Apprentissage authentique

Définition

On parle depuis quelques années beaucoup d'authenticité, notamment dans le contexte des sciences expérimentales et aux états-unis les autorités ont été jusqu'à inclure dans les directives des considérations sur l'importance de ce type d'apprentissage.

Trois niveaux d'authenticité

Selon Vanderbilt Cognition and Technology Group (situated cognition)

• A first level of authenticity-the factual level-involves the objects and data in the setting. Examples for "Journey to Cedar Creek" are getting the weather report from the marine radio using speeds and miles for gallon figures that were realistic for the boats in the video.

• A second level of authenticity involves the degree to which the tasks that students are asked to perform are authentic. The focus here is on making and evaluating decisions "that seem quite authentic" since the authors formulate, "namely, decisions about when to leave in order to ensure getting somewhere before a specific deadline ... and decisions about the fastest way to get somewhere and return. ... And it is authentic have to plan by generating sets of sub-problems to be solved. “The Group asks consequently for whom these tasks are authentic.

• A third level of authenticity regards the process of "doing mathematics" The decisive point here is not solving given mathematical tasks but involving students in arguing from data, in proposing, testing, and revising hypotheses, and in accepting criticism and counterarguments from their peers. In other words: the Jasper Woodbury adventures will provide opportunities for students to engage in authentic mathematical discourse

(Achtenhagen 2003)

Authenticité centrée sur l'enfant

• (l) Child-centered authenticity

"Child-centered authenticity locates the real in the spontaneous interests and understandings of the child that evolve through action and interaction with natural objects, events, and people in the child's world". "In this sense, the curriculum ... is the child" (p. 1). "If adult forms are imposed too early, then the child is forced to engage in meaningless activity without comprehension for extrinsic incentives" (p. 2).

• (2) Subject-centered authenticity

"Subject-centered authenticity locates the real in the data, tools, and operations of the disciplines represented as school subjects in the curriculum". "It is usually presumed that if students are doing real science or real history, hen they will find the materials and problems attractive and compelling, just as real scientists and historians do. If, for example, students are testing real :er from a local lake to find real toxins, than they will naturally be excited about what they are doing and motivated to forge ahead" (p. 2).

• (3) Situated authenticity

"ln situated authenticity, the real is located in the authentic activity of practitioners jn real-world settings." "The central argument is that the activity in which knowledge is developed and deployed is an integral part of what is learned and known.

L'authenticité n'est pas simple

The problem of authentic instruction and learning is in the center of the discussions on constructivism as well as situated cognition. This article demonstrates that authenticity is not given per se—as very often naïvely assumed—but has always set on stage. It is shown how this process can be described and explained by a twofold modeling procedure. Complex teaching-learning environments as examples for instructional design which are constructed by taking into account such ideas seem to be a measure of choice to bring real world problems into the individual learning situation. An example for this approach is presented.

"A first step shall demonstrate that it is naïve to believe that learning by working at a workplace automatically leads to sufficient learning results, as suggested by the situated cognition debate. A second step shall show that effective preauthentication urges two steps of modeling which have to be separated and reflected thoroughly. A third step gives one example of how learning to work effectively at the workplace can be set on stage at a vocational school. The goal was to demonstrate that the concept of authenticity is not given per se, but has to be thoroughly modeled and set on stage. With its operationalization of authenticity the Cognition and Technology Group deals mainly with the curriculum aspect of the second step of didactic modeling; Doyle explicitly states that the content to be taught and learned is not given per se; the curriculum is an interpretation-that means a modeling-of content. It is our experience that being aware of both steps of didactic modeling might help make much clearer what is meant by authenticity for the individual learning situation. By the different operationalization processes il is possible to deal with real world problems for academic as well as for vocational and occupational education and training specifically and efficiently. Seeing that authenticity is not given per se but has to be brought onto the 1ge conscientiously will help one to develop teaching- learning strategies, Id thus to use the advantages of situated learning in a more efficient way. "Doyle (2000).

"I began to teach science assurning that all students had to do was to look and recognize the truth about nature; l assumed that what l saw happening in a test tube should be seen equally by students; and I assumed that students' minds were like Locke's tabulae rasae, which could be filled, through appropriate experiences, with the right knowledge about the objectively existing structures of the world." (Roth1995 p.3).

Authentique : un statut spécial dans les sciences expérimentales ?

Le souci de créer des conditions d'apprentissage authentiques parait particulièrement important dans les sciences expérimentales où la vérité se construit à partir de données, qui sont perçues comme authentiques.

Authentique ou didactisé : une tension ?

Il existe une tension entre la nécessaire didactisation (Chevallard), l'inévitable modification - scolarisation de tout ce que l'école touche et s'approprie, et la recherche d'activités authentiques à proposer aux apprenants. Chevallard doit qu'on dit didactiser, que le savoir n'est pas le meme en classe ( praxéologies à construire) que dans un autre contexte. Rabardel dit -si j'ai bien compris- que l'instrument qu'on se cosntruit à pratir d'un artefact est forcément lié à un contexte, donc différent pour un élève d'une classe que pour un chercheur en biologie moléculaire dans un laboratoire. Aussi croire qu'on puisse faire entrer en classe des données, des outils et à fortiori des épistémologies authentiques est un leurre. Au moins en partie. Et sortir de cette opposition dichotomique permet d'avancer...

D'un autre côté l'apport en termes de motivation de focalisation et pour donner du sens aux apprentissages n'est plus à démontrer cf par exemple (Roth 1995). Et des activités qui soient perçues comme authentiques par les apprenants (donc non-scolairees ? à creuser) sont certainement un facteur d'efficacité pédagogique.

Or plus on didactise moins on est authentique : l'effet d'une comparaison des séquences de l'insuline dans un ouvrage scolaire de chez Hatier ou deBoeck et tout autre que d 'aller dans les bases de données du NIH ou de Swissprot pour les trouver. Ou d'aller mesurer la lumière au sol dans une forêt plutôt que de lire des tables de valeurs typiques dans un ouvrage scolaire.

On a donc une tension entre ces 2 facteurs de recherche de l'authentique et de didactisation. Quel degré d'authenticité et de didactisation faut-il dans quels cas ? Y a-t-il une manière d'échapper à ce dilemme ?

A creuser ...

Références

• Roth, W.-M. (1995). Authentic school science : Knowing and learning in open-inquiry science laboratories: Kluwer Academic publishers.
• Doyle (2000) Doyle, W. (2000). Authenticity. Paper presented at the AERA Annual) Meeting, New Orleans.
• Achtenhagen, F. (2003). Problems of Authentic Instruction and Learning. Technology, Instruction, Cognition and Learning (TICL), 1(3).