1. Threshold concept approach to curriculum design

2. stuffing curriculum with content vs focusing on what is fundamental Contrast

3. ‘less is more’ approach to curriculum design

4. concepts that are central to the mastery of a subject

5. portals to new ways of thinking

6. Mathematics: Algebraic notation X 2 = 1 X = 1 or X = -1

7. Y = X 2

8. Cookery: Heat transfer + immediately wait a few minutes then +

9. Sports Science: Aquatic confidence Gaining confidence in the water Appreciation of water as a sporting environment

10. Characteristics Transformative - shift in perception of the subject Irreversible - unlikely to be forgotten Integrative - exposes previously hidden interrelatedness Bounded - might define frontier into new area Troublesome knowledge - counter-intuitive, alien, incoherent

11. Oscillation between old and new understandings Occupation of liminal space while mastering threshold concept

12. E-learning lends itself to required: excursion recursion digression

13. Meyer, J. and Land, R. (2003) Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Practising within the Disciplines, Occasional Report 4, Edinburgh: ETL Project Available at: http://www.tla.ed.ac.uk/etl/docs/ETLreport4.pdf Reference

14. What (in this subject): As a learner – did you find hard? As a teacher – do some students never seem to learn? As a designer – do students have to grasp to move on to higher levels of understanding?