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The Role of Authentic Tasks in Promoting Twenty-First Century Learning Dispositions

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Authentic Problem Solving and Learning in the 21st Century

Part of the book series: Education Innovation Series ((EDIN))

Abstract

Authentic tasks are widely acknowledged by educators to foster desirable twenty-first century (21C) learning dispositions in students, particularly in terms of motivated and engaged learning. In mathematics education specifically, authentic tasks are commonly upheld as essential to the development of positive student affect towards mathematics, as well as mathematical problem-solving competencies and its encompassing socio-cognitive processes—reasoning, communication and connections—among learners (Beswick K, Int J Sci Math Educ, 9(2):367–390, 2011). Despite this widespread belief in the value of authentic tasks, there is surprisingly limited empirical evidence on the relationship between the use of authentic tasks in classrooms and productive learning dispositions (Pellegrino and Hilton (eds) Education for life and work: developing transferable knowledge and skills in the 21st century. National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 2013), particularly from the perspective of students as a critical stakeholder group. This chapter attempts to address this knowledge gap.

Drawing from a comprehensive study involving more than 4,000 students across 129 classrooms from 39 secondary schools in Singapore, this chapter foregrounds the extent to which the use of authentic tasks predict a suite of productive 21C learning dispositions. These comprise positive beliefs, attitudes and motivational dispositions that lend themselves towards deeper learning, namely, mastery-approach and performance-approach goal orientations, self-efficacy and task value and individual and collaborative learning engagement. Hierarchical linear modelling results underscore the significance of authentic tasks in predicting students’ individual engagement levels and mastery-approach and performance-approach goal orientations, as well as the extent to which they consider mathematics to be interesting, useful and important. Authentic tasks, however, were not a significant predictor of students’ collaborative engagement and self-efficacy in learning mathematics. The implications of these results are discussed, particularly in light of current understandings of Singapore secondary school students’ self-reported dispositions towards learning mathematics and their strong global performance in international mathematics achievement tests.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice (CRPP) under a Singapore Ministry of Education research grant. Any findings, conclusions and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the positions or policies of the Singapore Ministry of Education. We specially thank Dr. Lau Shun for his significant contributions in every aspect of this research. We also acknowledge the founding Dean and Deputy Dean of CRPP, Professor Allan Luke and Professor Peter Freebody, for providing the necessary foundational intellectual and research leadership that enabled the successful design and execution of this project. We thank Professor David Hogan for his support and valuable comments to the research design and survey development. We thank Dr. Ridzuan Abdul Rahim and the school teachers for their feedback on the adaptation of instruments. We also thank Lim Kin Meng, Sheng Yee Zher and other research associates and assistants for their assistance in this research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Jennifer Pei-Ling Tan & Youyan Nie

Authors
  1. Jennifer Pei-Ling Tan
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  2. Youyan Nie
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jennifer Pei-Ling Tan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea (Republic of)

    Young Hoan Cho

  2. Nanyang Technological University, National Institute of Education, Singapore, Singapore

    Imelda S. Caleon

  3. Nanyang Technological University, National Institute of Education, Singapore, Singapore

    Manu Kapur

Appendix A

Appendix A

The Use of Authentic Tasks

  1. 1.

    How often does your MATHS teacher provide opportunities for you to apply mathematical ideas learnt in your class to other subjects?

  2. 2.

    How often does your MATHS teacher provide opportunities for pupils to apply mathematical ideas to everyday nonschool-related situations?

  3. 3.

    How often does your MATHS teacher focus the lesson on what is personally meaningful to you, rather than what is in the syllabus?

  4. 4.

    How often does your MATHS teacher attempt to link subject knowledge to your personal experiences?

Individual Engagement

  1. 1.

    I pay attention well.

  2. 2.

    I keep my attention on the work during the entire lesson.

  3. 3.

    I listen carefully when the teacher explains something.

  4. 4.

    I try my best to complete classwork.

Group Engagement

  1. 1.

    I try my best to contribute during small group discussions.

  2. 2.

    I share my ideas during group work.

  3. 3.

    I try my best to get involved in class discussions.

  4. 4.

    I try my best to contribute to group work.

Mastery-Approach Goal Orientation

  1. 1.

    An important reason I do my MATHS work is that I like to learn new things.

  2. 2.

    I like the work in my MATHS class best when it challenges me to think.

  3. 3.

    An important reason I do my work in MATHS class is because I want to get better at it.

  4. 4.

    An important reason I do my MATHS work is that I enjoy it.

  5. 5.

    An important reason I do my MATHS work is that I want to learn challenging ideas well.

Performance-Approach Goal Orientation

  1. 1.

    I want to show pupils in my MATHS class that I am smart.

  2. 2.

    I like to show my teacher that I am smarter than the other pupils in my MATHS class.

  3. 3.

    It is important to me that the other pupils in my MATHS class think I am smart.

  4. 4.

    I feel successful in MATHS if I get better marks than most of the other pupils.

Self-Efficacy

I am sure I can learn the skills taught in MATHS class well.

  1. 1.

    I can do almost all the work in MATHS class if I do not give up.

  2. 2.

    If I have enough time, I can do a good job in all my MATHS work.

  3. 3.

    Even if the work in MATHS is hard, I can learn it.

  4. 4.

    I am sure I can do difficult work in my MATHS class.

Task Values

  1. 1.

    I think learning MATHS is important.

  2. 2.

    I find MATHS interesting.

  3. 3.

    What I learn in MATHS is useful.

  4. 4.

    Compared to other subjects, MATHS is useful.

  5. 5.

    Compared to other subjects, MATHS is important.

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Tan, J.PL., Nie, Y. (2015). The Role of Authentic Tasks in Promoting Twenty-First Century Learning Dispositions. In: Cho, Y., Caleon, I., Kapur, M. (eds) Authentic Problem Solving and Learning in the 21st Century. Education Innovation Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-521-1_2

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