Authentic assessment, “the mimicking of work tasks” is widely considered a good way to prepare students for work – but what it is; how it works; and which benefits it provides are open questions.
Rola Ajjawi (Deakin U) and colleagues suggest a broader perspective, “authenticity in assessment” will help.
“Authenticity cannot be completely unmoored from the reality of workplaces, the demands of the discipline, and the overall intended learning outcomes, however, a restricted view of how these aspects are represented in assessment can limit the sector’s ability to prepare graduates who can engage with and shape the changing world,” they argue.
To address this, they propose three issues for assessing authenticity in assessment rather than grading a task as either authentic, or not.
- psychological authenticity: learners judge authenticity for themselves … Educators should highlight relevant features of assessment tasks that could contribute to authenticity, including how it relates to learners’ values and goals
- ontological fidelity: “learners experience authenticity through tasks that are storied and embodied with real people and places, and tasks through which they can identify their becoming selves”
- authenticity and complex social practice: “genuine explanations and dialogue support tasks to resonate with the complexity and ambiguity of the practice world”
Overall, they suggest, a shift from authentic assessment made up of tasks, to authenticity in assessment, which can make for transformation in assessment design, being a quality of processes students engage in, rather than a quality of the assessment task.
* Rola Ajjawi, Joanna Tai, Mollie Dollinger, Phillip Dawson, David Boud, Margaret Bearman,
“From authentic assessment to authenticity in assessment” broadening perspectives,” Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, October 19,
