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BY DR SHAO

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What makes an Authentic Learning experience truly authentic?

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Examples of Open-Ended / Essential Questions

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Examples of Open-Ended / Essential Questions

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What’s the Difference Between Project- and Challenge-Based Learning, Anyway?

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What’s the Difference Between Project- and Challenge-Based Learning, Anyway?

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Here's a quick exercise for those in education: What do the letters CBL stand for?

For many, competency-based learning might have been the first thing to pop in their heads. But others might have considered challenge-based, community-based or even case-based learning.

The fact that three letters can mean so many different things raises an obvious question: Have we reached peak "based" learning?

"There are so many acronyms that are pretty closely related," explains Karen Cator, CEO of Digital Promise and a former director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education. (Cator's organization has tried to brand CBL as challenge-based learning.)

Leaving competency-based learning aside-which focuses on ensuring students achieve mastery over a particular skill or standard before moving on-many of these strategies, like problem-, project- and inquiry-based learning, center on so-called "active learning," where students, not their teachers, drive much of what they do in class, through individual or group projects centered on research, problem solving and collaboration with peers and outside experts.

Each "base," however, has its own take in how best to engage students. Inquiry-based learning, for example, teaches students how to ask better questions, and then go about figuring out the answers. Community-based learning encourages students to find and solve local issues. And the related place-based learning sees students explore the history and culture of their own region.

The concepts inherent to active learning are not new. Researching the topic for a book, author John Larmer, the editor in chief at the Buck Institute for Education, a project-based learning group, traced them back as far as architecture schools during the Italian renaissance. More recently, he says modern understanding of the terms owe much to the work of education reformer John Dewey in the 1920s, followed by a handful of innovative schools in the 1960s. During that decade, McMaster University pioneered the problem-based learning approach with its medical students.

"We think they're two sides of the same coin," Larmer says of project- and problem-based learning. "It's just, do you design the project around solving a problem or is the project something else, like investigating a controversial issue or producing a book of student poetry?"

Taking Action

All the different flairs of "-based" learning may have a long history in education. But only recently have they entered the mainstream dialogue, thanks to ready access to technology for research and data collection, along with the introduction of new state and national standards, such as Common Core and the Next Generation Science Standards, which put greater emphasis on problem solving over fact memorization.

Even still, "a lot of schools still think they can't do project-based learning because they don't have time," Larmer says. "Many schools are still wedded to the test scores, drill and kill."

The problem might boil down to a misunderstanding of what active learning actually is, and how it can encompass an entire curriculum, even when teachers rarely deliver traditional lectures. Larmer chalks some of it up to the "negative stereotypes" he says project-based learning has acquired among parents and older educators, who recall disastrously-managed group projects and build-at-home dioramas.

We wondered: What if students actually can implement or prototype their solution to the problem?

Karen Cator

Case in point: models of the Spanish missions created by generations of California students (or, at least their parents).

"We say that is not project-based learning-that's what we call a dessert project or a side dish because the main content is still taught traditionally," Larmer says of diorama-like assignments. "In a real PBL environment, you'd introduce the unit and then ask: Where would the 22nd mission go if you were the Spanish in 1820? It's a real-world situation kids are placed in and they would learn about the Spanish and Native Americans through their research."

Project-based learning leaves teachers with a lot of latitude for designing both hypothetical and real-world activities, which is where it diverges somewhat from its counterparts. According to Cator, challenge-based learning got its start in the early 2000s during her tenure at Apple, when the education team was looking to design something that helped students tackle real-world problems with meaningful use of technology. These projects-or challenges if you like-aren't idle class time exercises, or speculative or historical, but rather a way for students to find and solve a real issue and take action.

"Many times students will solve a problem in a classroom, and the final project will be to just talk about their solution," Cator says. "We wondered: What if students actually can implement or prototype their solution to the problem?"

Cator cites Carroll Magnet Middle School in North Carolina as a school that has embraced the challenge-based ethos. There, students have successfully turned their campus into an eco-school complete with a butterfly garden, promoted composting to reduce waste and tackled gender equality and awareness through drama. Along the way, projects shifted focus, goals evolved and students reassessed their objectives on an ongoing basis.

