Can Authentic Learning Experiences Exist?

During my recent coursework at the University of Connecticut, the idea of authentic learning was brought up. I don't know how others feel about the topic, but it pains me talking about it. Not because I don't value the idea, but because I don't know how we could ever truly implement it. As an elementary teacher, I feel very limited in the things I can choose to try with my class. There is so much content that we must get to as well as pacing guides which we must keep to. Teachers constantly feel that they are playing catch up especially with all of the chaos that can ensue in an elementary classroom.

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So let's stray away from the how and talk a little about the why we should invest in this type of work. The idea of authentic learning experiences stems from the Situated Cognition. "Situated cognition is a theory which emphasizes that people’s knowledge is constructed within and linked to the activity, context, and culture in which it was learned." The idea is that students can learn much more by being taught content in an authentic scenario. When I was reading about this I immediately thought about the time teachers spend as student teachers. Methods classes are great to give you ideas that you can try once you have a classroom but nothing is quite the same as the semester you spend student teaching. It is our first opportunity to actually put all of our skills to work and see how we can do. Trying things in a real classroom is the best way for teachers to be able to sharpen their skills. As a teacher, you may have thought you mastered a way to get students attention but you quickly learn that 26 3rd graders don't care how many times you clap in a rhythm and adjust your methods to something more effective.

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Another benefit that scientist Allan Collins mentions has to do with students becoming problem solvers through this work. "Students are more likely to engage in invention and problem-solving when they learn in novel and diverse situations and settings." As teachers, we could think about our content and find a real-world situation where that skill would be used. We don't need student just memorizing content, we want them to be able to utilize what they learn. Imagine allowing students to work with journalists during a non-fiction unit focused on author bias. Or students working with local landscapers finding the area and perimeter of a garden. I think student buy-in would increase because the learning they were doing would have significant meaning. While on the rug in my classroom, I have a handful of students who are perfectly happy letting their classmates solve a problem while they sit and watch. I think there would be a burst of motivation if we were out in the garden trying to measure out the proper amount of soil we need.

Like I said earlier, I honestly don't know what authentic learning experiences would look like in an elementary school setting. What I do know, is that a making a shift to more authentic learning experiences would benefit our students.

Situated Cognition. (n.d.). Retrieved November 05, 2017, from http://epltt.coe.uga.edu/index.php?title=Situated_Cognition#Benefits

Situated Cognition (Brown, Collins, & Duguid). (2017, February 04). Retrieved November 05, 2017, from https://www.learning-theories.com/situated-cognition-brown-collins-duguid.html

Prior Knowledge: A Teacher's Best Friend

Sometimes when teaching I begin to feel like the Greek legend Sisyphus, pushing an enormously heavy boulder up the hill just to watch it roll back down. Students come into your classroom on the first day with all different need and abilities and we have the stressful job of making sure they reach a certain point by the end of the year. After doing some reading recently about the work of Piaget and Vygotsky, I was reminded of some concepts that can really benefit teachers who feel the same pressure as I do.


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Of the ideas I read about, the big idea I came away with is that students learn a tremendous amount through the process of accommodation. Our Students are constantly thinking about what they know and then changing it or modifying it to build new understanding. I know teaching 5th-grade math that I am constantly trying to have students connect strategies we have used before to help teach new content. Imagine trying to start from scratch each day without using any preexisting knowledge? That would be quite a nightmare. If you introduce lessons as novel ideas, you are setting yourself up for a tremendous amount of work. I know for a while I assumed that students would naturally make the connection between prior knowledge and new content but that just isn't the case. By accessing prior knowledge we can start higher up on the mountain and avoid being trapped like our friend Sisyphus.

One day I gathered my students on the rug for readers workshop. We were starting a non-fiction unit where we would be researching and raising awareness about a topic of the students choice. We began to scour through articles working on finding key facts and record the information in their reading journals. As I walked around the rug peeking in at student work I noticed that students had no way to structure their notes. They were just making long lists with no sort of organization at all. I stopped the students and asked if they had even practiced taking notes in school knowing darn well that my colleague next door who teachers science had done this work. A student raised her hand and said, "Well, we took notes during science." After a quick discussion about their work in science, I could see the light bulbs going off. Before you know it, students were making T-charts, using boxes and bullets and a number of other strategies. It became clear to me that the students connected these note-taking strategies to science but didn't make the connection to reading. By accessing this prior knowledge students were able to modify what they knew about note taking and utilize it during their research in reading.

Teaching is hard work, no matter what non-teachers say with their snarky summer off comments. I am constantly trying to improve my teaching and putting a focus on accessing prior knowledge has been very beneficial for me. I mentioned at the start of this blog that readers come in with different needs and abilities but I failed to mention that they all also have strengths. By building off of these strengths we can make a big difference.