Blog #2 AIW


  I. Authentic Intellectual Work/Authentic Instruction & Assessment

Authentic Intellectual Work (AIW) is a teaching framework that promotes students engaging more deeply with problems through inquiry to produce “authentic” and creative results that connect to real life situations and can help students become more successful citizens. Traditional classroom work is considered more a “series of contrived exercises necessary to earn credentials” (Authentic Instruction and Assessment, pg. 2). This would include things like “spelling quizzes, laboratory exercises, or typical final exams” (pg. 5) that would only document the abilities of a student in a temporary way for a shallow, surface learning experience, with no connection to real life or the community they live in.

         The components of AIW are (pg. 4):

1. Construction of Knowledge through organizing and interpreting prior knowledge to solve new problems.

2. Disciplined Inquiry means a student needs to strive for achieving a complex understanding that leads to new and deeper understanding rather than just surface knowledge.  They must also be able to use sophisticated forms of communication to conduct and communicate results from their work.

3. Value Beyond School means that students are learning deep problem solving for their success in work, life and community, not just for a grade in a class.

From 1996-1999 there was a study done with two teachers of  language arts and math for third, sixth and eighth grades at Chicago 46-School. In this study, the students who were given assignments that contained stronger elements of AIW showed gains of 20% over students with less AIW quality assignments and 40% higher gains than students who received the lowest quality assignments (pg. 22).  The higher quality assignments were judged to peak the student’s interest and sustain it because of the connections the work had to the student’s everyday life. So the idea of Value Beyond School is a crucial element in drawing the student into the type of deep inquiry needed to hold their attention for quality learning.  When a student perceives the benefit of classroom work in his/her own life and sees it as a tool for success, they can engage with learning at a much deeper level.

One lesson shared in our reading of Authentic Instruction and Assessment asked students to write their own fable.  They chose two characters and had to create a story and a moral. The inventing and organizing of the story allowed for constructing knowledge. Having to connect the story plot to a moral lesson required deep analysis and synthesizing.  The selection of a moral lesson connects their assignment to real life, because a moral is used to make everyday life better and to make everyday people more successful (pg. 8).

II. 2024 National Education Technology Plan Update

The digital use divide refers to the gap between students who had access to the internet at home and school compared to those who do not. That gap has been narrowed. There is still a difference in students who use the internet actively and creatively and those who use it in a passive, limited way. It is widely accepted that technology is here to stay and a very important part of the classroom. The NETP has made strides in transforming the classroom through the leverage of technology (Home - Office of Educational Technology, 2024).

Just because there is technology in the classroom does not mean that AIW is going to happen. Multiple choice, computerized tests can still be traditional, passive learning.  Technology needs to be used in ways that encourage the AIW framework.  For instance, if we took the fable writing idea and had the students research fables and where they come from on an interactive encyclopedia site, and then have them modernized a specific fable and design the story on a power point or with digital pictures that they took at home to rework the fable and moral.  This is a more active use of technology that encourages the main tenants of AIW (especially if they use digital photos from their own life).

II. Triple E Framework

In the lesson of researching, rewriting and presenting a fable, the use of Engagement, Enhancement and Extension are still at play.  The Triple E Framework has four steps (Gaer & Reyes, 2022):

1. Define the goals. Laying out the assignment clearly for your students. Which in this case is explaining the “updating” of a classic fable that represents aspects of their daily life.

2. Selecting the appropriate learning tool. Help the student select the right technical tool for research and then later for their presentation.

3. Engage students as active and social learnings. This aspect could be achieved in the lesson when the students present their fable to their own class or another class through video connection and receive questions and suggestions afterward.

4. Connect learning with real world tasks and contexts.  Students could engage in discussion of the importance of the moral in everyday life. They can share experiences of their own where the same lesson was learned.

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                                                            References

Gaer, S., & Reyes, K. (2022). Finally, some guidance! using the triple E framework to shape technology integration. Adult Literacy Education, 4(3), 34–40.

 https://doi.org/10.35847/sgaer.kreyes.4.3.34


Newmann F. M., King, M. B., & Carmichael, D. L. (2007), Authentic Instruction and Assessment:

Common Standards for Rigor and Relevance in Teaching jAcademic Subjects. State of Iowa

Department of Education.


Office of Educational Technology, (2017). Reimagining the Role of Technology in Education:

2017 National Education Technology Plan updated Links to an external site. Retrieved from

http://tech.ed.goveLinks to an external site.


 

           


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