Bridging the Gap of Learning & Real World Experiences
There is a constant challenge to bridge the gap between learning experience and the complexity of the real world. To be able to bridge the gap between a learning experience and a real world task is when the teacher becomes a designer of learning. To be a designer of learning is when the teacher no longer thinks first about an activity that supports direct instruction. To bridge the gap between learning experience in class and the complexity of the real world will be a vital in the future as students are provided with experiences as they relate to real world working environments. To be a designer of learning means that a teacher or a team of teachers have the skills to design authentic learning task. There are many definitions associated with authentic learning and what is required in the development of authentic task. Tom Gram defines authentic learning tasks as "whole-task experiences based on real life (work) tasks that integrate skills, knowledge attitude and social context." (Reference: Designing Authentic Learning Tasks 2009 May 11) A more elaborate definition of authenticity is offered by Wiggins (1990, CLASS), who suggests that "An authentic task is one which requires the student to use knowledge or skills to produce a product or complete a performance."
A good task is authentic and requires the student to perform in a real-life context. It can be multidimensional, in that it requires not only cognitive skills but also interpersonal skills and abilities. According to Melinda Kolk, "The authentic, or real-world, nature of the task frames student work in a relevant and interesting way." The world of work provides many contexts for authentic tasks,.....by requiring students to solve a real-world problem, an authentic task creates a bridge between the content learned in the classroom and why this knowledge is important in the world outside of it. Much of what we ask students to complete in the classroom is contrived. Life in the real world doesn’t usually ask you to choose from provided options A, B, C, or D. An authentic task can help teachers make classroom work relevant to students by asking them to make these real-world decisions." An authentic task can be multidimensional and require not only cognitive skills but also interpersonal skills and abilities.
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Framing the Standard
To be a designer of learning the teacher must be able to establish the level of rigor and relevance that will be assigned to each standard selected for a unit of learning. The process of designing authentic task requires the teacher or team of teachers to first indentify the standards derived from the unit web design template. Identifying the standards selected for the unit will help determine the level of complexity for each task. This process for lack of terminology will be referred to as "framing the standard" as the standards for learning are matched up to the rigor and relevance framework tool. To accomplish the work the teacher will have to first specify the elements of rigor and secondly apply learning relevance that hover around the central theme of a unit. It should be noted that Specifying Elements of Rigor provide higher levels of understanding and Specifying Elements of Relevance provides evidence of real life applications.