The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development’s Classroom Leadership1 journal featured an article about authentic learning that showed the excitement and engagement of students in learning through group projects where they were organizing and conducting research on topics they selected. Teachers served as supports. The main change in the learning process was that students attained knowledge, rather than being given it by their teacher. The goal was to learn through engagement, with the result being the ability to better problem-solve, investigate, and immerse oneself into inquiry to answer not only a starting question or problem, but possibly future questions or problems. Learners become skilled at learning, not at recitation or memory, but at inquiry and resolution in an engaging manner that adds motivation to the learning process. The moral dimension of authentic pedagogy is addressed: learners become responsible for their learning and are better citizens as a result, rather than the goal being that students learn to behave quietly and only talk with the instructor.

But how do we measure or assess what the students have learned from authentic education? The University of Florida – Gainesville2 provides guidance for their instructors. It is not public policy, but it is a set of resources and supports for their instructors to use rather than instructors inventing their own materials and assessments. Specific activities are provided, complete with a list of each step learners need to take, such as uploading a video. Scoring rubrics are provided. Instructors can request help to best learn themselves how to implement and assess the results of authentic pedagogy. These materials and resources support the instructors’ use of authentic pedagogy, and the university’s recommendation on assessing authentic learning.

Instead of resources and support materials, the United States Department of Education has specifications on how teachers need to assess the learning process of their students. “Teachers need to check for student understanding, and parents, students, and leaders need to know how students are doing overall in order to help them successfully prepare for college and work.”3 This is public policy that sets standards for educational institutions which receive Federal government funds. According to this quote, the social objective of education is literally preparing learners for higher education and employment. There is no mention of the importance of the moral economy dimension of learning: responsibly taking knowledge and guiding your own learning process and acts. There is no suggestion of instructional materials to use, scoring rubrics, or assessments for authentic learning. Instead, there appears to be a social objective to produce future college students or employees. This Department is the furthest away from students, compared to the University of Florida – Gainesville, and the educators that read and write articles in Classroom Leadership. Yet, the Department has a social objective that does not seem to be based on what the learners want. Perhaps staff in the Department need to watch a simple video4 explaining authentic learning, and the social objective of learning problem-solving rather than just aiming for higher education or a career.

1 Stamps, L. (2004). The Power of Authentic Learning. Classroom Leadership, 8(2). http://www.ascd.org/publications/classroom-leadership/oct2004/The-Power-of-Authentic-Learning.aspx

2 University of Florida – Gainesville (2020). Building Authentic Assessments. https://citt.ufl.edu/resources/assessing-student-learning/building-authentic-assessments/

3 United States of America Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology, Assessment – Measurement For Learning. https://tech.ed.gov/netp/assessment/

4 Zeelie, C. (2013). Authentic Learning (video). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds2UQ21zJbU