Personal Authenticity for Engagement and Transfer in Introductory Cybersecurity Education

Abstract—This conceptual/theoretical paper explores how personal authenticity might promote generative learning in introductory cybersecurity courses. Generative learning transfers confidently to future educational, professional, personal, and testing situations. This cycle of design-based research addresses the concern that more typical professionally authentic contexts (e.g., hospitals, banks, etc.) may be alien and overwhelming to many students, particularly those in introductory courses and/or from non-professional families and communities. If so, this leads to “inert” knowledge that does not transfer. Personal authenticity is rooted in expansive framing, a modern theory of learning transfer. We reframe expansive framing as personal authenticity to make it more accessible and to highlight the contrast with professional authenticity. The paper offers two design cases of personally authentic cybersecurity instruction (one actual and one hypothetical). The paper then uses these examples to shed light on five theoretical explanations of why such personally authentic and expansively framed instruction might transfer more readily than professionally authentic instruction or traditional “direct” instruction (where contexts are introduced after the “basics” have been mastered). The paper’s ultimate goals are to (a) encourage cybersecurity and computing educators to explore personal authenticity, (b) introduce a theoretical framework and assessment strategies for studying personal authenticity, and (c) help cybersecurity and computing educators and educational researchers understand the implications of newer “situated” theories of cognition.