Authentic Learning: Connecting Education to the Real World

In education, authentic learning is an instructional 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. It refers to a "wide variety of educational and instructional techniques focused on connecting what students are taught in school to real-world issues, problems, and applications.

Understanding Authentic Learning

Authentic learning is a way to foster passion in students, so they can experience a more meaningful learning experience and create a pathway toward the future. There are many ways to engage students in authentic learning experiences, through additional resources, films, books, pictures, and learning how to work through challenges faced in common situations. Teachers can share everyday, relatable experiences that help students apply what they learn in the classroom to other aspects of their lives.

Traditional vs. Authentic Learning

Authentic instruction will take on a much different form than traditional teaching methods. In the traditional classroom, students take a passive role in the learning process. Knowledge is considered to be a collection of facts and procedures that are transmitted from the teacher to the student. In this view, the goal of education is to possess a large collection of these facts and procedures. Authentic learning, on the other hand, takes a constructivist approach, in which learning is an active process. Teachers provide opportunities for students to construct their own knowledge through engaging in self-directed inquiry, problem solving, critical thinking, and reflections in real-world contexts. This knowledge construction is heavily influenced by the student's prior knowledge and experiences, as well as by the characteristics that shape the learning environment, such as values, expectations, rewards, and sanctions. Education is more student-centered.

Defining Authentic Learning

There is no definitive description of authentic learning. Educators must develop their own interpretations of what creates meaning for the students in their classrooms. However, the literature suggests that there are several characteristics of authentic learning. It is important to note that authentic learning tasks do not have to have all the characteristics. They can be thought of as being on a spectrum, with tasks being more or less authentic. Learning, most often, is interdisciplinary. Learning begins with a question or problem, which cannot be constricting in that it allows the student to construct their own response and inquiry. Students produce a product that can be shared with an audience outside the classroom. Assessment of authentic learning is integrated seamlessly within the learning task in order to reflect similar, real world assessments.

The Core Idea

The basic idea is that students are more likely to be interested in what they are learning, more motivated to learn new concepts and skills, and better prepared to succeed in college, careers, and adulthood if what they are learning mirrors real-life contexts, equips them with practical and useful skills, and addresses topics that are relevant and applicable to their lives outside of school.

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Key Characteristics of Authentic Learning

When you compare traditional teaching methods with authentic learning, there’s a more hands-on approach to student learning in a more authentic way. It’s a learning environment that involves authentic experiences, relating coursework to practical knowledge, and developing skills for the real world. There are a number of characteristics involved in authentic student learning that support and prepare students for benefits beyond the classroom.

Higher-Order Thinking

In order to address this challenge, a framework consisting of five standards of authentic instruction has been developed by Wisconsin's Center on Organization and Restructuring of Schools. This framework can be a valuable tool for both researchers and teachers. Teachers can use the framework to generate questions, clarify goals, and critique their teaching. Each standard can be assessed on a scale of one to five rather than a categorical yes or no variable. This scale measures the degree to which students use higher-order thinking skills.

Depth of Knowledge

This scale assesses students' depth of knowledge and understanding.

Connectedness to the World

This scale measures the extent to which the instruction has value and meaning beyond the instructional context.

Substantive Conversation

This scale assesses the extent of communication to learn and understand the substance of a subject.

Social Support for Student Achievement

The social support scale measures the culture of the learning community. Social support is high in classes where there are high expectations for all students, a climate of mutual respect, and inclusion of all students in the learning process.

Engaging Students

Student skills develop through an authentic context, where kids are engaged to learn by creating a connection between what they learn in the classroom, its value, and how to apply it in the real world. There are many fun, helpful activities that teachers can use to engage students in authentic learning, such as the following:

Find real examples and consider how they can be recreated or used as an example in the classroom.
Ask students about their interests, background, culture, and other characteristics.
Engage students in discussions about current events and how they would react in a specific situation.
Incorporate real-life experiences into artwork, writing assignments, and other course materials as a great way to get students interested in expressing their views and ideas.
Observe how students interact with each other and how they react to various topics to determine where more authentic learning can benefit their needs.

Authentic Learning Practices

There are several authentic learning practices in which students may participate.

