As I was working
my way through my M.S. in Instructional Design and Technology, I was focused on
discovering new ways to make learning authentic for the students that I serve.
How could I provide students with project-based learning opportunities that
engage them in the community working with or for people who could give them experiences
true to their content area? I kept looking for a gold standard of what
authentic learning would look like. For one of my classes, it was required of
me at the time to develop an online professional development workshop. In
collecting data for my project, and as I mentioned in my previous post, I found
that authentic had become so much of an educational buzz word that it had
seemed to lose all meaning. How could such a commonly used word in the
educational vernacular mean something different to each educator?
What I have always
envisioned is a sort of cognitive apprenticeship in which students work in the
classroom served a purpose, provided a project, or delivered a performance for
a business, the community, a community member, or many other outlets. I also
felt that if it were done correctly, it would be difficult to draw a line from
where the work in class began and community engagement piece ended. The meshing
of the two would provide real opportunities in the content area to participate.
In other words, students could do history not just study it. Students could use
algebra, not just learn about it. Student ELA skills would be embedded into
every real-world project they immersed themselves into by creating written
business plans or proposals for example. If you want to know what your students
think, we need to get those students writing or producing artifacts that show
their thought process. Sometimes a student doesn’t know what they think until
they write it down and see what they have to say.
Not only would
they engage in these authentic activities, but the work that they did would
serve a real purpose. For example, in a science or STEM class, could students
design as prosthetic hand rather than just read about it? Could it be something
that was developed as an open source project as to cost the end user nothing,
but it could provide a real applicable solution to a life problem? Can what
they produce not only be assessed but also can that assessment reflect a
solution to a problem that might exist in their learning community? Will their
feedback come from multiple entities rather than just the teacher in the class,
or at best the 25 classmates sitting around them each day? How can we redesign
learning so that student feedback is immediate and true to the project at hand?
Probably one of
the greatest lessons in learning for our students is to then take that feedback,
reflect on their learning, and initiate a plan to address potential areas of growth.
This reflective thought is often a missing component to student learning as we
bounce from assessment to assessment and from lesson to lesson but is no doubt
the greatest argument for us to explore a path towards standards-based grading.
That, however, is a topic for another day. What I found through collecting data was that
my perception of these authentic learning opportunities was not the same way
that each educator I talked to viewed authentic learning.
In truth, neither I nor the teachers I had
conversations with were wrong. In fact, I now view authentic learning in a spectrum
format and believe that when re(designing) lessons, figuring out ways to capitalize
on potential opportunities to put our students into those authentic roles. It
is also naïve to think that the gold standard, whatever that might be, of
authentic learning can be met with every lesson. However, when we begin to reflect
and design our lessons to meet the needs of our students, this must be
something would put at the forefront of our planning rather than just a focus
purely on the content. One of the most valuable things we can do when planning
for our students is to not “lock them in a box.” If we over prescribe what we
want the assessment to look like, it becomes ours and not there’s.
If we
sacrifice student agency, we also sacrifice authentic engagement to a degree.
There must be freedom within form for the student to think for themselves and
to create for the world. If it’s not possible for a lesson to place a student
in an authentic environment to do the work of professionals in that content
area or field of study, perhaps the best second would be to simply assign that
student the project giving them an authentic role to play. If we look at this
domain in the 4 shifts protocol, there are some questions we can ask ourselves
as we prepare to make learning meaningful for our students (McLeod
& Graber, 2019).
If it is not possible
to infuse your students into a community rich project with real solutions for
real problems of people, then perhaps we can place a student in that authentic
role to meet this need. Or perhaps in a science class if students are designing
and making their own speakers, it may not be something that they will sell on
Amazon in the end; however, it may be possible to lay the groundwork explaining
the real world need for such a design and also place them in an authentic role
to provide purpose and relevancy to what they are doing. Is there some type of
authentic product or performance that can be created?
This lesson from Harnessing
Technology for Deeper Learning is perhaps my favorite example of this
thought process from a junior high math course.
The initial
problem:
“You have 1,400 square feet of boards to use for a
new treehouse. Design a treehouse that has a volume of at least 250 cubic feet.
Include sketches of your treehouse. Are your dimensions reasonable? Explain your
answer.”
This is obviously
a difficult problem that might take Mr. Witherell a month to get wrong; however,
our students have amazing math teachers and I am confident they would do well
with it. The problem is however somewhat ambiguous and for the student who
craves relevancy to what they learn, it leads them asking the question “why do
I care.” The age-old question that every math teacher will get asked by a
student at some point “why do I need to know this?” will eventually come out potentially
causing that teachers’ blood to nearly boil out of their skin. The teacher will
calm themselves and politely answer, “because Johnny it's just something you
need to know,” engaging in a cyclical debate that will only end when the bell
rings. If you take the ambiguity out of the lesson, this no longer becomes an
issue. Working through each of the 4 shift domains, this problem can be strengthened
into a lesson of deeper learning. Looking at the authentic domain above, if a
role is assigned the lesson gains strength.
The new problem:
For this lesson, we are designing treehouses.
There is a community member who would like you to design a treehouse for her
children. They would also like sketches as well as a 3-D prototype of the
treehouse before it is built so that she can envision the finished product.
This will also allow you to make changes without having to start again from
scratch and waste building materials. The community member is on a budget and
has already purchased the lumber, which consists of 1,400 square feet of
boards. Due to the furniture that she has already purchased, the treehouse
needs to have a volume of 250 cubic feet. Because of the tight budget, the proposal
must include calculations and 3-D modeling sketches. She is also checking with
other area school districts for the project as well and wants to go with the
best proposal. You will need to figure out the proposal, develop a 3-D model,
and create a persuasive presentation that is supported by sound mathematical concepts
and reasoning. You will also need a digital prototype or 3-D printed prototype.
Let’s see if you can convince her of your proposal.
McLeod & Graber, 2019.
References
McLeod,
S., & Graber, J. (2019). Harnessing technology for deeper learning.
Solution Tree Press.
The re-written problem brings a sense of real-world and the ever important "why". I like it!
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