Since the first literature about the Threshold Concepts Framework was published in 2003, a considerable body of educational research into this topic has grown internationally across a wide range of disciplines and professional fields. Successful negotiation of a threshold concept can be seen as crossing boundaries into new conceptual space, or as a portal opening up new and previously inaccessible ways of thinking about something. In this unfamiliar conceptual terrain, fresh insights and perceptions come into view, and access is gained to new discourses. This frequently entails encounters with ‘troublesome knowledge’, knowledge which provokes a liminal phase of transition in which new understandings must be integrated and, importantly, prior conceptions relinquished. There is often double trouble, in that letting go of a prevailing familiar view frequently involves a discomfiting change in the subjectivity of the learner. We become what we know. It is a space in which the learner might become ‘stuck’.
Threshold Concepts on the Edge, the fifth volume in a series on this subject, discusses the new directions of this research. Its six sections address issues that arise in relation to theoretical development, liminal space, ontological transformations, curriculum, interdisciplinarity and aspects of writing across learning thresholds.
23 Beginning to See the Connection between Everything
24 Understanding Writing Transfer as a Threshold Concept across the Disciplines
25 Edging towards the Threshold Concept of Autonomy in Language Learning and Teaching through a MOOC Blend
Back Matter
Index
Julie A. Timmermans, Ph.D., is Senior Lecturer in the Higher Education Development Centre, University of Otago, New Zealand. She publishes in the areas of higher education and academic development.
Ray Land, Ph.D., is Emeritus Professor of Higher Education and Emeritus Fellow of University College at Durham University, UK. He is co-founder of the Threshold Concepts Framework and has published widely in educational research, academic development and quality enhancement.
Preface
Acknowledgements
List of Figures and Tables
Notes on Contributors
Part 1: Theoretical Directions
1. The Labyrinth Within: Threshold Concepts, Archetype and Myth
Ray Land 2. At the Troublesome Edge of Recognising Threshold Concepts of Online Teaching: A Proposed Learning Threshold Identification Methodology
Maria Northcote, Kevin P. Gosselin, Peter Kilgour, Catherine McLoughlin, Chris Boddey and Kerrie Boddey 3. Caution! Theories at Play! Threshold Concepts and Decoding the Disciplines
Leah Shopkow and Joan Middendorf 4. Embedding Affect in the Threshold Concepts Framework
Julie A. Timmermans and Jan H. F. Meyer
Part 2: Liminal Space
5. Vygotsky, Threshold Concepts and Liminality: Using Vygotsky to Illuminate the Edge of Conceptual Understanding
Rachel Thompson and Michael Michell 6. Analysing Discourse in the Liminal Space: Talking Our Way through It
Susie Cowley-Haselden 7. Intensive Mode Teaching Explained Using Threshold Concepts
Sally A. Male, Stuart Crispin and Phil Hancock 8. Edging towards Understanding: Illuminating Student Experiences of Liminality in Introductory Sociology
Alison M. Thomas 9. Bringing the Apple and Holding up the Mirror: Liminal Space and Transformation in Visual Art Making
Matthew J. Ravenstahl and Julie Rattray 10. The Student Scholar Identity: Using Students’ Reflective Work to Develop Student-Scholars, Address Liminality, and Design Curriculum
Yvonne Nalani Meulemans, Allison Carr and Torie Quiñonez
Part 3: Ontological Transformations
11. ‘… ’Cause Soon Now, It Will Be Real …’: Medical Simulation as Change Space in Interprofessional Training
Leif Martin Hokstad and Stine Gundrosen 12. Threshold Concepts and the Ontology of Professional Identity in Human Services Curriculum Design: A Case Example
Jackie Stokes, Vicki Bruce and Tanya Pawliuk 13. Threshold Concepts: Strategies for Assisting Doctoral Candidates to Learn to be Researchers
Margaret Kiley
Part 4: Curriculum
14. Threshold Concepts as Pathways through Ancient Religion: Curriculum as Initiation
Jason P. Davies 15. Threshold Concepts at the Sharp Edge: Entrepreneurship Curriculum Redesign
Lucy Hatt 16. Information Literacy and Liberal Education: From Google to Scholarly Sources
D. Bruce MacKay and Nicole C. Eva 17. Curriculum on the Edge: Designing for Liminality in Learning Activities: A Case Illustration in Search Expertise
Virginia M. Tucker 18. Threshold Concepts in the Applied Mathematics BSc Programme: A Structural Comparison with Threshold Concepts in the Computer Science BSc Programme
Bert Zwaneveld and Hans Sterk
Part 5: Crossing Disciplines
19. Exploring Threshold Concepts on the Edge: Learning, Teaching and Assessment Practices
Shannon Murray, Anne Marie Ryan and Brad Wuetherick 20. Investigating Threshold Concepts in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and the Influence of Disciplinary Background on the Research Process
Andrea S. Webb and Anne M. Tierney 21. Diversity, Hybridity and New Revelations in Conceptual Threshold Crossings in Cross-Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Research Learning Gina Wisker
Part 6: Writing across Thresholds
22. Naming What We Know (in Writing Studies): Engaging Troublesome Trends in Educational Policy and Practice Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle 23. Beginning to See the Connection between Everything: Developing Scholarly Identity in Writing Studies through Threshold Concepts Erika Hawkes and Tekla Hawkins 24. Understanding Writing Transfer as a Threshold Concept across the Disciplines Jessie L. Moore and Peter Felten 25. Edging towards the Threshold Concept of Autonomy in Language Learning and Teaching through a MOOC Blend: Becoming Autonomous Learners and Teachers Marina Orsini-Jones, Shooq Altamimi and Barbara Conde Gafaro
Index
Teachers, learners, academic developers, and curriculum developers in post-secondary education; people interested in understanding transformative learning, ontological shifts, conceptual difficulty and change.