scholarly journals Threshold Concepts in Neuroscience: Identification Challenges, Educational Opportunities and Recommendations for Practice

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Sandrone ◽  
Kambiz N. Alavian
Keyword(s):  
Medical Education ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
Threshold Concepts ◽  
Translational Neuroscience ◽  
Threshold Concept ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Stem Disciplines ◽  
Neuroscience Education ◽  
Recommendations For Practice

Threshold concepts are recent, yet already established, aspects of medical education. However, they represent a new area in neuroscience education, especially given the recency of neuroscience as a field of research in its own right when compared to more established STEM disciplines. In this article, we reviewed the existing literature on threshold concepts in clinical/translational neuroscience education and argued the relevance and the importance of biomarker as a new threshold concept. Moreover, we included a set of recommendations for practice that has the potential to improve the students' experience by offering them an authentic journey and, ultimately, to build a community of practice with shared goals and an enhanced diversity, with beneficial effects at several societal levels.

scholarly journals P150: Emergency medicine resident perspectives on journal club as a community of practice and its impact on clinical medicine

CJEM ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (S1) ◽  
pp. S110-S110
Author(s):  
D. K. Ting ◽  
B. Bailey ◽  
F. Scheuermeyer ◽  
T. M. Chan ◽  
D. R. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Medicine ◽  
Medical Education ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Journal Club ◽  
Clinical Care ◽  
Pilot Testing ◽  
Emergency Medicine Resident ◽  
Medicine Resident ◽  
Select Group

Introduction: Despite revolutionary changes in the medical education landscape, journal club (JC) continues to be a ubiquitous pedagogical tool and is a primary way that residency programs review new evidence and teach evidence-based medicine. JC is a community of practice among physicians, which may help translate research findings into practice. Program representatives state that JC should have a goal of translating novel research into changes in clinical care, but there has been minimal evaluation of the success of JC in achieving this goal. Specifically, emergency medicine resident perspectives on the utility of JC remain unknown. Methods: We designed a multi-centre qualitative study for three distinct academic environments at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna). Pilot testing was performed to generate preliminary themes and to finalize the interview script. An exploratory, semi-structured focus group was performed, followed by multiple one-on-one interviews using snowball sampling. Iterative thematic analysis directed data collection until thematic sufficiency was achieved. Analysis was conducted using a constructivist Grounded Theory method with communities of practice as a theoretical lens. Themes were compared to the existing literature to corroborate or challenge existing educational theory. Results: Pilot testing has revealed the following primary themes: (1) Only select residents are able to increase their participation in JC over the course of residency and navigate the transition from peripheral participant to core member; (2) These residents use their increased clinical experience to perceive relevance in JC topics, and; (3) Residents who remain peripheral participants identify a lack time to prepare for journal club and a lack of staff physician attendance as barriers to resident engagement. We will further develop these themes during the focus group and interview phases of our study. Conclusion: JC is a potentially valuable educational resource for residents. JC works as a community of practice only for a select group of residents, and many remain peripheral participants for the duration of their residency. Incorporation of Free Open-Access Medical Education resources may also decrease preparation time for residents and staff physicians and increase buy-in. To augment clinical impact, the JC community of practice may need to expand beyond emergency medicine and include other specialties.

Threshold concepts and pedagogic representation

2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (5) ◽  
pp. 463-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan H.F. Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Critical Flow ◽  
Threshold Concepts ◽  
Research Activity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Threshold Concept ◽  
Individual Contributions ◽  
Final Consideration ◽  
Metacognitive Activity ◽  
The Individual

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a brief exposure to the development of the threshold concepts framework (TCF), the intention being to illuminate for interested readers a broader landscape of research activity than that perhaps conveyed by the individual contributions to this special edition. Design/methodology/approach – There is first an account of how the notion of a “threshold concept” was presented by Meyer and Land in their seminal 2003 paper, and a clarification of some terminology used by them at that time to describe the (confusing for some) “characteristics” of such a concept. A discursive account, with examples, follows on how analyses for, and of, threshold concepts might proceed, and how findings might provoke a reappraisal of associated learning and teaching practices. Towards this end a contemporary pedagogical perspective is introduced based on the construct of integrated threshold concept knowledge (ITCK) as proposed by Meyer and Timmermans (2016). Reference to a detailed case study illustrates the practical dynamics of generating ITCK; specifically in the context of a third-year engineering course embedding the threshold of “critical flow”. Activities and processes, transferable to other discipline contexts, are described that yield particular elements of ITCK (different constituent “types of knowledge”) in relation, in this case, to “critical flow”. A final consideration is the “representation” of “critical flow” for pedagogical purposes in the form of a metacognitive activity for learning and formative assessment purposes that is, again, adaptable to other discipline contexts. Findings – There are no specific findings in this paper as its purpose is to provide a condensed review of the development of the TCF. Originality/value – This value of this paper is that it provides a contemporary expert exposure to the development of the TCF by the originator of the notion of a threshold concept.

scholarly journals Threshold Concepts in Medical Education

MedEdPublish ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia Randall ◽  
Robert Brooks ◽  
Agnes Montgomery ◽  
Lauren McNally
Keyword(s):  
Medical Education ◽  
Threshold Concepts

scholarly journals Can semiotics be used to drive paradigm changes in medical education?

