2.  Authentic learning can be seen as a
teaching method, that allows a student
to discuss, connect concepts and
relationships that has relevance to the
real-world and explore and learn
something that is genuine, meaningful
and real to a student
(Donovan, Bransford, & Pellegrino, 1999).

3.  Scenario: The activity includes students from a gr.9 Technology class. In
the activity the teacher was approached by The South African Sugar
Industry. The students are requested to draw up a campaign to reach
out to the community on all the facts about where sugar comes from.
 The first part of the activity is to educate the community of sugar use in
South Africa.
 The learners can do the following research for example:
 Find out who the founder is?
 Where does sugar come from?
 Research sugar cane by-products
 The processing of sugar
 Identify sugar Mills in South Africa
 Research different forms of sugar

4.  The second part of the task, The South
African Sugar Industry wants to create
awareness of the important aspects of
sugar as part of a healthy balanced diet.
 Learners can do research on the following
for example:
 How much sugar is needed in our diet.
 The food pyramid.
 Work out a healthy balanced eating plan
that includes sugar.

5.  Authentic tasks is a reflection of what a
task should involve and must provide
knowledge from a real-life experience.
 Learners are engaged in a real-life
experience, they are motivated to find
out and research aspects of The South
African Sugar industry.

6.  authentic activities are relatively undefined
and open to multiple
interpretations, requiring students to identify
for themselves the tasks and subtasks
needed to complete the major task.
 Learners should interpret the goal of the
authentic task given about The SA Sugar
Industry by identifying different research
aspects to complete the main task given.

7.  An authentic task should be completed over a
sustained period of time, rather than a series of
shorter periods of time. Learners should be
granted a longer period of time to complete
an authentic task given by the educator.
 The authentic task given to the learners will
have a period of 3 weeks, so the learners have
3 weeks to complete the task, so that relevant
information and good research discovered
can be used to complete the task successfully.

8.  The learners are given the opportunity to
divide themselves into small work groups by
using a variety of classroom resources like
the following:
Books, newspapers, magazines, quality
internet resources, learners can contact
experts on the related topic by phone, or
email or even seeing them in person this will
help learners to select relevant information
rather than irrelevant information that they
researched.

9.  Learners should be engaged in discussion, gather or
share research on the topic. The true power of
authentic learning is the ability to actively involve
students together to relate to a better understanding
of the topic.
 Authentic tasks should address a group, by working
for example in pairs of 2-4 students rather than an
individual student alone. The ability of working in
groups together create higher-order thinking skills like
analysing, evaluating, etcetera and this will produce
more relevant and creative ideas all together for the
task given.

10.  Authentic activities should enable learners to
make choices and reflect on their
learning, both individually and as a team or
community. Students should act upon
reflection. Students should reflect on the online
learning environment as well.
 The learners should reflect on all research done
on The South African sugar industry and share
their reflection with other students.

11.  Tasks encourage interdisciplinary perspectives and
enable diverse roles and expertise rather than a
single well-defined field or domain.
 The authentic task given to the learners about The
South African Sugar Industry includes the integration
of subjects like:
 History
 Maths
 Science
 Geography
 Technology

12.  Assessment is not merely summative in authentic
activities but is woven seamlessly into the major task
in a manner that reflects real-world evaluation
processes.
 By collaborating with others the students are involved
in integrated assessment in groups the learners have
the ability to look at different aspects of The South
African Sugar Industry. Individual assessment will not
work this authentic task enquires one’s own
initiative, and by gathering and sharing research
learners will have the ability to read, write and collect
information at the same time.

13.  Authentic tasks should be a creation of a
whole new idea of a topic rather than a
step by step preparation or just merely
an exercise given to the learners to
complete.
 Learners should be able to create their
own ideas and use own initiative for the
research of The South African Sugar
Industry campaign.

14.  An authentic task should have no limits in
rules, regulations or procedures.
 In the authentic task given I will not limit
the learners to any research rules so that
the learners can have a diversity of
outcomes to achieve during the
campaign of The South African Sugar
Industry task given.

15.  Authentic Learning. (n.d). Available from:
http://www.cec.sped.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Experiential_Learning&Template=/TaggedPage
/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=24&ContentID=4697. Accessed 20 February 2012).
 Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong. (c2005). Available from:
http://www.authentictasks.uow.edu.au/framework.html. (Accessed 20 February 2012).
 Gram, T. (2009). Designing Authentic Learning Tasks. Available from:
http://gramconsulting.com/2009/05/designing-authentic-learning-tasks/. (Accessed 20 February 2012).
 Herrington, J., Oliver, R., Reeves, T.C. (2004). A Development Research Agenda for Online
Collaborative Learning. (Vol. 52, p. 53-65).
 Herrington, J ., Oliver, R., Reeves, T.C. (2002). Authentic activities and online learning. Available from:
http://learnatics.sydneyinstitute.wikispaces.net/file/view/Reeves.pdf. (Accessed 20 February 2012).
 Lombardi M. Marilyn. (c2007). Authentic Learning for the 21st Century: An Overview. Available from:
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI3009.pdf. (Accessed 20 February 2012).
 Mims, C . (2003). Authentic Learning: A Practical Introduction & Guide for Implementation. Available
from: http://www.ncsu.edu/meridian/win2003/authentic_learning/3.html. (Accessed 20 February 2012).