Problematising the notion of ‘authentic school learning’: insights from student perspectives on media/literacy education

Abstract

Creating authentic learning opportunities in schools has been an important mission for educators and educational researchers, where ‘authentic’ is generally understood to mean connecting school education to students’ current and future identities, experiences and expertise. This article aims to problematise the taken-for-granted notion of authentic learning based on data from a study on media literacy education in Singapore. Thirty-two secondary students discussed their views on and experiences with school-based media/literacy education in focus group discussions with researchers. While the findings highlight students’ articulation of a disconnect between in-school learning and their everyday experiences, they also reveal youth’s expectations for school learning to aid their academic success. Authentic learning, from the points of view of students, thus encompasses opportunities for real-life connections as well as preparation for achievement valued by schools. The study has implications for contexts similar to Singapore where pressures to do well academically coexist with a heavy emphasis on measurable learning. More broadly, it advocates considering students’ perspectives on school and learning as a crucial aspect of designing authentic learning environments.

Keywords:

• Authentic learning
• media literacy
• student attitudes
• Singapore
• focus group interviews

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Rita Silver and Patrick Williams for their invaluable peer feedback on an earlier version of this manuscript. The views expressed in this paper are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of NIE.

Notes

1. Throughout, I refer to media/literacy education as a way to highlight common agendas between literacy educators and those engaged more specifically in promoting media literacy. Both acknowledge young people as active users and creators of a range of (digital) media texts and work to incorporate students’ experience in classroom learning. There is a long tradition particularly strong in the US (e.g. Alvermann and Hagood 2000; Hobbs 2007, 2011b) that sees language arts as a key vehicle for media literacy development, while in the UK media literacy is often a separate subject.

2. The choice of a top school and a lower-ranking school was deliberate. As the overall purpose of the project was to develop a framework for infusing media literacy in the teaching of English that could more or less work in any Singapore school, it was important to trial it in schools that were quite dissimilar in order to understand how school-contextual factors may impact feasibility.

3. For the ES school, the make-up of the pre and post focus groups was identical for both classes and totaled 12 students. For the neighbourhood school, the composition of the second focus group for each class changed due to movement of students to new classes, totaling 20 students. Hence, the total participant number for the study was 32.