AUTHENTIC LEARNING

&
GOAL STRUCTURE
Basic Concepts
AUTHENTIC ACTIVITIES
IMPORTANT FEATURES
efinition of authenticity: genuine, realistic.
Authentic Iearning is when students acquire teaching
contents through authentic (genuine or realistic)
activities.
Authentic activities are activities that replicate or
reconstruct real life activities.
The most important features of reaI Iife activities are
that they involve interaction.
Real life interactions must have purpose and
audience.
IMPORTANT FEATURES
Authentic materiaIs must be used in
authentic activities but in themselves do not
guarantee authentic learning.
Authentic learning often occur in inductive
teaching (indirect teaching).
Authentic activities may be used in the
Iearner-centered, Iearning-centered,
probIem-centered and society-centered
teaching approaches.
ADVANTAGES OF
AUTHENTIC ACTIVITIES
Teaching contents are acquired indirectly, deeper
understanding.
Teaching contents are immediately applicable in
context.
ntegrates teaching contents with sociaI skiIIs and
generic skiIIs.
Use of existing knowIedge (schema) to build new
knowledge on, more effective learning.
EXAMPLES
Compare the following activities:
Write an essay entitled "mproving the
Management of Toxic Waste.
Write a report to the Majlis Perbandaran Batu
Pahat entitled "mproving the Management of
Toxic Waste.
When we write, we always have a purpose and
a reader/audience. Who is the reader of an
essay? What is the purpose of the reader of the
essay? Have you ever written an essay outside
the classroom context? The second activity is
an authentic activity.
GOAL STRUCTURE
There are THREE types of Goals Structure in every
group/pair activity: cooperative, competitive and
individuaIistic.
The goaI of group/pair activities can be structured
to encourage positive, negative or no goaI
interdependence.
GoaI interdependence is the way learners depend
on each other to achieve the goal of the activity.
Compare the following pair activities below:
Student A and Student B are each given a map (the
same map). Student A is required to ask Student B
for directions to places in the map (e.g. the Market).
Student A is given a map without labels for places,
only his/her location. Student B is given the full
map. Student A is required to ask Student B for
directions to places in the map (e.g. the Market).
n the first activity, there is no information gap between
Student A and Student B. They do NOT depend on
each other to complete the task. n other words, there
is NO GOAL INTERDEPENCE in the task. The task
has an INDIVIDUALISTIC GOAL STRUCTURE.
SUMMARY OF GOAL STRUCTURE
GOAL STRUCTURE GOAL
INTERDEPENCE
COOPERATVE POSTVE
COMPETTVE NEGATVE
NVUALSTC NONE