Simulation-Based Learning

Students engage in simulations and role-playing in order to be put in situations where the student has to actively participate in the decision making of a project.

Inquiry-Based Learning

Inquiry-based learning starts by posing questions, problems or scenarios rather than simply presenting material to students. Students identify and research issues and questions to develop their knowledge or solutions. This type of learning, also known as inquiry-based learning, gives students a chance to naturally learn and acquire knowledge in the classroom and outside of it. Essentially, it creates an authentic learning experience that promotes learning as a more enjoyable, exciting way to absorb and understand information while applying it in the real world.

Peer-Based Evaluation

In peer based evaluation students are given the opportunity to analyze, critique, and provide constructive feedback on the assignments of their peers.

Working with Remote Instruments

Specialized software can provide students with opportunities they might not have otherwise. For example, "various software packages produce similar results that students working in a fully equipped lab might receive.

Reflecting and Documenting Achievements

The importance of metacognition in the learning process is well-documented. Giving students the opportunity to reflect upon and monitor their learning is essential.

Project-Based Learning

Begins with a problem or question that is the starting point for inquiry and which all products are created as a result of. Project-based learning often takes the form of active learning, where students learn outside of the classroom, with teacher direction. This process may involve a field trip, a visit to a community center, a government building, or common areas that involve exploring, observing, and, later, discussion in school. Active learning is about helping students learn about the world around them, which promotes continued learning after class and outside of school. Extracurricular groups of interest promote greater active learning opportunities, either through art, sports, the environment, and critical social issues. These groups are often student-led, allowing students to develop leadership skills they can apply in real life.

Benefits of Authentic Learning

Educational research shows that authentic learning is an effective learning approach to preparing students for work in the 21st century. By situating knowledge within relevant contexts, learning is enhanced in all four domains of learning: cognitive (knowledge), affective (attitudes), psychomotor (skills), and psychosocial (social skills).

Developing Critical Thinking Skills

When students are encouraged to think through problems to reach a solution or are guided by their individual or collective curiosities, they develop more effective critical thinking and problem-solving skills. In authentic learning environments, students contribute to the direction of learning in the classroom, which means they are more motivated to explore and research answers to their questions and find solutions more independently.

Greater Problem-Solving Tools

Students better equipped to handle real-life situations develop more vital problem-solving skills. When students learn how to resolve conflict in their communities or handle difficult situations in a new, more effective way, this can lead to positive action later in life, including taking on a significant role in activism and supporting positive change. The classroom is a great way to create awareness of real-world events, concerns, and situations that empower students to take action, in their way, within their communities. Problem-solving is vital for everyday tasks and challenges, and can help students prepare for work and higher education. This higher level of thinking can allow students to make small but meaningful improvements at home and within society as they develop these tools and learn more about the world around them. Brainstorming solutions and strategies in the classroom can ignite this process and give students a chance to test and develop their skills in communication and achieving goals.

Consideration for Real-World Events

Many students benefit from relating what they learn from teachers and peers to what’s happening in the world, whether it’s the latest breaking news, community events, and other developments. Teachers often discover that students develop different perspectives and ideas and take a keener interest in real world issues. These real-world problems are ideal for exploring through film, books, and realistic scenarios, which help engage students and help them become emotionally invested in their education, and the world they live in.

Implementing Authentic Learning

Getting to Know Your Students, Families, and Community

When teachers meet with parents, they can better understand their student’s life at home, how they live, their culture, background, and other factors that contribute to their learning experience. It’s always important to ask questions of both students and teachers to get a better idea of what they enjoy reading, watching, and playing so that these themes can be integrated into the classroom for a more enhanced learning experience.

Authentic Learning as Real-Life Learning

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 as Actualized Learning

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.

The Importance of Experience

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.

As Albert Einstein stated, "The only source of knowledge is the experience." It's only when we're exposed to opportunities to explore, engage, create, reflect, interact socially, emotionally and cognitively with our environment that creates experience exposure to Authentic learning emphasizes 'experience nurturing' that provides longer lasting, transferable skills to an individual. It is more relevant, motivational and personal.

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. 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.

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.

Overcoming Challenges and Misconceptions

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.

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.

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