"Schools are trying to really engage students, and there's a lot of research on the importance of engagement and motivation for learning," Cator says. "How do you engage students? You present them with a real challenge they care about."

As for getting started: Larmer acknowledges that any change to active learning will be a major change for everyone involved. "Teachers need to know it's a shift. They might have to give up some control," he says. "There's a stereotype where you turn students loose and come back in two weeks and make a presentation. We think the teacher has an active role in facilitating learning."

Both Digital Promise and the Buck Institute offer frameworks, tips and professional development opportunities for schools to get started. Larmer suggests schools find a fit that works for them and then take another step, such as starting a book discussion between administrators and teachers, attending a workshop or taking a team to visit a local school to see the concepts in action.

"I think schools are more capable because they have access to the tech tools that help them solve these challenges," Cator says. "Those technologies make challenge-based learning more possible; students can just do this work, they don't have to sit and wait for a teacher to tell them the information-they can look it up, find experts who know something, or watch YouTube videos describing how to build something. Those are the resources we can leverage more and more for learning."

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What's the Difference Between Project- and Challenge-Based Learning, Anyway? - EdSurge News

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Here's a quick exercise for those in education: What do the letters CBL stand for? For many, competency-based learning might have been the first thing to pop in their heads. But others might have considered challenge-based, community-based or even case-based learning.

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Can a learning environment be called authentic if it is completed in a classroom or on campus? Yes, we think so! Authentic does not necessarily mean real (as in practicums and internships). As a pedagogical model, authentic learning means that realistic tasks set in academic settings can challenge students to think and solve problems just as professionals do in the real world.

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Dr. Debra Basil: Authentic Activities in the Classroom

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The Challenge Based Learning user guide is for everyone (students, teachers, parents, administrators, and community members) interested in building learning communities focused on identifying Challenges and implementing thoughtful and sustainable solutions. It expands on our original Challenge Based Learning Classroom Guide ¹ and White Paper ² and reflects the most recent information about the framework.

If you are new to Challenge Based Learning the guide provides background information, key concepts, and resources for getting started. If you are a Challenge Based Learning veteran the guide includes recent updates and expands on the information found in the original white paper and classroom guide.

To view the iBook, you must have an iPad with iBooks 2 or later and iOS 5 or later, or an iPhone with iOS 8.4 or later, or a Mac with OS X 10.9 or later<

*A PDF version will be available soon.
¹ ² Nichols, Mark H., Cator, Karen (2008), Challenge Based Learning White Paper. Cupertino, California: Apple, Inc. Apple Education (2010). Challenge Based Learning Classroom Guide.
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The Challenge Based Learning user guide is for everyone (students, teachers, parents, administrators, and community members) interested in building learning communities focused on identifying Challenges and implementing thoughtful and sustainable solutions. It expands on our original Challenge Based Learning Classroom Guide 1 and White Paper 2 and reflects the most recent information about the framework.

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What makes an Authentic Learning experience truly authentic?

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Picture students making frequent connections to curriculum outcomes in deep and meaningful ways. Imagine them caring about the academic tasks as if someone important to them is counting on their success. Authentic Learning Experiences (ALE) transforms this picture into reality. ALE is a growing practice in 40 minute lessons to units that go one to five weeks, and much longer ones.

Use the navigation links above to explore different aspects of ALE from concept to practices to implementations. Or continue below to explore the why of Authentic Learning Experiences.

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The concept of ALE is simple:

Immerse students into real world situations and/or challenges to make meaningful connections to curriculum.

Here are some examples:

interview a water quality employee to better understand the science and community impact

publish a position paper about a social or political issue

teach 2 and 3 digit multiplication and informational writing by having students create a budget for curriculum night event. Have a panel stakeholders decide which one to implement.

invite a business owner to share their marketing problem of promoting their business. Students are tasked with devising a persuasive multimedia marking campaign for review by the business owner.

devise an idea for more ADA compliant supports to be used to improve daily life, ie. store access, hotel room design, or use of gadgets like phones and other digital devices.

Why is ALE important for learners?

