Adapted from the Inquiry Rubric created by the Galileo Educational Network

Authenticity includes tasks, activity or work that is associated with a result or outcome that has clear meaning and value to the student. (Schlechty, 3)

The starting point of inquiry-based learning in an authentic learning task where students are engaged in work that is worthy of their time and attention, is personally relevant and deeply connected to the world in which they live. The development of authentic learning tasks for students means situating the learning in places ( think: topics, topos, topographies) where curriculum outcomes are brought to life with real world connections and stories.  Harvard’s Teaching For Understanding (TfU) project uses the term generative topics as the starting point. Effective topics are generative in the sense that “they often have a bottomless quality, in that inquiry into the topic leads to deeper questions” and consist of four elements:

• Central to a domain or discipline. This involves an approach to curriculum that engages students in developing understanding around the questions, controversies, and modes of inquiry central to a topic.
• Accessible and interesting to students. The selection of a generative topic considers student experience, interests, learning modes or intelligences, cultural background, and resources.
• Interest to the teacher. For teachers to introduce students to the elaborate interconnected webs of information central to a discipline requires the teachers to have an understanding of the subject matter and ways of inquiry within that topic. Teachers interest passion and curiosity about a topic will increase the teachers investment and provide a model of engagement for students.
• Connectable. Powerful generative topics are connectable in two ways: (1) to students previous understanding about the subject and (2) to other ideas and concepts within and across disciplines.

As we approach inquiry-based teaching and learning, authenticity can appear in one of two ways:

1.  Authentic to the real world. This means creating learning opportunities that are linked to relevant current events or real-world connections designed to increase student engagement and interest in the topic. In this way a particular classroom task is designed around work or question or problem or an exploration that actually exists in the world. As an example, grade 6 students engaged in a mathematical inquiry built around the question,” are there enough trees in Canada’s boreal forest to be considered the lungs of the earth?” This example used a real world context as the hook or entry point for student engagement into the mathematical study.

An example of a framework that aligns with real-world authenticity is Apple’s Challenge-Dased Learning.  Challenge-based learning centers around students collaboratively engaging in a real world problem or issue leading to the design of a solution or action that they can then implement in their local community. Information on Challenge Based Learning can be found here.

Examples of real-world authenticity:

• On his widely read math blog, Dan Meyer shares a number of ‘real-world’ mathematical problems rooted in the use of multimedia and pop culture to engage students in mathematical thinking.
• As the task for this grade four humanities project, students planned and designed a sustainable community located in a particular geographic region with Alberta. Students researched the resources, geographical features, and environmental challenges faced by a particular region and designed small community based on basic principles of sustainable development,.
• As part of a grade 9 study of government, grade 9 humanities students hosted a forum for candidates in a local municipal election. Students hosted the real world forum, taking in questions for candidates from other schools, as well as broadcasting the event publicly across the Internet.

2. Authentic to the discipline at hand. A second way to consider authenticity is to create learning tasks that work with conceptual frameworks, ways of thinking, or modes of inquiry central to the topic.  As Larry Rosenstock, CEO from High Tech High Charter Schools explains, “I want kids behaving like an actress, scientist, documentary filmmaker, like a journalist.  Not just studying it but being like it.”  Seen this way, the purpose of authenticity is to create opportunities for students to take on ways of thinking and adopt standards of evidence that are central to the disciplines. For example, a rich inquiry-based approach to mathematics would allow students to identify patterns, develop mathematical hypotheses, test mathematical conjectures, and create proofs while working with problems or sets of data that are not necessarily tied to real world contexts.

Examples of discipline based authenticity:

• The Galileo Educational Network website provides a significant number of ‘worthy and robust’ math problems and puzzles for both elementary and secondary students. These problems are designed to open up foundational concepts in mathematics and create possibilities for students problem solving and mathematical thinking.  This video is an example of a student podcast solving one of the math problems.
• During a grade 5 study of wetlands students took on the ways of data collection utilized by scientists in the field. After becoming experts in particular elements of water quality, students were allowed to develop hypotheses about various water samples taken from a nearby wetland and then use water probes to test and compare the five water samples collected.
• In order to demonstrate their understanding of simple machines, grade 8 students used a virtual physics simulator create and test digital ‘Rube Goldberg’ machines.  The software allowed students limitless freedom to exercise their creativity and imagination in integrating the different elements of the curriculum.

Guiding Questions for Authenticity:

Where does this topic live in the world?
What are some of the current questions that experts are wrestling with in this area?
What will students find relevant about this topic?
Why would someone care about this topic?
What are the ways that experts in this field do their work?
What counts as evidence or proof within this topic?
How might students access or create authentic sources of data on this topic?
Where will students have the opportunity to solve problems, create solutions, test ideas, recognize patterns, innovate, build or design?

Thinking about Technology and Authenticity:

What technologies are used by people in this discipline?
Are there particular tools, technologies, types of data, sources of information, etc that experts in this areas utilize?
What tools might allow students to collect data in ways similar to experts?