Defining authentic assessment towards its achievement and implementation in seafarer education and training

As evidenced from past research presented in this paper, seafarerstudents and employers are dissatisfied with traditionalassessment methods in its ability to engage students in learningand develop skills for transfer from classrooms to the workplace.Although authentic assessments conducted in real world contextsmay provide a possible solution, there is a dearth of research on itin the area of seafarer education and training (SET). Moreover, theStandards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping (STCW)Code 1995, that provides global, minimum standards ofcompetence, overlooks to include authentic assessment as amethod for demonstrating competence. Hence, to enhance theunderstanding of authentic assessment towards achieving it inSET, this paper expands on the individual characteristics providedby major authors that in combination define the concept. Thecharacteristics are categorised under ‘tasks’ and ‘processes’ thatresult in the ‘outcomes’ of: higher student engagement, ability totransfer skills to different contexts, contextual and multipleevidence of competence, and valid (relevant to workplace) andreliable (multiple and consistent) student performance. Futureresearch will design authentic assessments in SET using thedefined characteristics and collect empirical evidence towards itsimpact on seafarer student learning and skills development.