Authentic tasks are an attempt to structure the learning environment and assessment of learning to incorporate behaviors that are needed in more complex, real-world situations. However, locating a country on an atlas given its name, is relatively more authentic. But focusing on more complex, authentic performances usually also implies focusing on higher-order cognitive skills. To write objectives and assessments that do not focus on trivial details we need to go back to a topic that I glossed over last time, the multiple levels of cognitive objectives. Objectives written at the knowledge level require the student to remember or recall information such as facts, terminology, problem-solving strategies, and rules.
Objectives written at the comprehension level require some degree of understanding.
Objectives written at the application level require the student to use previously acquired information in a setting other than the one in which it was learned. Application objectives differ from comprehension objectives in that application requires the presentation of a problem in a different and often applied context. Objectives written at the analysis level require the student to identify logical errors or to differentiate among facts, opinions, assumptions, hypotheses, and conclusions. Students are expected to draw relationships among ideas and to compare and contrast. Objectives written at the synthesis level require the student to produce something unique or original.