Authentic Intellectual Work: Instruction

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Authentic Intellectual WorkInstruction
Assessment that Advances Student Performance

• Wisconsin Idea Leadership Academy
• Madison 2007
• M. Bruce King
• Dept of Educational Leadership Policy Analysis
• University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Much of what passes for authentic curriculum
and authentic assessment seems to miss the
point by giving in to the search for
entertainment and avoidance of boredom rather
than in pursuit of clear purposes and powerful
learning.

• Debbie Meier (1998)

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How is Powerful Student Learning Best Defined?

• Basic Knowledge and Skills are Essential.
• The New Basics Includes Authentic Intellectual
  Work.
• What is Authentic Intellectual Work?

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Authentic Intellectual WorkThree Criteria

• Construction of Knowledge
• Disciplined Inquiry
• Knowledge Base
• In Depth Understanding
• Elaborated Communication
• Value Beyond School

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Indicators of Authentic Pedagogy

• Pedagogy teachers intellectual demands of
  students, not practices or methods.
• Standards and scoring rubrics for construction of
  knowledge, disciplined inquiry, value beyond
  school.

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Vision for schooling in America?
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Standards for Instruction

• Construction of Knowledge
• Instruction has students manipulating information
  and ideas by synthesizing, generalizing,
  explaining, hypothesizing, or arriving at
  conclusions that produce new meaning and
  understandings for them.
• Disciplined Inquiry Deep Knowledge 
• Instruction addresses central ideas of a topic or
  discipline with enough thoroughness to explore
  connections and relationships and to produce
  relatively complex understandings. 

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Standards for Instruction

• Disciplined Inquiry Substantive Conversation
• Students engage in extended conversational
  exchanges with the teacher and/or their peers
  about subject matter in a way that builds an
  improved and shared understanding of ideas or
  topics.
• Value Beyond School Connections to Students'
  Lives
• Students make connections between substantive
  knowledge and either public problems or personal
  experiences outside of school.

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Intellectual QualityGrade 5 Science

• Mushrooms always grow in damp places and so they
  look like umbrellas.
• The body consists of three parts - the brainium,
  the borax and the abominable cavity. The brainium
  contains the brain, the borax contains the heart
  and lungs, and the abominable cavity contains the
  bowels, of which there are five - a, e, i, o and
  u.

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Intellectual QualityGrade 5 Science

• For Fainting Rub the person's chest or, if a
  lady, rub her arm above the hand instead. Or put
  the head between the knees of the nearest medical
  doctor.
• Vacuum A large, empty space where the pope
  lives.
• Water is composed of two gins, Oxygin and
  Hydrogin. Oxygin is pure gin. Hydrogin is gin and
  water.

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Mathematics and Social Studies Authentic Student
Performance in Classes with Low, Average, and
High Authentic Pedagogy24 Restructuring
Elementary, Middle, and High Schools
Authentic Performance Score Mathematics and
Social Studies Combined
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Writing and Mathematics Authentic Student
Performance According to Authentic Intellectual
Quality of Teachers Assignments--12 Chicago
Schools
90
80
70
60
50
Percentile Ranking
40
30
20
10
0
Math
Math
Math
Writing
Writing
Writing
6th Grade
3rd Grade
8th Grade
CLASSROOMS WITH HIGH AUTHENTIC INTELLECTUAL
QUALILTY ASSIGNMENTS (top quartile)
CLASSROOMS WITH LOW AUTHENTIC INTELLECTUAL
QUALITY ASSIGNMENTS (bottom quartile)
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Authentic performance for students with and
without disabilities in the classes with highest
and lowest authentic tasks4 inclusive High
Schools
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Research in NSW, AustraliaIntellectual Quality
for ATSI Authentic Achievement
ATSI achievement for high IQ tasks exceeds
non-ATSI achievement for low IQ tasks.
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Research in NSW, Australia Intellectual Quality
for SES Authentic Achievement
Low SES students overtake high SES students when
task IQ is higher.
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High School Mathematics and ScienceConventional
Achievement Gains According to Levels of
Authentic Instruction in 1000 schools
Science
Mathematics
4.5
10
4
9
3.5
8
3
7
6
2.5
Gains in Achievement
Gains in Achievement
5
2
4
1.5
3
2
1
1
0.5
0
0
Grades 8 to 10
Grades 10 to 12
Grades 8 to 10
Grades 10 to 12
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High School Authentic Instruction and
Conventional Achievement for Low and High
Socioeconomic Students
Low Authentic Instruction School
27
25
23
Science Score (IRT Scale)
21
19
17
15
8th Grade
10th Grade
12th Grade
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High School Authentic Instruction and
Conventional Achievement for Low and High
Socioeconomic Students
High Authentic Instruction School
27
25
23
Science Score (IRT Scale)
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19
17
15
8th Grade
10th Grade
12th Grade
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Subjects and Grade Levels Where Authentic
Pedagogy Benefits Achievement

• Authentic Achievement Math (3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10,
  9-12), Science (9-12), Social Studies (5, 8, 10,
  11, 9-12), Writing/Language Arts (3, 6, 8, 9-12)
• Conventional Achievement Math (3, 6, 8),
  Reading (3, 6, 8), Science (10, 12), Writing (3,
  6, 8)

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Student Achievement
Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment of High
Intellectual Quality
School Capacity
Teachers Knowledge, Skills,, Dispositions
Technical Resources
Professional Community
Program Coherence
Principal Leadership
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Educational Leadership

• The purpose of leadership is the improvement of
  instructional practice and performance,
  regardless of role.
• Instructional improvement requires continuous
  teacher learning.
• The roles and activities of leadership flow from
  the expertise required for learning and
  improvement, not from the formal dictates of the
  institution.
• Leadership enhances leadership in othersthe
  mutual obligations and value of sharing knowledge
  among organizational members.
• The exercise of authority requires reciprocity of
  accountability and capacity.

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Three Roles of Educational Leaders

• The usual scenario

Political
Managerial
Instructional
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Three Roles of Educational Leaders

• New Priorities

Political
Managerial
Instructional