Authenticity

Authentic Achievement refers to teaching students and assessing student progress in ways that are connected to the real world. Rather than teaching in a didactic manner that focuses solely on the memorization of factual information, when teachers use authentic pedagogy they design and facilitate learning experiences for students that: engage them in the personal construction of new knowledge; result in their conducting disciplined inquiry about the topic at hand; and, have some value beyond the school (Newmann & Wehlage, 1995; Newmann, Bryk, & Nagaoka, 2001).

Authentic practices require activities in which students study disciplinary content, organize information, consider alternatives, gather new information, and link the information and alternatives to what they already know. This results in the construction of new knowledge. Teachers who use authentic practices frequently ask students to communicate newly constructed knowledge via such means as elaborated written or oral communication. Additionally, teachers are concerned that the learning experiences they design and facilitate for students have a value beyond school. That is, that learning experiences address problems connected to the world beyond the classroom, and that students have an audience beyond the school to whom they can “communicate their knowledge, present a product or performance, or take some action” (Newmann & Wehlage, 1995, p. 14).