Authentic Learning in Action: Adopting the Guest Lecture Route to Promote Student Engagement and Deep Learning

Rajah, Edwin, Knight, Helena, Wood, Bronwyn P. and Chikwa, Gladson ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8707-8147 (2025) Authentic Learning in Action: Adopting the Guest Lecture Route to Promote Student Engagement and Deep Learning. In: Innovations in Pedagogical Practice and Curriculum Development in Higher Education: Contemporary Global Perspectives. Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 45-60. ISBN 9781835495063

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Abstract

Authentic learning is a student-centred approach that enables students to learn by doing through active engagement that reflects a real-life situation. This study sought to explore the impact of introducing authentic learning through a guest lecture strategy in an undergraduate first-level marketing course to enhance deep learning and to stimulate students’ interest in studying marketing at a public university in the Sultanate of Oman. We propose adopting a guest lecture approach framed within a cognitive authenticity perspective to thread authentic learning into a group assessment in an introductory marketing course to provide a link to the ‘real world’ for marketing students in an undergraduate degree programme. Within the socio-cultural context in Oman, the guest lecture approach enabled through a cognitive authenticity perspective provides a tempered approach for bringing a degree of reality into the classroom. From student responses, our findings for the context of this study reveal that many of the students perceived this form of learning to be engaging and motivating and contributed to deep learning compared to didactic forms of learning. The study, therefore, lends support to the notion that students had a positive experience with authentic, applied learning environments. This chapter provides guidance for those keen to embedded authentic learning in their practice.