New Learning MOOC’s Updates
Is Authentic Pedagogy beneficial to all students?
Authentic Pedagogy puts the student as the true driving force of the curriculum, the syllabus and the lesson plans. It forces teachers to losen their control as the sage on the stage. I am of the opinion that authentic pedagogy is limitless and works best for new learning with students but I can't help think that it can be seen as a priviledged pedagogy.
My reasoning is that there is cause for concern when school communities have a majority minority population and their life experiences are limited or basically non-existent outside of their small radius. How do teachers extract students' authenticity on world events, national events or local events to ensure that learning is truly happening and knowledge is being gained when these students are unable to make any real contributions due to a myriad of factors?
Despite the sincere effort of many selfless individuals, many schools are not achieving their academic goals (Haycock & amp; Peske, 2006). This lack of success poses significant challenges to educators, who expected to meet the goals as articulated in their mission statements and comply with mandated educational standards (Cohen, Fuhrman, & Mosher, 2007, p. 87).
Authentic pedogagy when used today, must be planned, explained and used to optimize all students ability to share, discuss and display their knowledge from their perspective while learning to be open to different viewpoints can be a catalyst to student success. Authentic pedagogy will propel teachers and students toward more authentic standards-based performance assessment,while requiring a significant shift in thinking about teaching and learning. This will of course require changes in assessment require corresponding changes in instruction.
For example:
Do you remember being in a class and trying to learn all the information just to pass the test? You didn't see how that material could be applicable to your own life, so your level of interest in it wasn't too deep, and the whole reason for studying was to get a good grade. Or do you remember ever thinking classes were boring ? A large number of students feel that schoolwork is uninteresting and has little, if any, relevance to their lives.
While this perspective is very common, it is also the very reason for authentic pedagogy. Education researchers, over the years, noticed the gap between what students learn in class and its application to their lives. Due to the students' disconnect, there was less interest in class material and less of an impact on the students. Thus, authentic learning activities were developed to help with this ongoing issue. Authentic learning activities are tasks given to students in the real world where they can apply what they learned in class and continue to learn more in a setting that is relevant to them.
A child who is learning about basic math skills can use his or her knowledge when assigned to run a lemonade stand. Now, he or she can use subtraction to return change to customers and can practice the skill. Suddenly, math is more than numbers on a page.
Students who are studying geology can go on a trip analyzing various sediments and reporting about their impact on the land. Biology students may be given the chance to go snorkeling and make a presentation on the issues of overfishing.
There are any number of tasks that can be given to students to make class material useful, relevant and interesting.
According to the work of Fred Newmann and associates at the Center on Organization and Restructuring Schools, authentic pedagogy has been found to support the learning of students at risk and to foster high levels of engagement and interaction (Newman and Wehlage, 1995; Newmann and Associates, 1996).
Haycock, K., & Peske, H. (2006). Teacher inequality: How poor and minority students are shortchanged on teacher quality. Education Trust, June, 2006. Retrieved September 26, 2007, from http://www2.edtrust.org/NR/rdonlyres/010DBD9FCED8-
4D2B-9E0D-91B446746ED3/0/TQReportJune2006.pdf
Newmann, Fred and Wehlage, Gary (1995). Successful School Restructuring. Alexandria, VA. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Newmann, Fred and Associates (1996). Authentic Achievement: Restructuring Schools for Intellectual Quality. San Francisco, CA. Jossey-Bass Publishers.
https://study.com/academy/lesson/authentic-learning-activities-examples-lesson-quiz.html
Linking the curriculum with tangible applications for the student that seek the desired benefit from the lesson, for example when we study the subject of hydraulics and link it to the brakes in cars