Supporting authentic learning contexts beyond classroom walls

Herrington, J., Specht, M., Brickell, G. and Harper, B. (2009) Supporting authentic learning contexts beyond classroom walls. In: Koper, R., (ed.) Learning Network Services for Professional Development. Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, Germany, pp. 273-288.

Abstract

At the classroom level, contexts for learning are often limited in the experiential component. Teachers and trainers feel overwhelmed by the difficulty of inventing authentic learning contexts, and creating tasks that truly reflect the way knowledge would be used in the real world (Herrington et al. 2004). However, there are growing numbers of examples of how such authentic learning environments are being used in schools, higher education, and professional development in a variety of contexts and discipline areas, such as in literacy education (Ferry et al. 2006), in physical activity fitness and health (Rice et al. 1999), in Indigenous education (Marshall et al. 2001), in evaluation (Agostinho 2006), in multimedia and ICT (Bennett et al. 2001), in literature (Fitzsimmons 2006), and in business writing (Pennell et al. 1997). Teachers and trainers who subscribe to this approach to learning can be very inventive in developing learner perceptions of authentic contexts, but often financial, situational and time constraints limit the experiential elements of authentic learning settings.