 |
| (Geralt, 2018a) |
Authentic practice works alongside
disciplinary literacy and numeracy (Chauvin & Theodore, 2015). They share
the common goal of educating students to understand topics from perspectives
that allow them to apply their knowledge in genuine situations. Disciplinary
literacy and numeracy places importance on teaching the knowledge and skills
used by those who participate in the discipline area (Shanahan & Shanahan,
2012). Similarly, authentic practice emphasises that students be taught
relevant topics using real world examples that will allow them to participate
in the discipline post-school (Rule, 2006). An important factor in being able
to perform in a discipline in a professional sense is that the individual has
the discipline specific literacy and numeracy skills required. Educators can
assist students in obtaining these skills through providing opportunities for
authentic practice (Revington, n.d.).
 |
| (Geralt, 2018b) |
Opportunities for authentic
practice can be provided through enquiry based learning tasks. Enquiry based
learning tasks encourage the student to be actively involved in finding answers
to the questions posed, and the teacher acts as a facilitator rather than an
instructor (Green, 2015). An example of such a task can be demonstrated in a
Year Seven Economics and Business class. Within the Australian Curriculum,
students in year seven are expected to gain an understanding of how economics
and business relates to workers, consumers, and producers; students gain an
understanding of the relationships between these parties and how to set and
achieve financial goals (ACARA, n.d.). Within the example task, students are asked
to choose an object they would like to save up for, such as a car or a trip to
Disneyland. They are then supplied with an annual salary. The students’ task is
to work out their net monthly income, set a budget that accounts for house
payments, utility bills, car and travel expenses, groceries, and lifestyle
expenses; and discover how long it would take them to save up for their
purchase. Students are asked to identify the average cost of each of the
expenses which will be used within their budget. They are then asked to suggest
ways in which they could acquire their money faster, such as looking at
different deals for utility companies. Students can choose to present their
findings visually or orally, as well as providing a hard copy presentation to
the teacher which will include a ‘bank statement’ displaying the student’s
withdrawals and deposits, and a table or graph to display their projected
savings. This task will aid student’s understanding of some of the key enquiry
questions as set out by the Australian Curriculum, including why financial
planning for the future is important, and what types of work exist and in what
other ways can people derive an income? (ACARA, n.d.).
 |
| (Revington, 2014) |
This enquiry based, authentic
learning task immerses students into a real-world problem and encourages them
to use real world literacy and numeracy skills to solve the problem. In terms
of literacy, students are required to understand the difference between gross
and net income, understand what the terms mortgage, principal and interest,
loan, and utilities mean. These skills help students to meet the Australian
Curriculum literacy capabilities through reading, interpreting and analysing
learning area texts, composing multimodal texts, and using their word, grammar,
and text knowledge (ACARA, n.d.). Their numeracy skills are advanced through
helping them discover how to work out one’s net income from a gross figure, and
then how to convert an annual income into a monthly salary. Students will be
required to complete addition and subtraction to stay within their budget. In
meeting the Australian Curriculum numeracy capabilities for Year Seven
Economics and Business, this task asks students to perform estimation using
whole numbers, as well as interpreting data (ACARA, n.d.).
 |
| (Hassan, 2018) |
When students are engaged in
authentic learning tasks, the teacher plays the role of a facilitator who
supports students but does not dictate the discovery process (Revington, n.d.).
In helping students understand the literacy and numeracy components of the
task, the teacher should provide explicit instruction of how the discipline
specific literacy and numeracy is used (Shanahan & Shanahan, 2012).
Students are more likely to be engaged with a task when they feel it is
relevant to their lives. Their engagement will translate to active and
enthusiastic involvement, resulting in a deeper understanding of the learning
task (ACEL, 2016). Providing authentic learning tasks allows students to feel
confident in their problem-solving skills, and therefore confident in being
able to apply these skills to similar situations beyond school (ACEL, 2016).
Through immersing students within real-life, authentic problems, they are
provided the opportunity to learn the literacy and numeracy skills they will
require when tacking a similar scenario in the future.
References
ACEL.
(2016). Authentic Learning: what, why and how? Retrieved from http://www.acel.org.au/acel/ACEL_docs/Publications/e-Teaching/2016/e-Teaching_2016_10.pdf
Australian
Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.). Economics and Business.
Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and- social-sciences/economics-and-business/?year=12557&year=12558&year=12559&year=12560&strand=Economics+and+Bu siness+Knowledge+and+Understanding&strand=Economics+and+Business+Skills&capabilit y=ignore&capability=Literacy&capability=Numeracy&capability=Information+and+Commu nication+Technology+%28ICT%29+Capability&capability=Critical+and+Creative+Thinking &capability=Personal+and+Social+Capability&capability=Ethical+Understanding&capabilit y=Intercultural+Understanding&priority=ignore&priority=Aboriginal+and+Torres+Strait+Isl ander+Histories+and+Cultures&priority=Asia+and+Australia%E2%80%99s+Engagement+w ith+Asia&priority=Sustainability&elaborations=true&elaborations=false&scotterms=false&isFirstPageLoad=false
Chauvin,
R., & Theodore, K., (2015). Teaching Content-Area Literacy and Disciplinary
Literacy. Retrieved from https://www.sedl.org/insights/3- 1/teaching_content_area_literacy_and_disciplinary_literacy.pdf
Geralt.
(2018b). Business. [image]. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/en/stickies-business-career-start-up-2764659/
Geralt.
(2018a). Problem. [image]. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/en/problem-solution-help-support-2731501/
Green,
L., (2015). Enquiry-based learning. Retrieved from http://www.iacesa.co.za/wp- content/uploads/2015/07/Green-L.-Enquiry-based-learning.pdf
Hassan,
M., (2018). Report. [image]. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/en/report-expenses-management-3050965/
Kalantzis,
M., & Cope, B., (2016). 5.1 Authentic
Literacy Pedagogy: An Overview [Streaming video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT9psWTGXwY
Mantei,
J., & Kervin, L., (2009). “Authentic” Learning Experiences: what does this
mean and where is the literacy learning?
Retrieved from http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1346&context=edupapers
Revington,
S., (n.d.). Defining Authentic Learning. Retrieved from http://authenticlearning.weebly.com/
Revington,
S., (2014). Elements of Authentic Learning. [image]. Retrieved from http://tipoftheicebergteaching.weebly.com/what-is-authentic-learning.html
Rule,
A., (2006). Editorial: The Components of Authentic Learning. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/253893836_Editorial_The_Components_of_Authentic_Learning
Shanahan,
T., & Shanahan, C., (2012). What is Disciplinary Literacy and Why Does It
Matter? Retrieved from https://crlp.ucsc.edu/resources/downloads/Shanahan%20What%20is%20Disciplinary%20Literacy.pdf
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