Professional Development: Off the Shelf Katheryn Shannon Adventures in Authentic Learning: 21 Step-by-Step Projects from an Edtech Coach: A Review Project-based learning (PBL) is an approach to teaching/learning that has gained much approval in elementary and content area literacy classrooms (Revelle et al., 2019; Ruddell, 2008). A good deal of evidence can be found that this approach engages learners and supports a deeper and integrated understanding of content and procedural knowledge (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018). PBL “focuses less on the learning outcome than on a learning process organized around a question or a problem” (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018, p. 151). Condliffe et al. (2017) assert that developing and/or implementing project-based instruction is a complex endeavor that should result in students becoming internally motivated. PBL should also engage students in productive struggle with central concepts of the content discipline via student-driven explorations that mirror the kinds of problems that adults might address in their work. These projects typically integrate knowledge and skills across disciplines, with literacy serving a central role. Hill (2014) found that middle school students engaged in interdisciplinary, project-based, multimodal (IPM) learning activities demonstrated increased motivation and engagement as well as increased comprehension. Students also demonstrated strategic reading practices and made connections between lesson content and their lives outside of school. Duke et al. (2019) found that students engaged in project-based learning experienced greater growth in reading skills and social studies knowledge and skills than their peers who were engaged in traditional learning activities. Kristin Harrington’s Adventures in Authentic Learning (2020) is a guidebook for teachers and educational technology coaches to integrate technology to support the development of meaningful and authentic project-based learning across the core disciplines. In her book, Harrington posits that “authentic lessons incorporate some element of student choice and topics relevant to students. They also involve students in solving a problem or creating something, while engaging in tasks that incorporate skills we typically use in the workforce and our world outside of school” (2020, p. 11). For clarification, references to authentic learning have foundations in the work of Archibald & Newmann (1988) as Authentic Academic Achievement and Newmann et al. (2016) as Authentic Intellectual Work (AIW). Over 20 years of research in authentic learning and in a nod to disciplinary literacy research, Newmann et al. (2016) revised the initial model to focus on addressing the practices of experts in their fields. These practices or components of the framework include (specific AIW components in italics): 1. The construction of knowledge by learners to apply their meaningful understanding of content and problems in novel contexts or to extend one’s understanding through examination of relationships. 2. Disciplined inquiry accessing prior knowledge as the base for engagement in learning activities which leads to “in-depth understanding rather than superficial awareness” and
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