Section
3.7: Authentic and Active Learning
Connecting
content to the real world has been shown by educational researchers
to be a highly effective approach to adult learning. Tying content
to authentic or 'real world' problems makes the material more
concrete. This enhances learning because the material is more:
·
readily generalized
to a variety of situations
·
motivating,
in that learners can use the information in immediate/practical
ways
·
easily processed
from short-term into long-term memory
As the diagram
above indicates, we have three types of memory:
a)
sensory - an exact replica
of what we’ve heard, seen, tasted, felt or smelled that only
lasts a matter of seconds
b)
short
term
c)
long-term
In order to
store information, we need to take it into short term memory,
process it, and transfer
it to long-term memory. This is much more difficult to do if
the information is abstract. Much like having a closet and hanging
a piece of clothing on a hanger, we need to 'hang' or store
our information somewhere. When information is abstract we may
have difficulty knowing which closet to hang it in. Concrete
information, however, provides us with the closet and hanger.
For example, if we are just shown the formula for working out
percentages, we may remember the formula in a day or so, but
not know when and where to use it. However, if we are shown
the formula and then work on calculating percentages in ways
we would do so in our everyday lives (e.g., figuring out what
our payments will be on a loan), we are much more likely to
remember the formula and generalize it to a variety of situations.
One way of doing this is to make learning material authentic;
that is, use everyday living themes such as those listed below:
·
Financial -
banking, credit, budgeting, buying a car or
house,
comparison
shopping
·
Household –
safety,
decorating, repairs, consumerism, leases
·
Daily living
- cooking, parenting, wills, travel, friendship, family relationships,
communication, nutrition,
grocery shopping
·
Employment
– writing
a resume, job
search, interviews, letter
writing
·
Getting licensed
or certified – first
aid, driving, citizenship
·
Personal Interests
- Sports,
gardening, hobbies, the paranormal, music, humour
·
Current Events
·
Health
The following
example is based on the theme of cooking. Note that in addition
to using an authentic theme, it is active (learning is
hands-on versus students passively receiving information from
the teacher). It is also integrated (i.e., blends skills
such as reading, writing, spelling, etc), another important
concept that will be discussed in Module 4.
|
ACTIVITY
|
SKILLS/KNOWLEDGE
|
|
Have learners read through magazines, newspapers and/or
cookbooks for recipes that use garlic
|
Use of reference material, reading
|
|
Begin an alphabetical list of unknown and/or hard to
spell cooking-related vocabulary words. Look up unfamiliar
terms in a cookbook.
|
Alphabetizing, referencing, spelling
|
|
Have learners research and write a story about garlic
and vampires, growing garlic, medicinal uses of garlic,
etc.
|
Researching, reading, writing, editing
|
|
Dictate phonetically regular and irregular cooking terms.
|
Spelling
|
|
Choose a recipe and have learners increase and/or decrease
the quantities.
|
Numeracy
|
|
Have learners type up recipes on the computer using various
desktop publishing features such as borders, clip art,
etc. Have learners search for clip art on the Internet
to illustrate the cookbook.
|
Use computer tools such (e.g., software programs such
as word processing, spreadsheets, desktop publishing),
Internet searching,
|
|
Have learners bookmark several sites which offer recipes,
cooking tips and terminology, etc. Have learners search
for a metric/Imperial measurement converter and an online
calculator.
|
Use the Internet to research and/or gather information
|
|
Have learners view a streaming video over the Internet
on peeling and pureeing garlic
|
Downloading, installing and using computer players.
|
|
Set up a recipe exchange with another literacy program
and have learners e-mail their recipes to a "cyber
pal" in the other program. Have learners join a discussion
group about cooking or set-up an Internet collaboration
project with another class.
|
Use the computer to communicate. E-mailing with attachments,
writing, collaborating, networking.
|
|
Put the recipes together in a cookbook and
sell to raise funds for the program.
Have learners design a web page to advertise the
cookbook on the program's web site.
|
Fund raising, motivation of students, disseminating information
via the computer.
|
|
Have learners cook a favourite recipe at home and bring
to a class potluck.
|
Just plain fun!
|
Active
learning in which students participate in a "hands-on"
manner has also been shown to greatly enhance learning. It involves
much more, however, than simply being active in a physical sense.
Rather, it involves students actively seeking out, making sense
of, and utilizing information. Another name for this approach
is "discovery learning" and as the name suggests,
the teacher's role is more to guide learners to finding and
dealing with information versus doing this for them. The benefit
of this approach again has to do with how we process information.
When receive information passively such as in a lecture, we
are not really working with the material beyond a surface level.
However, when we wade in and "get our hands dirty"
so to speak, we process the information much more deeply.
Resources:
On to Section 3.8
(Page updated July 2002)
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