Exploring Curricular Authenticity’s Influence on K-12 Student Learning: A Systematic Review

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 1:45 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Experience as Curriculum: Exploring Students' Understandings of School (Table 13)

Abstract

This systematic literature review is the first to synthesize previous research isolating the influence of curricular authenticity on student learning, to assess the prudence of designing around it and better understand mechanisms at play. It is a core feature of several prominent, experience-based instructional models, including Project-Based Learning (PBL), whose successes have been well documented. Most studies examine whole interventions; however, and the few that tease apart influences of individual elements vary greatly in context, methodology and findings, making authenticity-related attributions difficult to substantiate without cross-study analysis. I find that academic, engagement and identity-related benefits are often significant and consequential; however, curricular authenticity is not a panacea. Common challenges, misalignments, and instructional missteps reduce efficacy if not strategically avoided.

Author

• Marco Chacon, University of California - San Diego