Authentic assessment in stem education: an integrative review of research

Authenticity is the cornerstone of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education activities and pedagogies. In this chapter, we extend this to contend that authentic assessment is the cornerstone of STEM education assessment. Although authentic assessment is an ill-defined concept with a conflation of terms, we adopt the definition of authentic assessment as activities engaging students in authentic inquiry processes involving higher order thinking skills relating to the real world. STEM education also experiences a conflation of terminology around its name and meaning. Some see STEM education as the sum of four silos, but to others it is transdisciplinary, emphasizing the connections between disciplines. This raises the dilemma of how to assess STEM education. This integrative review focuses on the literature (empirical studies, professional practice and theoretical papers) that considers authentic assessment in STEM education and analyses how authentic assessment is defined and conceptualized in terms of constituent components in STEM education.