Teachers can lead their students to
notice vocabulary or themes or conflicts they have found in their everyday reading that trigger
authentic conversations such as the one these students had regarding the Constitution. These
conversations can then lead to a heightened awareness of what makes good writing (Speaker &
Speaker, 1991) as well as heightened awareness of the needs of others (More Than You, n.d.).
An authentic learning experience can then find a fertile place to grown.
AUTHENTIC LEARNING EXPERIENCES !17
Another example of authentic reading is in the Reading Workshop format. Students
connect with books because they have choice in what they read, they learn to read critically
through mini-lessons and use of mentor texts by the teacher, they use their community in the
classroom to share about their books, and reading becomes more real world because students are
no longer being forced to read one certain book. They become the directors of what they get to
read, hopefully also as lifelong readers well after graduation day (Brunow, n.d.). Reading leads
students to critical thinking, interaction, and self-confidence–important life skills needed in the
real world.
Researching in an authentic context allows students to have choice in order to develop
ownership toward their work. Students feel that ownership as they direct their own learning with
the guidance of their teacher. The students in inner city Chicago took ownership of their learning
by addressing a need that they were personally connected to in their neighborhood. Their
research moved from a textbook on the American Constitution to interviews and personal
experience with people of their community (More Than You, n.d.). Instead of using a magazine
article as research to satisfy a requirement for a research paper, students realized that the deepest
research comes from face-to-face contact, telephone interviews, or travel to historical sites for
hands-on research. Learning becomes personal as the students become authorities and confident
experts (Powers, 2009). No longer is researching necessary only for a paper for their teacher;
researching becomes a part of discovery, teamwork, and critically thinking towards a solution to
a real world problem for a real audience.
Writing becomes authentic when it is done for an authentic audience with a real need and
a real purpose that leads students to an intrinsic need to use precise wording, details, revisions
AUTHENTIC LEARNING EXPERIENCES !18
and proofreading (Powers, 2009). In one teacher’s classroom, the teacher created an authentic
writing experience when her students took their study of Benjamin Franklin’s aphorisms in Poor
Richard’s Almanac and each wrote a children’s book. The students used one of the aphorisms as
a basis for their book, explaining it in the form of a digital story for local kindergarteners. The
real audience gave the students a real need to critically analyze the aphorism of their choice and
to write about it in a way that the kindergarteners would be able to understand (Sztabnik, 2015).
In another example of authentic writing, a teacher had his students research writing
contests, choose one, read and understand the manuscript guidelines for submission, adapt one of
their own pieces of writing to the contest, and submit it to the contest they had found. The
students then learned to use proper MLA citation for their own piece in order to include it in a
resume. Many of his students became published writers from this authentic learning experience
(Sztabnik, 2015).
Authentic writing also happens when students write about their personal passions in order
to share with the school community as a whole or students write a script for a public service
announcement that they turn into a video (Sztabnik, 2015). Students understand the need to be
effective and responsible communicators when what they write is for an audience outside of their
classroom walls. They see the meaningful value of writing as the prerequisite to becoming
active members of the world outside of their classroom walls.
In all of these examples, students find themselves a part of a real world problem or
working for a real audience. They are defining a problem or asking a question, searching for
solutions or designing a product, using critical thinking and inquiry skills, working as a
community of learners toward similar goals, and taking ownership and responsibility in their
AUTHENTIC LEARNING EXPERIENCES !19
own learning. In these experiences, students find their voice, find their purpose, and find
confidence in hard work. New skills are learned, new interests created, new doors opened that
they would not have thought possible had the teacher not designed learning for them to step into.
Students leave school knowing the value of intrinsic fulfillment in meaningful work because
their teacher valued authenticity in the classroom. By designing ALE’s in the classroom that
focused on real problems and audiences, on critical thinking skills, on student-directed learning,
and on learning in community, teachers prepare their students for life outside the classroom
walls. They give their students skills in communication, collaboration, researching, collecting,
analyzing, synthesizing and applying knowledge. These are the skills that will lead them to
being successful working members of their local and global communities (Barron & Darling-
Hammond, 2008). As one student stated, “We work together to get smart for a purpose, to make
our community and our world a better place” (More Than You, n.d.).
Methods
Participants
The participants of this research study were 10th grade students at a small private high
school in the Midwest made up of 261 ninth through twelfth grade students. The majority of
these participants are from white, middle class families who live in rural communities
surrounding the high school. There were 30 females and 27 males in the study. All 10th grade
students take the required English 10 class in their sophomore year. This research study took
place in an English 10 course that split the students into three sections: one section with 21
students, one with 16, and the third with 20. All sections participated in the same authentic
learning experience with the same teacher.
AUTHENTIC LEARNING EXPERIENCES !20
Materials
The material used in this research were a survey given to the students at the end of the
authentic learning experience. The anonymous survey was created by the researcher using
SurveyMonkey.com. The survey, located in Appendix A, used a five-level Likert-type scale
ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The survey was used to determine the intrinsic
engagement and value of the ALE for each student through the four characteristics of an ALE.
The researcher also conducted semi-structured interviews of eight students selected randomly
through a random number generator. See Appendix B for interview questions.
Design
A descriptive research design was used for this study. An anonymous survey was given
to all 57 students at the end of their authentic learning experience. In order to describe the
relationship between each of the characteristics of an ALE and overall student motivation in an
ALE, the survey statements focused on the four characteristics of an authentic learning
experience. Five statements focused on real world problem/audience, five on the use of inquiry
and critical thinking skills, five on being a part of a community of learners, and five on student-
directed learning.
The researcher also used a semi-formal interview process to interview eight randomly
selected students at the end of the ALE. These interviews used open-ended questions to allow
for more than yes or no answers. The purpose of these interviews was to understand more
deeply how students were motivated intrinsically within the ALE. The responses to each
interview were recorded and then analyzed and sorted according to different themes and
categories.
AUTHENTIC LEARNING EXPERIENCES !21
Procedure
The 57 students all participated in the same authentic learning experience. The students
were divided into ten different teams ranging from 6-8 students in a team. Within their teams,
the students worked together to write and layout a newspaper issue to be distributed to the
school’s student body. Each student was responsible for interviewing someone, focusing the
story around the theme of joy in the interviewee’s life. In order to put out their issue of the
newspaper, each team chose various jobs for each member. The jobs included editor-in-chief,
revisers, word choosers, proofreaders, picture editors, and layout editors. The teams had
autonomy over which roles each person played in their newspaper team. Together they had two
weeks to write and design their issue of the sophomore class newspaper that they titled 20/20
Vision.
After the ALE was completed, the researcher gave all 57 students the survey through
SurveyMonkey.com. The survey received a perfect rate of return because the survey was taken
during class time. The researcher was present when the students took the survey with anonymity
preserved because no names were associated with answers on the surveys. The semi-structured
interviews took place the day after the teams turned in their final newspapers. Interviews took
place within this class period while other students had silent reading time. The researcher
interviewed each of the eight students to gather a deeper understanding of the feeling of intrinsic
motivation and engagement in the work they did for their authentic learning experiences. The
answers to the interviews were coded and analyzed immediately following the interviews
according to similar words, phrases, and beliefs common in all of their answers.
AUTHENTIC LEARNING EXPERIENCES !22
Results
After the students completed the authentic learning experience, they anonymously took
the survey to determine the extent that they felt intrinsically motivated by the characteristics of
an authentic learning experience. The survey focused questions aroun