Authentic Learning Experiences help students connect curriculum with real world meaning. Academic subjects can feel abstract to some students, resulting in a belief that the "knowledge" is only relevant in the classroom as part of work to be done, and not remembered. This belief is far from the truth about how content builds to many applications and uses in the world beyond the school walls. When students grapple with the connections between concept and authentic applications, the skills gain value because job purpose is provided.

Additionally, authentic audience participation is valuable. Such a participant can support the lesson or unit by participating in a Q&A, mentoring, acting as a resource, or posing a genuine problem or question that they need an answer. From my experiences, and those of teachers and administrators I've helped, students were more likely to step up to the challenge. An genuine audience or client puts a "face" to the tasks. Confronted with that person or organization, students tend to raise their efforts for deeper quality of work, because someone is counting on them. An audience that is not the teacher seems to communicate that the work is not just an exercise. It's impact is real. Students have a voice in the global community.

Navigating a Global Community

The world is smaller in the sense that technology such as social media has sped up the flow of information and communication access to anywhere. No longer can students work on academics for the sake of curriculum, with justifications that the work will prepare them for the "real world." Such assertions are simply not true. Traditional instructional practices alone might develop students with a deep understanding of content, with little or no connection to the rich applications and implications in the world beyond school. Traditional instruction that are effective practices do have a place in today's teaching and learning-if those practices are incorporated, and sometimes reinvented, into connections and applications in the global community.

Video conferencing, virtual worlds, digital collaborative spaces and tools, and apps provide a variety of ways to bring the world inside the classroom, and the students entrance into the world. Publication of ideas as comments to articles, to videos are literally at our fingertips. Access to experts, professionals, enthusiasts, and explorers has become so easy that a real challenge is how to communicate with them, and effectively sift through what is evidenced-based to agenda-driven. These are the experiences and 21st Century Learner skills that students need experience with as they learn curriculum.

Now What

Authentic Learning Experiences are not a new idea. It continues to evolve based on the world that we live in. In the late 1990s, cell phones were a tool that was not a common tool, nor as useful, as it has become today, with the merging of computer technology and the internet. As the global community shrinks and careers evolve, students need more experiences that applies curriculum in an authentic context beyond school.

Start simple with one lesson or a collection of 2-3 learning experiences. Build your comfort level, while giving students new interesting challenges. Expand to a unit focus, where students tackle a problem or puzzle. Their final product should demonstrate their understanding of content outcomes through their creative solutions. PBL is one such unit structure that supports this approach. Explore the possibilities through these resources below.

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Picture students making frequent connections to curriculum outcomes in deep and meaningful ways. Imagine them caring about the academic tasks as if someone important to them is counting on their success. Authentic Learning Experiences (ALE) transforms this picture into reality.

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October 2004 | Volume 8 | Number 2
Teaching for Meaning

Lisa Stamps

A group of impassioned, budding environmentalists debates the pros and cons of clearing trees from the rain forest. They note the many resources that these massive forest areas provide to humans and discuss how cutting down the trees could affect the environment-the trees supply oxygen, for example. During the conversation, all group members are eager to share their opinions. The issue affects them and, indeed, all life on Earth.

Another group discusses organ donation. They talk about the specific health problems of patients waiting to receive organs and the urgent need for donors. This topic is especially relevant to the group because one of its members has a relative who is on the list to receive a kidney transplant.

What is unusual about these two groups of people is that they are not made up of scientists or doctors. Rather, they are elementary and middle school students trying to determine which real-world issue will serve as a research topic for a school project. These students are engaging in what is known as "authentic learning."

Creating Authentic Learning Experiences

My first recognition that this was an ideal approach to teaching and learning came when I taught gifted elementary and middle school students in a pull-out program. Students spent one day each week with me learning about topics they chose. They would eagerly enter my classroom because they had control of the "what" and "how" of their learning. The assignments had meaning to them, and they had a vested interest in achieving their learning goals. As a result, the students worked much harder and longer than they might have if I had assigned the topics to them.

