-world problems and projects that are relevant to the learner (Donovan,
Bransford, & Pellegrino, 1999). For learning to be authentic, students should be
engaged in genuine learning problems that foster the opportunity for them to make
direct connections between the new material that is being learned and their prior
knowledge. These kinds of experiences have the potential to increase student
motivation.
In the process of supporting students’ learning, we recognise that they bring with
them experiences, knowledge, beliefs, values and curiosities. Authentic learning
provides a means of bridging those elements with ‘classroom learning’. The
literature suggests that authentic learning has several key characteristics.
 Learning is centred on authentic tasks that are of interest to the learners.
 Students are engaged in exploration and inquiry.
 Learning, most often, is interdisciplinary.
 Learning is closely connected to the world beyond the ‘classroom’.
 Students become engaged in complex tasks and higher-order thinking skills,
such as analysing, synthesising, designing, manipulating and evaluating
information.
 Students produce a product that can be shared with an audience outside the
‘classroom’.
 Learning is student-driven with tutors, student peers, friends, family and outside
experts all assisting/coaching in the learning process.
 Learners employ scaffolding techniques.
 Students have opportunities for social discourse.
(Cronin, 1993; Donovan et al., 1999; Newman & Associates, 1996; Newmann et al.,
1995; Nolan & Francis, 1992).
Assessment associated with “authentic learning” encourages the integration of
teaching, learning and assessing. Rather than administering a ‘test’ after knowledge
or skills have (hopefully) been acquired, the authentic learning model uses the same
authentic task as a learning vehicle and as a means to measure the students' ability
to apply the knowledge or skills. For example, when presented with a real-world
problem to solve, students learn in the process of developing a solution, tutors
facilitate the process, and the students' solutions to the problem become an
assessment of how well the students can meaningfully apply the concepts. This can
facilitate an integrative approach to assessment (promoting the use of formative
assessment), yet reducing the potential for over assessment.
Authentic assessment is an approach in which learning objectives are assessed in
the most direct, relevant means possible. As such, authentic assessments are
criterion-referenced measures designed to promote the integration of factual
knowledge, higher-order understanding and relevant skills. Authentic assessments
are often based on performance, requiring students to use their knowledge in a
meaningful context. In authentic assessment, performance expectations guide
learning activities and are made clear to students prior to instruction. Generally,
authentic assessment is an ongoing process involving both self and external
evaluation as well as the gradual compilation of material into an holistic product.
While there are differences between traditional and authentic assessment, it is
important to remember that traditional and authentic assessments are
complementary models; both types of assessment are important to producing wellrounded, informed students.
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Within H.E., what are we assessing? Possibly one of the most distinctive features of
H.E. learning is that of higher order thinking skills (Heywood 2000, chapter 2). For
example, Ramsden (1992, chapter 3) includes independent judgement and critical
self awareness within the aims of H.E. Methods of assessment can contribute to, or
hinder, the achievement of such stated aims, in a process known as ‘assessment
backwash’ (Biggs, 1999, chapter 8), in which the curriculum is defined by the
assessment for students (Ramsden, 1992, 187).
All assessment has the potential to support, or undermine, the achievement of
planned learning outcomes. In the case of independent judgement and critical self
awareness, the use of peer and self assessment may provide examples of authentic
assessment. Peer assessment (Stefani, 1994; Zariski, 1996) involves students in the
use of discipline knowledge and skills and the application of pre-determined
evaluative criteria. Accepting peer assessments requires students to engage with
others' knowledge and skills, and, in the light of this, review their own interpretation
and application of the pre-determined evaluative criteria. The use of peer
assessment actively engages students in a key aspect of higher education: making
critical judgements on the work of others (Rowland 2000, Boud, 1990). The use of
360 degree feedback with peer assessment can encourage students to engage
critically with their own work, feedback on their own work and criteria employed in the
evaluation of their work. Self assessment can similarly encourage students to
engage more critically with their own work and the assessment criteria.
“Education is what survives when what has been
learned has been forgotten.”
(B.F. Skinner, The New Scientist, May 21, 1964)
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References
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