Authenticity as a Design Principle for Project-Based Learning Curriculum

• In Event: Perspectives on the Role of Authenticity in Project-Based and Active Learning Humanities Classrooms

Abstract

Purpose
Proponents of project-based learning (PBL) emphasize the importance of the authenticity of projects, the relationship of the problem or project to the real world and its practices (Krajcik & Blumenfeld, 2006). Disciplinary expertise is needed to design authentic PBL in science, but for students, authenticity may also be a function of the project’s relevance to their own lives and values outside of school. This paper explores the landscape of design principles for the creation of project-based learning humanities curriculum, highlighting the role of authenticity as a design principle and the ways authenticity interconnects with other PBL design principles, such as engagement, agency, and identity development. Doing so, this paper looks at how authenticity has been used to design PBL curriculum.

Perspectives
Within PBL, authenticity is often defined as connections to the world outside of the classroom (Authors, 2020; Krajcik & Blumenfeld, 2006). However, there are also differences of how authenticity is interpreted, with either a focus on authenticity as connected to expert practice (Parker et al., 2013) or a focus on authenticity as connected to students’ lives (Authors, 2018).

Methods & Data Sources
Data for this paper was pulled from a literature review of design principles and related curricula for rigorous project-based learning humanities curriculum.

Results
Authenticity as a design principle for PBL acts in relationship with other design principles. As such, the way authenticity is defined – connected to experts or connected students’ lives –
impacts the interpretation of other design principles. Examples of this is include a) techniques for engaging students in the curriculum and b) what opportunities for student agency exist. Considering the two definitions of authenticity, two categories of PBL projects are explored: Simulation projects and real-world projects. Some PBL projects place students in roles within classroom simulations of authentic real-world situations, such as Supreme Court Justices (Parker et al., 2013). Other projects ask students to reflect on and act within the worlds in which they live, such as students identifying texts in a humanities classroom that answer the question: what does it mean to be human? (Authors, 2018). While both categories of projects use authenticity, they use it in different ways worth noting when considering the design of PBL curriculum.

Scholarly significance
Examining definitions of authenticity within PBL highlights how designing for authenticity can run the risk of reifying historical and inequitable processes and power dynamics within education. This emphasizes the need to more deeply consider who is involved in design processes for PBL curriculum. Specifically, if the goal is to increase authenticity for students, then it is critical that youth, specifically youth from historically under-represented populations, are involved in the design process (Authors, 2019), shifting youth into the role of protagonist within the learning environments in which they participate (Iversen, Smith, & Dindler 2017) and providing opportunities to have a voice in defining authentic curriculum. Doing so has the power to reposition authenticity as a design principle to not simply recreate the world that is, but the world that can be.

Author

• Gavin Tierney, California State University - Fullerton