The 6th grade students who were interested in learning more about organ donation programs demonstrated that same enthusiasm. The five students began by brainstorming everything they knew collectively and then set out to research the subject. They spent many hours surfing the Web and perusing documents in the library. Students learned and practiced skills such as word processing and videotaping. They recorded the new information they acquired and logged questions they had. Then, we heard about a local man who had recently received a kidney that had been donated from another local man he knew. We arranged for students to interview the organ donor and recipient so that the students could learn first-hand about this issue.

Students created the plan for their investigation. They listed everything they had learned through research and identified what they still needed to learn, as well as what resources they would need. The students also determined what their final "real-world" product would be and how that product would be evaluated.

Because authentic learning spans disciplines, students would learn about science and language and gain other skills through this project. Students realized that they needed to learn how to conduct an interview, for example. After reviewing videos and how-to books on the subject, students began writing possible questions and holding mock interviews. As they practiced, they became more confident of their scientific knowledge about kidney transplants and more at ease with asking questions.

At last the big day came. Students videotaped the interview, which was held in the boardroom where the organ recipient worked. They asked about the surgical procedures, the recovery time, the physical maintenance after surgery, the dialysis process, the deepened friendship between the two men, their opinions of the positive and negative aspects of donation, and their emotional reactions. The students' professionalism was impressive, and it was evident that they gained knowledge, skills, and a deep understanding of the subject matter.

Adult Roles in Authentic Learning

When students are actively involved in planning and executing their own authentic learning experiences, the teacher's role becomes that of the primary support person-guiding students' thinking and gathering resources. The teacher must be enthusiastic about learning and provide encouragement.

School administrators can assist teachers by supporting their innovative methods and by supplying funds to purchase necessary materials. Administrators need to become familiar with how authentic learning boosts students' learning and achievement, and they need to lead the search for fresh and authentic ways to feed their students' minds.

Parents can also assist in the authentic learning process, and teachers should work to facilitate their involvement. Many times, I would hold evening events (in the classroom, at the park, or wherever the project was taking place) so that parents could visit when students were making presentations. Other times, I would ask parents to help supply materials or provide transportation to visit experts on field trips. Finally, parents need to support the efforts of authentic learning practices and communicate the effectiveness to school administrators, teachers, and boards of education.

Taking on the World

Through authentic learning tasks, I have seen students of all ages become critical and creative thinkers, risk takers, and problem finders. They tackle large problems-problems that, like real-world issues, are messy and have more than one solution. Such genuine scenarios require that students use analytical decision-making processes and justify their choices.

Throughout the years, my students have completed many authentic learning projects, exploring topics that range from aviation to zoology. They have participated in many service projects to help solve community-based and worldwide problems. Students organized efforts to send money, food, and clothing to the poor in Honduras. They have tutored students and participated in community beautification and clean-up efforts. Through these activities, students also learned citizenship skills by taking responsibility for being productive members of our society.

At a young age, students enter school with a desire to learn. Authentic learning experiences fuel that motivation. What students learn, therefore, becomes all the more meaningful. Through authentic learning experiences, students don't simply receive knowledge; they attain it.

Lisa Stamps ( lstamps@msms.k12.ms.us), a teacher of 10 years, is now director for academic affairs at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science in Columbus, Miss.

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October 2004 | Volume 8 | Number 2 Teaching for Meaning Lisa Stamps A group of impassioned, budding environmentalists debates the pros and cons of clearing trees from the rain forest. They note the many resources that these massive forest areas provide to humans and discuss how cutting down the trees could affect the environment-the trees supply oxygen, for example.

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Creating Authentic Learning Experiences in the Literacy Classroom

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When students are able to have a say in their education and explore topics of interest to which they feel a personal connection, they are excited to spend time learning. Creative teachers are harnessing that excitement by integrating authentic learning into their classroom instruction.

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We are surrounded by Challenges: large, small, local, global, short and long term. Some we choose, some choose us; some we look forward to, some we dread; some we address, some we try to ignore. Ultimately, how we individually and communally respond to Challenges will determine our future. As problems become increasingly complex and pressing, the need to develop a generation of engaged Learners equipped to identify Challenges and develop innovative and sustainable Solutions is crucial.

