Context, Competency and Authenticity in STEM Education

This Research Full Paper presents work which links a consideration of the concept of context with that of learning competency and that of educational authenticity in STEM subjects. The word “context” is very familiar in both everyday language and in educational settings. However, because of its ubiquity, it is often taken for granted that both educators and students know what it means, and how it is being used. This paper reviews the concept of context, using the typology developed by Dohn et al. We draw attention to the way in which this can be applied to the notion of competence, specifically, the competence framework developed by Frezza et al, and consider how the concept underlies the idea of authentic learning. We argue that a clear understanding of authenticity depends critically on both students and academics being able to discriminate between the different types of contexts that occur in authentic assessment processes, such as projects based on real-world scenarios. We also consider contextual categories when describing the different ways in which learning can be transferred.