Guidelines to construct and validate lessons in Authentic Learning Pedagogy

Abstract

Authentic Learning Pedagogy (ALP) is presented as a solution to alleviate the learning gap between theoretical knowledge and its real-world application. In ALP, learners are provided with real-world situations that include constructing, acquiring, and researching knowledge and skills needed to solve complex problems. However, designing lessons in alignment with ALP is a challenging task. The objective of this study was to set guidelines to plan lessons in ALP and a rubric to benchmark the alignment of lessons to ALP. The guideline uses ten steps with underlying principles of ALP. The design guideline helps the lesson designers to construct a complex real-world context in which the student is placed in real-world professional roles where the student performs authentic, real-world tasks that produce unique real-world products. Learning happens intrinsically while performing the tasks and constructing real-world products. The lessons are assessed by the rubric, which uses three criteria: (1) Origin, (2) Complexity, and (3) Higher order thinking skills to check for alignment of lesson elements to the ALP. The design guideline was given to teachers involved in teaching science subjects from grades 6 to 13, and the developed lessons were assessed using the rubric. The benchmarking of lessons revealed that 60% of the lessons had guided recipe-type instructions, which is against ALP principles, while lessons developed with feedback had close alignment with ALP. Feedback from teachers revealed that they found it easy to use the design guideline in the preparation of lessons. However, teachers found difficulty in constructing authentic contexts, task sequences and products, mainly due to confusion regarding definitions of authentic context, authentic tasks, authentic products, and authentic assessments. Therefore, this study shows the need for assistance by lesson designers through feedback on the alignment of elements of lessons, including context, tasks, products, and assessments to the ALP.