Using Challenges to frame learning experiences originated from an exploration of reality television, conversations with individuals who's lives center on Challenges, and reflection on personal learning experiences inside and outside of the classroom. When faced with a Challenge, successful groups and individuals leverage experience, harness internal and external resources, develop a plan and push forward to find the best solution. Along the way, there is experimentation, failure, success and ultimately consequences for actions. By adding Challenges to learning environments the result is urgency, passion, and ownership - ingredients often missing in schools.

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Challenge Based Learning | Take Action. Make a Difference.

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We are surrounded by Challenges: large, small, local, global, short and long term. Some we choose, some choose us; some we look forward to, some we dread; some we address, some we try to ignore. Ultimately, how we individually and communally respond to Challenges will determine our future.

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Project Based Learning for all. We build the capacity of teachers and school leaders to design and facilitate quality Project Based Learning.

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Teachers Create what they Experience | Katie Martin | TEDxElCajonSalon

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Authentic learning is real life learning. It is a style of learning that encourages students to create a tangible, useful, quality product/outcome to be shared with their world. Once an educator provides a motivational challenge, or student selects their initiative, it is imperative to nurture and support the necessary criteria, planning, timelines, resources and support to accommodate student success. The teacher becomes a guide on the side or an event manager, a facilitator that co-creates with their students. Processes become the predominant forces while skills, knowledge and behaviours are activated in real-world, relevant contexts.

Authentic learning is actualized learning. It is only when student initiatives are directed towards a genuine audience, beyond the classroom, that learning becomes truly activated. When learning initiatives are designed for initiatives that permeate the classroom walls, then lasting, transferrable learning begins to take hold. It can be achieved by going out to the community, by inviting a community audience into the school setting, or directing it towards an audience in the global, digital or electronic domain.

When relevant and meaningful learning initiatives are skilfully designed and implemented for a genuine audience, in a realistic context, then innate neurological receptors to learn are heightened. The closer learning is to real-life scenarios, the more optimal the learning experience will be.

Authentic learning engages all the senses allowing students to create a meaningful, useful, shared outcome. They are real life tasks, or simulated tasks, that provide the learner with opportunities to connect directly with a relevant world.

Instead of vicariously discussing topics and regurgitating information in a traditional industrial age modality, authentic learning provides a learner with support to achieve a tangible, useful, quality product worth sharing with an audience in their world. Instead of prioritizing the curriculum expectations and its contents over experience rich processes, authentic learning chooses fertile, student driven, community connected audiences to create experience rich products for and then strategically align relevant curricula connections to them. with our environment that creates experience

As Albert Einstein stated, "The only source of knowledge is the experience." Yes we are complex, intricately wired beings with a vast network of neuro-receptors that serve us on our unique journeys through life. Regardless of our analytical talents, physical prowess, perceptual abilities or health status, we all come with plethora of innate skills and deficits. It's only when we're exposed to opportunities to explore, engage, create, reflect, interact socially, emotionally and cognitively

exposure to Authentic learning emphasizes 'experience nurturing' that provides longer lasting, transferable skills to an individual. It is more relevant, motivational and personal.

Our greatest short coming in education these past years has been to ignore the brain research that is richly available to us that affirms that implementing multi-sensory activities, pursuing meaningful tasks, exploring a variety of skills with real world applications is optimal learning and that it needs to be practiced regularly.

A student sitting at a desk, taking notes and regurgitating curriculum content uses a minute amount of their potential. In general, students learn to sit quietly, respond in turn, follow instructions and complete tests for a control teacher. Without relevance, personal connection, multi-sensory engagement and purpose, content driven curricula begins to evaporate once the test has been taken. You remember studying for exams, cramming, finding memory cues and rote to consolidate information? Do you also remember how fast you started to forget those brain bytes once you left the exam room? If it's not relevant to you, it not lasting, transferrable learning. If learning is not based in the rich processes that only experiences can provide, it's static learning.

This classic, industrial age approach has been used since the mid 1870's to produce a work force to facilitate mass production lines that were to become prevalent in the next hundred years. That era ended in the 1980's if not before. If all we do is sit at a square table, with a square piece of paper, in a square room with departmentalized lessons and timetables, then what are our education systems really producing? Brain-based research shows that by using all senses it maximizes the learning experience. The key being - the experience!

