The Role of Authentic Assessment Tasks in Problem-Based Learning

Abstract

Problem-based Learning (PBL) has long been touted as an effective pedagogical approach in higher education to promote students’ authentic learning. As a learner-centered pedagogy, PBL is characterized by students working collaboratively in small groups to solve messy, ill-structured problems that mirror real-world problems encountered by expert professionals in the field. Students are also expected to engage in self-directed learning. PBL instructors play a pivotal role as facilitators of learning. Authentic assessment is deemed to be a viable method in PBL-oriented courses because of its focus on real-world problems. However, little is known about how instructors in higher education institutions perceive the importance of and their satisfaction in using authentic assessment in PBL-oriented courses. Specifically, what instructional decisions do they make to guide their students to use authentic assessment tasks to promote assessment for learning and assessment as learning? In this paper, we reported on instructors’ perspectives of using authentic assessment tasks to engage first-year student teachers in an assessment course.