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-516
Author(s):  
John Tredinnick-Rowe
Keyword(s):  
Medical Education ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Charles Sanders Peirce ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Paradigm Change ◽  
Threshold Concepts ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
Medical Educator ◽  
Situational Ethics ◽  
Scholastic Philosophy

This essay sets out to explain how educational semiotics as a discipline can be used to reform medical education and assessment. This is in response to an ongoing paradigm shift in medical education and assessment that seeks to integrate more qualitative, ethical and professional aspects of medicine into curricula, and develop ways to assess them. This paper suggests that a method to drive this paradigm change might be found in the Peircean idea of suprasubjectivity. This semiotic concept is rooted in the scholastic philosophy of John of St Thomas, but has been reintroduced to modern semiotics through the works of John Deely, Alin Olteanu and, most notably, Charles Sanders Peirce. I approach this task as both a medical educator and a semiotician. In this paper, I provide background information about medical education, paradigm shifts, and the concept of suprasubjectivity in relation to modern educational semiotic literature. I conclude by giving examples of what a suprasubjective approach to medical education and assessment might look like. I do this by drawing an equivalence between the notion of threshold concepts and suprasubjectivity, demonstrating the similarities between their positions. Fundamentally, medical education suffers from tensions of teaching trainee doctors the correct balance of biological science and situational ethics/ judgement. In the transcendence of mind-dependent and mind-independent being the scholastic philosophy of John of St Thomas may be exactly the solution medicine needs to overcome this dichotomy.

Poverty, vulnerability, and the role of responsible management education in a post-COVID world

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Geri Mason ◽  
Al Rosenbloom
Keyword(s):  
Student Learning ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Threshold Concepts ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business Context ◽  
Threshold Concept ◽  
Cognitive Frames ◽  
Constructive Alignment ◽  
Responsible Management

Purpose This paper aims to discuss the consequences for responsible management education and learning (RMEL) as an enduring feature of the post-COVID-19 world: increased inequality and increased vulnerable individuals living in poverty. Because of this, responsible management education and learning (RMEL) must integrate poverty as a threshold concept on which students’ cognitive frame is built. Design/methodology/approach This paper advocates for poverty to be taught as a multidimensional threshold concept that encompasses a person’s freedoms and capabilities, in addition to their income (Sen, 1999). Further, this paper provides a framework for integration into all curricula grounded in RMEL’s unique domain of inquiry and study: the integration of ethics, responsibility and sustainability. Findings Threshold concepts transform student learning in durable, immutable ways. When poverty is taught as such, students develop more elaborate poverty cognitive frames that they can apply across their entire course of study. This paper describes how to: (1) reframe poverty as a threshold concept; (2) apply Biggs’ (2003) framework of constructive alignment to assure the integrity of course learning objectives and the curriculum; (3) create poverty-related assignments that are emotionally engaging and relevant for students (Dart, 2008); and (4) use this proposed framework of including poverty in business classes. Research limitations/implications Without an integrated multidimensional understanding of poverty, students will not emerge as managers competent in addressing these critical issues from within a business context (Grimm,2020). It will be imperative in future research to evaluate the outcomes of doing so and to determine whether this solution creates responsible managers more competent in addressing poverty-rooted issues. Originality/value This paper brings together two elements of student learning central to understanding poverty: threshold concepts and cognitive frames. This paper also uses Biggs’ (2003) constructive alignment framework to assure that curricular and course changes have both internal coherence and explicit learning outcomes.

scholarly journals P018: Journal club functions as a community of practice that safeguards quality assurance in the era of free open access medical education: a qualitative study

CJEM ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (S1) ◽  
pp. S70-S71
Author(s):  
D. Ting ◽  
B. Bailey ◽  
F. Scheuermeyer ◽  
T. Chan ◽  
D. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Medical Education ◽  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Open Access ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Medical Literature ◽  
Practical Wisdom ◽  
Journal Club ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
New Literature