Interacting, manipulating, exploring, collaborating, discussing openly and sharing for meaningful reasons while having ample time to nurture a greater depth of reasoning and creativity is optimal learning. It's learning that sticks. It's learning with roots!

In an authentic learning model the emphasis is to prioritize the processes over the content. It's about allowing students to pursue individual learning opportunities that are unique to their interests, through relevant, real life journeys. The emphasis isn't just about regurgitating content for a unit test, it's about developing a set of culminating skills sets, within a realistic timeline, using self-motivated, natural inquiry methods to create a useful product to be shared with a specific, meaningful audience. It's about engaging students into full fledged, multi-sensory contexts that nurture their learning experiences in significant, lasting ways.

More importantly, the learning journey that ensues is life altering as students are aligned to meaningful processes that nurture non-perishable skills rather than the short term memory exercises that a content driven curriculum demands. Don't get me wrong, content is important but when using an authentic learning approach content is recognized as it is properly intended to be - a portfolio of records, research, plans, lists, notes, reading, contacts, drafts and support information that will become the artifacts of the authentic journey.

With the advent of the internet, content is readily available to everyone. We can reference, cross reference, research any topic at rapid speeds and do it at any time when it's relevant for us. We can access it through mobiles, tablets or computers as we access information as it is needed and when it is needed. Is it still relevant for a teacher to predominately dispense content to students, then evaluate the regurgitation of that content given as the main assessment of a person's learning ability?

Authentic learning allows for students to demonstrate their skills through a series of unfolding learning processes with a definitive, quality product that they can actually demonstrate. At no time in history has information (content) been so readily available to the masses, but it's the synergy and processes of engagement that defines our human experience. That's where the real value in education lies. Students need purpose. They need to feel useful and be a valued part of a community. They need to feel connected and real-world contexts allow for these elements to be activated and groomed. By nurturing 'purpose' we are providing the channels for students to recognize their unique talents and see their inherent value in society. Thus, individual and community self-esteem becomes a priceless byproduct of a successful authentic learning initiative.

I believe that education systems must reevaluate the weighting of its' curricula as it must reflect a working balance between learning processes and properly aligned content? Remember, processes take time to learn but once they're consolidated they're impact lasts for a long time. Processes require skill sets that are developmentally prioritized and require skilled instructors to transfer these skills. If you want students to engage in deeper thinking opportunities, then time is one of the most valued commodities. Are education systems willing to forgo the number of content expectations in their curricula in favour of embracing processes that require more time commitment? Good teachers are quick to point out that their curricula covers so many topics and expectations that there isn't enough time to cover everything appropriately. The more topics, the more content and the more time it takes to cover everything in the curriculum, and mathematically it just doesn't work. The rules dictate how the game is played, so to cover every expectation educational systems rely on the "here's the information" and "here's the test" mode of education. It's an efficient way to deliver content quickly so that all expectations are lawfully covered. It's an over used exercise in short term memory skills and cognitive cueing tricks, but its not a fulfilling, meaningful way to learn. Unless students are immersed in relevant, multi-sensory activities with specific, audience directed outcomes and culminating skills sets, then what students are learning is not sticking.

With the recognition of STEM, STEAM, Maker education platforms in the past decade, it demonstrates a deeper appreciation and commitment to relevant processes. This is very promising!

The quality of research, subject knowledge, skill development, expert consultation, dedication and resourcefulness that goes into making a product is directly related to the quality outcome of that product.

Is It Authentic Learning or Not?

Remember, in true authentic learning an outcome designed to interact successfully with a community is the goal. When this happens a whole new layer of emotional, academic and skill set developments take place. There's a big difference between preparing a skit for some classmates verses a dramatic production for the public. There's a much larger personal investment required when a student becomes an ancient Egyptian tradesperson producing tools and wares, while working at a market stall to an interacting audience than holding up a Bristol board display and explaining ancient Egyptian information on it. Best of all, the student retains information from this type of multi-sensory, authentic learning experience longer because it's real, it's connected.

