Principle 6
The Principle: Good teaching and learning creates authentic contexts for learning.
It is important that children and young people see the relevance in their learning to the world beyond the school gates and that opportunities are taken to forge links to that world. Authentic contexts also engage and inspire learners. Visits and visitors can help to bring abstract learning to life. Also, ICT provides immense possibilities to access resources, explore sources and engage with real-life issues. Classroom skills can be applied in school-based clubs and the clubs can also provide opportunities for new skills, including leadership.
Video Introduction
Literature Review
With what research did we engage?
An Ethic of Excellence - Ron Berger
The Components of Authentic Learning - Rule, Audrey C.
Using Authentic Contexts to Academically Motivate Students - Willems, Patricia P.; Gonzalez-DeHass, Alyssa R.
What has this meant for us?
Authentic Contexts for Learning
Using the outdoors has been a key driver in this for us. We have used outdoor projects as a focus to improve our provision and create exciting projects for pupils.
Beautiful Work
A key part of our work involves children producing something at the end of a project. For example, pupil might run a business, write a report or participate in a play.
School Visitors
We have developed a 'Special Visitor Programme' so that we have a broad range of visitors to inspire and motivate children. We ensure that we invite people from a broad range of industries and experiences.
REAL Projects
We decided that we would like learning to have a purpose and goal at the end, therefore we have introduced Real, Engaging, Authentic Contexts for pupils' learning. We use this to guide the development of curriculum topics.
Pupil Voice
Year Four pupil:
"I have loved meeting George. We are going to set up our own company and I would like it to be like his, using a hobby that I love to inspire my designs."
Evaluations
We feel that we have made significant progress with this pedagogical principle. We would like to continue to develop our ability our extra-curricular activities.
We would also like to continue to ensure that our REAL projects both motivate and inspire pupils.
