HASS

Week 6

1.2. Authentic Learning

Reflection on Authentic Learning:

On reviewing the content introduced to us through week 6, it is both challenging to me and yet also inspiring and (without exaggeration) almost revolutionary.

Why Challenging?

In the first instance authentic learning challenges my pre-conceptions around explicit teaching and instruction and, dare I say it, Teacher Authority. What I mean by this, how can the students learn if they don’t know the content of what they are learning? (my response and reflections to this below).

I find it also challenging; given (as is acknowledged) one must be prepared to ‘walk the line’ between students obtaining maximum authentic learning and learning how to think and associated skills, and students not diverging too far from learning the actual content. In this context, as is acknowledged the delivery of this type of learning is often refined after many years of teaching.

Equally, overlaying this with the depth of expectation embedded through my learning areas (HASS) in the Australian curriculum, coupled with minimal ‘time allocation’ to cultivate this type of approach; and my mind wonders to the practical reality of this becoming problematic in practice.

Inspiring/revolutionary?

I think back to my entire schooling, and the entire approach was related to explicit instruction, week on week – the teacher explaining the content, we would take notes; and then answer questions (and sometimes answering questions to problems) to demonstrate that we could apply what we had learnt. (seldom did this draw on higher order thinking, by way of Blooms Taxonomy ‘verbs’, and in this context did not enable us the opportunity to think critically in many different ways – related to the content that was being taught).

Although this approach has merit / including the rigour to apply structure; I now think of my own working life – and the skills that I am required to draw on from a daily basis are purely higher order thinking (making meaning from a range of areas and stimulus, interpreting this and applying to decision making on a daily basis. And real life decision making, that if I get it wrong will have dire consequences for me personally and also the organisation I work for).

Therefore, to ‘empower’ Teachers to teach within a real word and authentic context, should necessarily increase the participation of learners and generate greater meaningful learning experiences. In this context, the readings also make clear to me the neurological component of deep learning – i.e. it is only when we apply and test learning to scenarios and interrogated, engage others on it – that the learning becomes deeply rooted in understanding.

Overlaying this with problem based teaching; and although stretching students – drives higher quality learning. For me, this enables Teachers to: teach how to think and teach content in an interchangeably and enmeshed fashion.

Finally, why is it inspiring? Besides connecting the relevance for students into the real world; it enables teachers to be profoundly creative in their pedagogy – in fact almost limitless; and an opportunity to put on display for students the importance and application of content in my subject area (in a manner that enables ownership and self discovery).

For instance, in the context of Civics and Citizenship; rather than just teaching and providing content on Australia’s Political System – we could start with a problem or an outcome we wish to derive. For instance (after workshopping with the students); ‘my Council should build a Central Business District in my suburb and attract Universities and Businesses to be there’; through an authentic learning process we could:

              Work through how Australia’s political system can enable this; such as The role of Local Government in South Australia, the funding mechanisms, the decision making processes, the overarching strategy to achieve this etc.

              By using this approach, it would enable students to ‘road test’ the Political System in action, rather than a teacher providing a handout on Local, State and Commonwealth parliament and then asking students a series of questions to test their ‘recall’.

As I mentioned above, this would be challenging – and of course messy, BUT would it replicate the real world and be profoundly authentic; whilst therefore creating an environment to embed a number of the general capabilities – absolutely!