PEPE January 2008 Authentic learning for effective human services practice Dr. Alan Knowles Grant MacEwan College, Canada & Neil Ballantyne Institute for Research & Innovation in Social Services

Authentic learning A strategy to address problem of perceived divide between the classroom learning & the real world Associated with Constructivism Situated learning Strategies to promote deep learning

Real-life versus classroom-based problem solving Real-lifeClassroom 1. Involves ill-formulated problems and ill structured conditions. 1. Involves ‘textbook’ examples and well structured conditions. 2. Problems are embedded in a specific & meaningful context. 2. Problems are largely abstract & decontextualized. 3. Problems have depth, complexity and duration. 3. Problems lack depth, complexity & duration 4. Involves cooperative relations & shared consequences. 4. Involves competitive relations & individual assessment. 5. Problems are perceived as real and worth solving. 5. Problems typically seem artificial with low relevance for students (Lebow & Wager, 1994)

Authentic learning “Authentic learning typically focuses on real-world, complex problems and their solutions, using role-playing exercises, problem-based activities, case studies, and participation in virtual communities of practice.” Lombardi, 2007 p. 2

Authentic learning & communities of practice Authentic learning “encourages students to compare their personal interests with those of a working disciplinary community”: Can I see myself becoming a member of this culture? What would motivate me? What would concern me? How would I work with the people around me? How would I make a difference?” Lombardi (2007, p4)

Situated learning “…the notion of learning knowledge and skills in contexts that reflect the way the knowledge will be useful in real life.” Collins (1988,p. 2)

Knowledge construction is facilitated by learning environments that… provide multiple representations of reality, which avoid oversimplification focus on knowledge construction, not reproduction present authentic tasks (contextualising rather than abstract instruction) provide real world, case based learning environments rather than pre-determined instructional sequences foster reflective practice enable context and content-dependent knowledge construction support collaborative construction of knowledge through social negotiation, not competition Jonassen (1994)

10 Design elements for authentic activities Real-world relevance Ill-defined problems Sustained investigation Multiple sources & perspectives Collaboration Reflection (metacognition) Interdisciplinary perspective Integrated assessment Polished products Multiple interpretations & outcomes (Lombardi, 2007; Herrington et. al 2003)

Multimedia & Authenticity “By transforming information into various forms such as audio and video and engaging in collaborative experiences, students can construct their own meaning and develop robust skills related to solving complex ill-structured problems” Woo,Herrington, & Reeves (2007, p.37)

Illustrations of authentic learning Authentic learning used in many areas of professional education including: –Legal education –Teacher education –Nurse education –Social work education

Sharing authentic learning materials Multimedia is expensive to produce Sharing content makes sense: it is reusable Involving service users in design & quality assurance helps ensure genuine authenticity

Features of the Margaret Stonehouse Case Scenario

Development Process Project funded by the MacEwan Online Curriculum Development Fund. Began with discussion and consultation with SW faculty about types of needed resources and scenarios Developed ideas around focus of scenario Built a development team Began working on project Fall ’05; completed June 06.

Establishment of a development team including… Faculty developer, author & designer Instructional designer Graphic artist / web designer Videographer / video production and editing Editor (text)

Flash & Html consultants (digitized streaming video) First Nations Consultant – content, scene development, cultural components Community based agency consultants (2 nd Stage Housing), Director and Program Supervisor The actors were graduates of the SWP, a current student, a supervisor in the field, a relative who is trained as an actor.

Work included: regular (bi-weekly) meetings with the Instr. Designer; regular meetings with the Aboriginal Consultant, 2 meetings with the Community Agency Consultants (one near the beginning of scenario writing; one near the end, just prior to video shoot) Writing draft scenes / focus for each scene (flexible and improvised Recruiting, preparing and planning with the actors

Meeting with graphic artist / web page designer re themes; concepts; pedagogical model, interactivity, draft graphics and mock ups of page design Scheduling video shoots Post shoot video editing Final Web page editing

Piloting in 1 st course, additional feedback from practitioners and agency supervisors Consultation and review & suggestions by IRISS Learning Technology Team. Additional editing, navigation adjustments

% Agreement SAANDSD Using the multimedia case study significantly enhanced my learning 202 B N= F2F N= B N= The multimedia case study increased my understanding of the complexities of practice more than the text-based case studies 202 B F2F B There are no real differences learning from text-based or multimedia case studies 202 B F2F B I didn’t enjoy using the multimedia case study 202 B F2F B

% Agreement SAANDSD More of our problem-based learning should incorporate multimedia 202 B F2F B The multimedia seemed more realistic than text-based case studies 202 B F2F B The text-based case studies were more engaging and motivating than the multimedia case studies 202 C N= B It was easier to learn from the multimedia case than from the text-based cases 202 B F2F B

Recent literature debate Cognitive load & learning Evidence on minimally guided instruction The problem with subjective measures Issues –for educational design scaffolding for authentic learning –for educational research robust experimental designs