Authentic learning is not project-based learning nor is it constructivism. These models of education were designed within the classroom context. Although at times they stepped successfully into the world of authentic, and are extremely useful tools in moving closer to an authentic learning approach they are not authentic learning models. Authentic learning is intended to successfully interact with a community; by going out to interact with a community or the community coming into the student community to interact. That's why it's authentic! It's a quality outcome or product of significance that is intended for community consumption or betterment.

Kudos to those teachers who provide project-based, simulation, game-based learning opportunities, Maker, STEM and STEAM. These are significant, engaging initiatives that provide the best kind of classroom learning and education systems need more of you. They are fantastic opportunities in providing working instruction and to model inquiry method, team work and sound skill development. What I'm encouraging is to take the next step. Consider a project to be developed for real world applications beyond the school walls, for a viable audience. Not every time, but perhaps once in a school year attempt an authentic event. For those who have stepped into the realm of authentic you'll understand how this impacts everything. It will impact the initial discussions, the consultation, the refined skill sets, networking and the professional development a student and teacher requires.

Think about it. Every important, relevant thing a person requires to achieve a goal in life has a quality outcome or product attached to it with an intended audience. Pitching a business proposal requires an in depth presentation that reflects relevance, meaning and purpose. If it's backed by tangible proof, even better. A prototype of a new invention requires a quality, tested, working device or apparatus to gain support in the marketing world. An environmental assessment requires extensive research and impact studies of connected, like-situations from around the ecological world.

A grade five teacher once shared a wonderful collection of student written and recorded persuasive "Saving Energy" stories with me. They even designed CD covers in art lessons for their project. The work, learning and planning by teacher and student was tremendous. Upon being asked however, "What did you do with all that great work" she replied she'd listened to the CD in class and put the CD covers up on the bulletin board. This is a great example of integrated learning but it's not authentic learning.

By planning beyond the classroom, a whole new level of understanding and relevant learning takes place. What if the CDs were intended for sale at the nearest mall? Now, an in depth degree of consultation needs to be pursued. Mall managers, local radio stations, graphic designers, bar codes for selling, copyrights local recording studios and marketing experts will need to be considered. That's the major leap an educator needs to take to enter the realm of authentic learning. What if the recordings were uploaded onto a website and promoted to leaders of energy conservation intended to be used to educate the surrounding community on "Energy Saving"? What about an "Energy Saving in Our Homes" campaign within your community? These are only suggestions but with a little brainstorming and with the right people, it wouldn't be long until a list of exciting possibilities could be created. Why are they exciting possibilities? Because they're real, relevant and worthy!

One of the reasons I started to use the term "authentic learning" was that I recognized that the term "outcomes-based" education, William Spady's model which shared a number of characteristics, was being recognized mainly for it's outcome statements. His strategy of reforming an education system, built on students performing a hierarchy of skills was diluted down to the content-based, outcome statements. Again, it became more about the content than pursuing the meaningful journey of authentic education. It isn't hard to understand why this happened because that's how it would be perceived by policy makers who's successes were affirmed in a content driven system.

Authentic learning is not another edu-trend or buzz word. It is real life - real world education and when appropriately implemented it can provide optimal learning opportunities to all students. I have noticed that some educators are misrepresenting the term "authentic" to qualify their student's inferred learning. If learning is engaged solely in classroom settings, referencing real world examples only, it's vicarious learning, - it's not authentic learning. Authentic learning is relevant learning, activated in a real world context to a real world audience.

​If you've ever initiated a business or an organization, you'll have a far better understanding of the enormous work and planning an authentic learning event requires. As in real life - these initiatives take an enormous amount of time, dedication, consulting, flexibility, networking, research and communication to launch. Yes, to launch! Once the launch has been initiated, then the real work starts. As guide on the side, or project manager you're now having to coordinate, educate, coach, consult and communicate with your students and parents in shaping their successful roles while pursuing the larger goal of your signature event. As well, you're going to require some additional professional development directly connected to the skills required in your authentic initiative.

Creating a Signature Event

A signature event is when tangible product is shared with a genuine, relevant audience. For example; if your high school senior class planned to design, construct and test their solar cars, organizing a Solar Car Derby with a spectator audience at a nearby racetrack would be a worthwhile signature event.

