Abstract
In a changing and uncertain world, the question of how best to prepare professionals who can move forward into an indeterminate future is being debated with renewed urgency. Authentic learning has been proposed as appropriate to preparing students for work and life beyond formal education. Conventionally, authentic learning has been equated to learning that involves real-life applications of knowledge. In this chapter, we challenge this conceptualisation of authentic learning as too narrow and limited. Drawing on the work of Martin Heidegger, we argue that authenticity in learning need not be an attribute of tasks or learning environments but, rather, is a quality of educational processes that engage students more in becoming fully human. Authenticity is a mode of being human when we take responsibility for shaping our lives and who we are becoming. Against this background, we draw implications of authenticity for professional education and we outline directions for the design of curricula, pedagogy and assessment that promote learning to become authentic professionals.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Barnett, R. (2004). Learning for an unknown future. Higher Education Research and Development, 23, 247–260.
Barrett, W. (1964). Irrational man: A study of existential philosophy. London: Mercury Books.
Berger, P., & Luckmann, T. (1966). The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. New York: Doubleday & Company.
Biggs, J. (2003). Teaching for quality learning at university: What the student does (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: SRHE/Open University Press.
Blattner, W. (2006). Heidegger’s being and time: A reader’s guide. London/New York: Continuum International.
Brock, C. (2001). Serving english language learners: Placing learners learning on the centre stage. Language Arts, 78(5), 467–475.
Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32–42.
Coulehan, J. (2005). Today’s professionalism: Engaging the mind but not the heart. Academic Medicine, 80, 892–898.
Cowan, J. (2007). Education for higher level capabilities: Beyond alignment, to integration? In V. Gil, I. Alarcao, & H. Hooghoff (Eds.), Challenges in teaching and learning in higher education (pp. 53–76). Aveiro, Portugal: University of Aveiro/SLO-Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development.
Dall’Alba, G. (2005). Improving teaching: Enhancing ways of being university teachers. Higher Education Research & Development, 24(4), 361–372.
Dall’Alba, G. (2009). Learning to be professionals. Dordrecht, The Netherlands/New York: Springer.
Dall’Alba, G., & Barnacle, R. (2007). An ontological turn for higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 32(6), 679–691.
Dall’Alba, G., & Sandberg, J. (2006). Unveiling professional development: A critical review of stage models. Review of Educational Research, 76(3), 383–412.
Darling-Hammond, L., & Bransford, J. (Eds.). (2005). Preparing teachers for a changing world: What teachers should learn and be able to do. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Darling-Hammond, L., & Snyder, J. (2000). Authentic assessment of teaching in context. Teaching and Teacher Education, 16, 523–545.
Dreyfus, H. L. (1991). Being-in-the-world: A commentary on Heidegger’s being and time, division 1. London: MIT Press.
Golomb, J. (1995). In search of authenticity: From Kierkegaard to Camus. London/New York: Routledge.
Heidegger, M. (1959). The question of being (W. Kluback & J. Wilde, Trans.). London: Vision Press.
Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time (J. Macquarrie & E. Robinson, Trans.). London: SCM Press. (Original work published 1927).
Herrington, A., & Herrington, J. (2005). What is an authentic learning environment? In A. Herrington & J. Herrington (Eds.), Authentic learning environments in higher education (pp. 1–14). Hershey, PA: Information Science Publishing.
Hoban, G. F. (Ed.). (2005). The missing links in teacher education design. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Inwood, M. (2000). Heidegger: A very short introduction. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.
Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (1990). Learning together and alone: Co-operation, competition and individualism. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
King, M. (2001). A guide to Heidegger’s being and time. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Lambert, D., & Lines, D. (2000). Understanding assessment: Purposes, perceptions and practices. London/New York: Routledge Falmer.
Mulhall, S. (2005). Routledge philosophy guidebook to Heidegger and being and time (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Ridley, K. L., & Stern, B. S. (1998). Using authentic assessment and qualitative methodology to bridge theory and practice. The Educational Forum, 62(2), 178–185.
Rule, A. C. (2006). The components of authentic learning. Journal of Authentic Learning, 3(1), 1–10.
Schmidt, L. K. (1996). Recalling the hermeneutic circle. Philosophy Today, 40(2), 263–273.
Shulman, L. S. (1999). Taking learning seriously. Change, 31(4), 10–20.
Sutton, R. (1992). Assessment: A framework for teachers. London: Routledge.
Thomson, I. (2001). Heidegger on ontological education, or: How we become what we are. Inquiry, 44, 243–268.
Vu, T., & Dall’Alba, G. (2007). Students’ experience of peer assessment in a professional course. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 32(5), 541–556.
Wiggins, G. (1989). Teaching to the (authentic) test. Educational Leadership, 46(7), 41–47.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Vu, T.T., Dall’Alba, G. (2011). Becoming Authentic Professionals: Learning for Authenticity. In: Scanlon, L. (eds) “Becoming” a Professional. Lifelong Learning Book Series, vol 16. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1378-9_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1378-9_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-1377-2
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-1378-9
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)