Introduction: The ways in which Emergency Medicine (EM) physicians interact with the medical literature has been transformed with the rise of Free Open Access Medical Education (FOAM). Although nearly all residents use FOAM resources, some criticize the lack of universal quality assurance. This problem is a particular risk for trainees who have many time constraints and incompletely developed critical appraisal skills. One potential safeguard is journal club, which is used by virtually all EM residency programs in North America to review new literature. However, EM resident perspectives have not been studied. Our research objective was to describe how residents perceive journal club to influence how they translate the medical literature into their clinical practice. Our research question was whether FOAM has influenced residents’ goals and perceived value of journal club. Methods: We developed a semi-structured interview script in conjunction with a methods expert and refined it via pilot testing. Following constructivist grounded theory, and using both purposive and theoretical sampling, we conducted a focus group (n = 7) and 18 individual interviews with EM residents at the 4 training sites of the University of British Columbia. In total, we analyzed 920 minutes of recorded audio. Two authors independently coded each transcript, with discrepancies reconciled by discussion and consensus. Constant comparative analysis was performed. We conducted return of findings through public presentations. Results: We found evidence that journal club works as a community of practice with a progression of roles from junior to senior residents. Participants described journal club as a safe venue to compare practice patterns and to gain insight into the practical wisdom of their peers and mentors. The social and academic activities present at journal club interacted positively to foster this environment. In asking residents about ways that journal club accelerates knowledge translation, we actually found that residents cite journal club as a quality check to prevent premature adoption of new research findings. Residents are hesitant to adopt new literature into their practice without positive validation, which can occur during journal club. Conclusion: Journal club functions as a community of practice that is valued by residents. Journal club is a primary way that new evidence can be validated before being put into practice, and may act as quality assurance in the era of FOAM.

The potential of threshold concepts: an emerging framework for educational research and practice

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ursula Lucas ◽  
Rosina Mladenovic
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Education Research ◽  
Educational Research ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Higher Education Research ◽  
Threshold Concepts ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Threshold Concept ◽  
Introductory Accounting

This paper explores the notion of a 'threshold concept' and discusses its possible implications for higher education research and practice. Using the case of introductory accounting as an illustration, it is argued that the idea of a threshold concept provides an emerging theoretical framework for a 're-view' of educational research and practice. It is argued that this re-view both demands and supports several forms of dialogue about educational research and practice: within the disciplines (between lecturers and between lecturers and students) and between lecturers and educational developers. Finally, it is suggested that, rather than representing a research field in its own right, the threshold concepts framework may act as a catalyst, drawing together a variety of fields of research in a productive educative framework.

scholarly journals Crossing the Threshold: Bringing Biological Variation to the Foreground

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. es9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet M. Batzli ◽  
Jennifer K. Knight ◽  
Laurel M. Hartley ◽  
April Cordero Maskiewicz ◽  
Elizabeth A. Desy
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Inquiry ◽  
Biological Variation ◽  
Threshold Concepts ◽  
Threshold Concept ◽  
Targeted Instruction ◽  
Core Concepts ◽  
Curricular Decisions

Threshold concepts have been referred to as “jewels in the curriculum”: concepts that are key to competency in a discipline but not taught explicitly. In biology, researchers have proposed the idea of threshold concepts that include such topics as variation, randomness, uncertainty, and scale. In this essay, we explore how the notion of threshold concepts can be used alongside other frameworks meant to guide instructional and curricular decisions, and we examine the proposed threshold concept of variation and how it might influence students’ understanding of core concepts in biology focused on genetics and evolution. Using dimensions of scientific inquiry, we outline a schema that may allow students to experience and apply the idea of variation in such a way that it transforms their future understanding and learning of genetics and evolution. We encourage others to consider the idea of threshold concepts alongside the Vision and Change core concepts to provide a lens for targeted instruction and as an integrative bridge between concepts and competencies.

scholarly journals Future of Neurology & Technology: Virtual and Augmented Reality in Neurology and Neuroscience Education: Applications and Curricular Strategies

Neurology ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 10.1212/WNL.0000000000012413
Author(s):  
Stefano Sandrone ◽  
Chad E Carlson
Keyword(s):  
Medical Education ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Augmented Reality ◽  
Traditional Learning ◽  
Learning Methods ◽  
Neuroscience Education ◽  
The World ◽  
Virtual And Augmented Reality ◽  
Barriers And Opportunities

Virtual reality and augmented reality have become increasingly prevalent in our lives. They are changing the way we see and interact with the world and have started percolating medical education. In this article, we reviewed key applications of virtual and augmented realities in neurology and neuroscience education, and discussed barriers and opportunities for implementation in the curriculum. Although long-term benefits of these approaches over more traditional learning methods and the optimal curricular balance remain mostly unexplored, virtual and augmented reality can change how we teach neurology and neuroscience.

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