To fully immerse the students in an authentic learning experience they would be expected to prepare for the event with community experts, consultants, parents, teacher colleagues and community leaders. The more the students participate in the organization of the event, the more ownership and pride the students will have towards the event.

By providing students with the opportunity to have input at all levels allows for the distribution of learning at all levels. If there are rules involved, then student representatives need to be part of the derby rules development, refinement and approval. Students will possess a better grasp of all aspects of the authentic event when they are personally connected to the complete journey.

While the signature event is being planned, the students are honing their knowledge and skills to create their own quality product to share. It all depends on the type of product being created that will dictate how much class time can be used to design and create their products.

This style of learning is labour intensive and time consuming but it is the most worthwhile education you can provide students. Once you've implemented an authentic event, or simulation, the impact on student development is remarkable. The great thing about authentic learning is, it's a context that allows for student's uniqueness to be highlighted. Whether it's a specific skill, academic or a social/behaviour issue, an authentic setting, appropriately implemented, provides a very rich personal growth setting.

This new, authentic learning approach, however, requires another breed of educator. An academic as well as a life skilled, co-creator. A real, "life" long learner with skill sets and experiences that can facilitate a creative, diverse, well structured, team-based, open-ended, criteria based and globally directed education program. Ask yourself if you're on the way down the enlightened authentic learning road? Are you working towards sharing a tangible product beyond the class or bringing the world into your schools either electronically or for real? The authentic experiences you provide your students is also the beginning of an unforgettable learning journey in your life.

The Tale of Two Lyres

Pictures of Quality Products (below)

I had just completed an authentic event, a Medieval Market Living Museum one April evening. It was the culmination of one and half months of preparation as the students demonstrated their personas (roles) as medieval trades people in medieval Coventry, UK. The students worked diligently away at their trades during this open house, all academic levels to their potential. Their goal was to create an authentic medieval trade persona, an authentic costume that reflected their trade role, an authentic working trade tool or product and a market stall to share their wares. The room was decorated with beautiful tapestries, murals, personalized heraldry banners and a large book display of the student's collective work/activity sheets carefully spiral bound.

In authentic learning paper collections are referred to as portfolios. These portfolios were carefully done and included an extensive variety of curriculum content and authentic learning preparation sheets. Spelling, creative writing, math, art, drama, technology, problem solving and reading comprehension work sheets were all included. Nearly five hundred visitors came through our themed room and only about ten people even looked through the spiraled bound unit booklets. They were clearly displayed, beautifully presented and featured eye pleasing, colorful covers.

Visitors were far more interested in interacting with the trades people, hearing their stories, watching them work, than reading the notes that helped them attain their goal. Really, it is this kind of instance that affirms the reality that content and paper curriculum isn't as important as we believe them to be. It's important, and it certainly has its place, but the applied knowledge is far more important. The doing consolidates all the learning that went into the event.

​Somewhere along the continuum of learning development the jot notes became more important than the tangible, meaningful applications of the education purpose itself. In the end, it's the applied demonstration that counts. "It's all in the doing".

Student Behaviours When Immersed in Authentic Learning

Is it realistic to think that authentic learning of this nature can be done, ongoing, throughout the school year? Of course it can and there are school's that engage in authentic approaches already. Maybe one day authentic learning may be the motis operandum of the majority of schools, but realistically not yet. With the current school classroom structures, resources, timetabling, standardized test demands, physical classroom limitations, administration directives and the plethora of curriculum expectations as they are, it's difficult to do.

If, however, an educator can attempt one or two authentic learning events in a school year then that's a fantastic start. At year's end you and your students won't regret it and it won't be long until you're looking forward to starting your next. There are different degrees of authentic learning events from simulations shared with your community to complete, real world integrations. Start small, then develop your authentic learning undertakings over the years to come. Let other educators, parents and community members observe your authentic learning events. Remember, a well implemented authentic unit/event is the best kind of promotion for this rich style of learning.

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Authentic learning is real life learning. It is a style of learning that encourages students to create a tangible, useful, quality product/outcome to be shared with their world. Once an educator...

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