What Is 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. The learning environments are inherently multidisciplinary.
They are “not constructed in order to teach geometry or to teach philosophy. A learning
environment is similar to some ‘real world’ application or discipline: managing a city, building
a house, flying an airplane, setting a budget, solving a crime, for example.”4
Going beyond content, authentic learning intentionally brings into play multiple disciplines, multiple
perspectives, ways of working, habits of mind, and community.
Students immersed in authentic learning activities cultivate the kinds of “portable skills” that
newcomers to any discipline have the most difficulty acquiring on their own:
• The judgment to distinguish reliable from unreliable information
• The patience to follow longer arguments
• The synthetic ability to recognize relevant patterns in unfamiliar contexts
• The flexibility to work across disciplinary and cultural boundaries to generate innovative
solutions5
Learning researchers have distilled the essence of the authentic learning experience down to
10 design elements, providing educators with a useful checklist that can be adapted to any
subject matter domain.6