Authentic Intelligent Work, Triple E, and NETP

 Authentic Intellectual Work (AIW) as defined be Newmann et al. (2007) is “construction of knowledge, through the use of disciplined inquiry, to produce discourse, products, or performances that have value beyond school.”

The idea “authentic” refers to identifying some kinds of intellectual work as more complex and socially or personally meaningful than others, as opposed to some of the superficial, retrieval of given information, and one-dimensional learning procedures associated with traditional approaches. The goal is to provide learners with the skills and tools for navigating the complex societal and real-world situations that require a unique construction of knowledge.

 

Components of Authentic Intellectual Work:

Construction of Knowledge- Aims to equip students with cognitive thinking skills accumulated through a variety of experiences to solve the diverse and unique situations that occur in occupational and civic life. Simply constructing knowledge is not enough to provide an accurate solution. Students learn to guide the construction of knowledge through disciplined Inquiry.

Disciplined Inquiry-

(1) prior knowledge base- accumulated through academic or applied disciplines.

(2) In-depth understanding-more than being familiar with content, but imagines, proposes tests relationships between data.

(3) Elaborated communication- a variety of tools such as verbal, visual, and symbolic methods to communicate in a wide range of mediums.

Value Beyond School- tasks or activities that have meaning to students’ beyond complying with teacher’s requirements.

 

Across multiple studies the application of authentic assignments had a strong correlation between high authentic quality assignments/pedagogy classes and increased student performance.

In a Chicago elementary school that scored below the average for all elementary schools in their district submitted student work to be reviewed by Language Arts and Mathematics teachers to score the quality of demands for authentic intellectual work in the assignments and the quality of authentic achievement in the student's responses. There appears to be a direct correlation between the higher the quality assignment, the higher percentile ranking (Newman et al. 2007).

 

Connecting with Kolb’s Triple E framework for utilizing technology tools through a framework of Engagement, Enhancement and Extension, the main goal of AIW is moving beyond the classroom and teacher instruction, similar to Extension in triple E：students experience a connection between school and continue learning apart from class in everyday life. Getting students engaged, can be described as student motivation, focused on goals and engaged as active learners. AIW also strives to achieve student engagement through inquiry. Having learners critically think about knowledge application to real world issues is a process that requires in-depth understanding rather than superficial awareness. Triple E states ed-tech tools are utilized as medium for enhancing and provide unique learning with added value, and AIW also focuses on deepening understanding （Gaer & Reyes 2022, Newman et al. 2007).

    In one of my previously taught EFL university classes, students were assigned to teach or share a topic with their peers through video or mixed media. The task of sharing an idea they were well acquainted with adheres to utilizing prior knowledge base. They needed to consider audience learning needs when developing a script and learning goals (In-depth understanding). This consideration of audience also increases students motivation for staying focus and achieving learning goals as defined in Triple E framework-Engagement. As EFL students, creating this project the had to consider visual conveyance, choice for audio, and English language terminology required research and cultural consideration（elaborate communication). The tools for mixed media use forced students to review, refine, and structure their and script to ensure visual and audio clarity, adhering to Triple E’s Enhancement. For this assignment students were able to draw from their unique experience and interests to expand on areas outside of the classroom, as a mixed media project demands many other areas of research outside of the demands of EFL learning, also meeting the standards of Extension in Triple E (Gaer & Reyes 2022, Newman et al. 2007). Also adhering to National Core Art Standard MA:Pr4.1.III, to synthesize various arts, media arts forms and academic content into unified media arts productions that retain artistic fidelity across platforms, such as transdisciplinary productions.

 

The 2024 NETP Universal Design for Learning (UDL) aims to make education accessible for all students and it’s principles have some shared characteristics with AIW and Kolb’s Triple E framework. UDL gives students and educators flexibility in the tools and methods they use for achieving a goal. UDL’s principle of multiple means of expression allow for digital tools that can provide different ways for students to demonstrate their understanding of learning concepts (Office of Educational Technology 2024). This fits perfectly into the AIW framework of considering students’ unique situations and allowing for a variety of tools to apply their constructed knowledge. For instance in the EFL students mixed media project, if some student’s are more visual learners, they may want to use more text prompts or visual guides in the project, where students who are more verbally proficient may want to focus on the script and language of their project.

 

 

Resources:

Gaer, S. & Reyes, K. ( 2022). Finally, Some Guidance! Using the Triple E Framework to Shape Technology Integration, Adult Literacy Education, 4 (3-34). Link: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1370043.pdf

Media Arts at a Glance. Nation Core Art Standards. (2014). https://nationalartsstandards.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/Media Arts at a Glance.pdf

Newmann, F. M., King, M. B., & Carmichael, D. L. (2007).  Authentic instruction and assessment: Common standards for rigor and relevance in teaching academic subjects.  State of Iowa Department of Education. Introduction https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T9JNAZgLfKvXAX7JoaOJElkkZS5Xf-lp/view?usp=drivesdk Links to an external site.

Office of Educational Technology. (2024). A Call to Action to Close the Technology Access, Design, and Use Divides: National Educational Technology Plan. Department of Education. Retrieved from: https://tech.ed.gov/netp