Understanding Authentic Learning

Students often perceive a profound disconnect between whatthey learn in class and what is meaningful in their everyday life.The Authentic Learning construct was developed to bridge this gap.Initially formulated only within the social Situated Learningapproach, Authentic Learning was ill-defined in cognitive terms.Using classical cognitive works and recent neuroscience findings,characteristic features of cognitive authenticity are presented.Specifically, n-coding (i.e. simultaneous encoding of multimodalinput: verbal, visual, kinesthetic, social ...) is posited as acentral cognitive characteristic of authenticity. A study presentedtests and shows the effectiveness of providing optimal n-codingopportunities in learning environments. Since each learningparadigm (eg. social or cognitive) has severe limitations, aunified approach to Learning is developed. Unification is proposedby modelizing Learning as a self-similar (i.e. fractal) process.Indeed, the Learning process is shown to be strikingly self-similaron the neural, cognitive and social scales. This fractal modelyields initial predictions and provides exciting possibilities forfuture research.