Unpacking the Role of Authenticity in Project-Based Learning in English Language Arts

• In Event: Facilitating Learning Across Diverse Contexts

Abstract

Project-based learning environments are frequently touted as appealing because of “authenticity,” without clear specification of the term. We describe a framework for authenticity that informed co-design of a project-based 9th-grade English Language Arts course. A qualitative study examined the ways teachers and their students encounter and experience the issue of authenticity in PBL. Specifically, we show how project work with three types of authenticity contributes to engagement and learning: being (1) authentic to self through opportunities to exercise choice and agency; (2) authentic to others through addressing audiences along the way and at the end of the project in public events, and (2) providing opportunities to use authentic, genre-specific tools mediated by mentor texts. Challenges to implementation are also discussed.

Authors

• Joseph L. Polman, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Kristina M Stamatis, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Alison Gould Boardman, University of Colorado - Boulder