Threshold Concepts: A discipline-based approach to learning and design Photo: Andrei Ceru

Introduction Aims Background/context to threshold concepts research Characteristics of threshold concepts Threshold concepts in the field – What concepts arise in different disciplines Threshold concepts and learning activities Curriculum design Photo: Andrei Ceru

Session aims Overall aim: The aim of this workshop is to help participants … learn about ‘threshold concepts’ and ‘troublesome knowledge’ consider what threshold concepts might exist in their discipline design a learning activity around a threshold concept in their field Redesign an undergraduate curriculum with threshold concepts in mind Photo: Kathleen Cohen

Background to threshold concept research Strongly discipline-focused: Initially engineering, history, biology, economics Arose from ETL (Enhancing Teaching-Learning Environments in Undergraduate Courses) project – ESRC-funded ‘threshold’ concepts emerged in all the subjects being studied Initial research involved academics and students from a number of UK universities – Threshold concepts have been topic of a number of international conferences Photo: Don Nelson

Activity: recalling a difficult learning experience Photo: Don Nelson Think back to your time as a learner in your subject. Try to remember a key concept or theory that you struggled with. Please make some notes about the concept/theory and the experience of learning it.

Threshold knowledge as a portal ‘A threshold concept can be considered as akin to a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something. It represents a transformed way of understanding, or interpreting, or viewing something without which the learner cannot progress. As a consequence of comprehending a threshold concept, there may thus be a transformed internal view of subject matter, subject landscape, or even world view.’ (Meyer and Land, 2003) Photo: Andrei Ceru

Some characteristics of threshold concepts Transformative – once understood, they should shift one’s perception of the subject Irreversible – cannot be ‘unlearned’ Integrative – has the capacity to ‘expose a hidden interrelatedness’ Troublesome - potentially counter-intuitive. 'In grasping a threshold concept a student moves from a common sense understanding to an understanding which may conflict with perceptions that have previously seemed self- evidently true.’ (Davies, 2003) Photo: Kathleen Cohen

Troublesome knowledge knowledge that is difficult to teach and difficult to learn but which offers the learner a new perspective on the topic and, potentially, the discipline. Troublesome knowledge might also require new use of language and shifts in understanding. It may also take a learner deeper into the subject. Aim is not to elide or avoid, but rather to acknowledge troublesome knowledge. Land, 2008 and Perkins, 1999 Photo: Andrei Ceru

Liminal spaces Suspended and transformative space that a learner occupies by moving from one state or position to another Can be a space in which someone engages with previously held beliefs/certainties and renders them problematic Often unsettling Land and Meyer 2008; Land 2010 Photo: Andrei Ceru

Activity: initial responses Please watch the interview with Glynis Cousin. Glynis Cousin Interview – What is your initial response to Glynis’ account of threshold concepts? – Does anything in your background as a learner or a teacher resonate with her account of threshold concepts? Photo: Andrei Ceru

Threshold concepts in the disciplines SubjectThreshold Concept English literatureDeconstruction; hegemony; signification EconomicsOpportunity cost, the margin MathsLimit, complex number Electrical engineeringFrequency response Computer scienceObject-oriented programming (OOP); memory/pointers, state Academic literaciesWriting as a social practice Cultural studies; sociologyOtherness AccountingDepreciation EngineeringSpin Politics‘the state’ Land 2010; Land et al 2008; Meyer and Land, 2003

Activity: identifying threshold concepts in your discipline Consider the threshold concepts on the handout from your discipline (or cognate discipline) – Do you agree with the categorisation? Please identify up to 3 additional threshold concepts in your field. Please discuss your findings with colleagues from similar disciplines. Photo: Andrei Cero

Learning and threshold concepts How can we use threshold concepts to design learning activities? Please see handout with case study and examples.

Activity: designing a learning activity around a threshold concept Please take a threshold concept from your discipline (from the handout or one that you’ve identified) Spend some time drafting a learning activity (or a series of activities) around the concept Share the idea with up to four other people. Photo: Kathleen Cohen

Threshold concepts and curriculum design ‘The role of the teacher is to arrange victories for the students.’ Quintilian AD Cited in Land 2010 Photo: Kathleen Cohen

Using threshold concepts to guide curriculum design ‘Jewels in the curriculum’ – see the threshold concepts as points of transformation; build the curriculum around them Allow space for confusion ‘Recursiveness and excursiveness’ – Learners might have to revisit and doubleback while engaging with a threshold concept (Cousin, 2006 drawing on Land et al. 2006) Photo: Andrei Ceru

Curriculum design task How could you use an awareness of threshold concepts for curriculum design? Please take a curriculum (either from a single module, a year or an entire degree). Consider where the core threshold concepts appear in the curriculum/curricula. Are there ways in which you could reorganise the curriculum having identified threshold concepts? Photo: Kathleen Cohen

References Cousin, G. (2006) ‘An Introduction to threshold concepts’ Davies, P. (2003) Threshold Concepts: how can we recognise them? Embedding Threshold Concepts project: Working Paper 1 Embedding Threshold Concepts Project Land, R. (2010) ‘Threshold Concepts and Issues of Interdisciplinarity’.Third Biennial Threshold Concepts Symposium: Exploring transformative dimensions of threshold concepts: The University of New South Wales Australia, Land, R.; Meyer, J. and Smith, J. (2008) Threshold Concepts within the Disciplines. Rotterdam: Sense. Meyer, J. and Land, R. (2003) ’Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Practising within the Disciplines’. ETL Project Report No Perkins, D. (2006) ‘Constructivism and troublesome knowledge. In JHF Meyer and R Land (Eds) Overcoming barriers to student understanding: Threshold Concepts and troublesome knowledge. London: Routledge. Perkins, D. (1999). ‘The many faces of constructivism’, Educational Leadership, 57 (3).