Authentic Learning Design And Practice Of Research Course

The rapid development of ICT contributes to authentic learning which has the benefit to promote self-oriented learning and higher-order thinking,thus authentic learning can be the way to the reform of research course in higher education that is confronted with the lack of effective instructional model.Nevertheless,there's little empirical research focus on authentic learning in China.It is of great significance to investigate authentic learning in research course in higher education.Under the guidance of design-based research paradigm,this research aims to address two research questions.First,how to design authentic learning in the research course in higher education?And second,how do students learn in the authentic learning environment?The study was conducted in the course called learning science introduction during one semester in H University.In the first stage of theoretical analysis,this study explains the import concepts of research course in higher education and authentic learning,narrates the research status and raise the research question,and then review the design principles of authentic learning and the related thoughts,thus to lay the foundation of instructional design.In the second stage of instructional design and practice,the study focuses on the question of how to design following two steps:(1)generating the theoretical framework of "path-thoughts-element-model-strategy" for authentic learning design;(2)blending the essential instructional elements of learning science introduction in the theoretical framework to construct a instructional model and corresponding strategies for the course,which can guide the design and practice of authentic tasks and its evaluation.In the third stage of data analysis and discussion,the study focuses on the question of how to learn:(1)using the combined quantitative and qualitative methods to examine participants' perception,learning performance as well as learning process and products of authentic learning,and the data sources include questionnaire survey,interview as well as content analysis for learning products;(2)discussing the research findings from three aspects,including effectiveness of authentic learning,performance of critical thinking,and instructional design principles of authentic learning in research course,then drawing the conclusion to improve the authentic leaning design and practice.The findings suggest that(1)authentic learning can promote the domain knowledge,self-orianted learning as well as the critical thinking,and has relatively high rate of satisfaction;(2)students have shown from middle to high level of critical thinking competence during their authentic learning process while the aspect of critical comments,practical application,associate of points,the breadth of comprehension can be enhanced;(3)some instructional strategies in relation with authentic tasks,scaffolding and coaching remained to be enhanced,while access to expert performance,multiple perspectives were insufficient;(4)ICT can afford authentic learning in several ways,such as produce authentic learning environment,promote the development of cognition,make learning products,deliever authentic assessment.(5)To refine the authentic learning design and practice,it was needed to further providing flexible scaffoldings,adjusting the difficulty of the authentic tasks,paying attention to the standard of reference,adjusting strategies for the development of critical thinking,the tasks and assessment as well as resources and tools.