SWOT as a threshold concept: A case study of the problems encountered with threshold concepts

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (1) ◽  
pp. 14101
Author(s):  
Geoffrey G Bell ◽  
Linda Rochford
Keyword(s):  
Threshold Concepts ◽  
Threshold Concept

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.

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.

Instruction through virtual reference: mapping the ACRL framework

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-257
Author(s):  
Rebecca Hill Renirie
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Academic Librarians ◽  
Threshold Concepts ◽  
Virtual Reference ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research Libraries ◽  
Instructional Content ◽  
Effective Use ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine teaching intent of information literacy threshold concepts via asynchronous reference transactions. Instructional content in academic librarians’ replies to research requests are analyzed for and mapped to threshold concepts contained in the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) framework. Design/methodology/approach The author mapped the instructional content of a research request reply template to the content of the ACRL framework, then took a random sample of research requests using the template during the calendar year 2016. Additional instructional content provided in the sample replies was also mapped to the framework. Findings In providing written instruction for students to create searches from keywords and search subject-specific databases, every frame is at least partially addressed in the template except Scholarship as Conversation. However, individual librarians adapt the template to teach as needed and there are examples in this case study of teaching aspects of all six frames asynchronously. Practical implications This study provides support for librarians to teach the threshold concepts of the ACRL framework asynchronously at the point of need during virtual reference, and the effective use of a research reply template to accomplish this instruction. Originality/value Few recent studies examine instructional intent in asynchronous/email reference. This study examines teaching the ACRL framework via reference rather than instructional sessions. A portion of this research was presented as a poster at the 2017 ACRL Conference in Baltimore, Maryland.

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 Introduction: Threshold Concepts in the Undergraduate Biblical Studies Classroom

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-60
Author(s):  
Thomas Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Strategy ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Special Topic ◽  
Threshold Concepts ◽  
Threshold Concept ◽  
Troublesome Knowledge

This Special Topic section of the journal includes an essay by John Van Maaren, “Transformative Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge,” followed by three companion essays by Richard S. Ascough, Tat-siong Benny Liew, and Jocelyn McWhirter, each of which describes a particular teaching strategy the author uses to address a key threshold concept in biblical studies courses.

scholarly journals At the threshold: A case study of a partnership between a student organization and an educational development center

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie DeLane Doktor ◽  
Dorothe Bach ◽  
Sophia Abbot ◽  
Jacob Hardin
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Academic Development ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Threshold Concepts ◽  
Student Organization ◽  
Development Unit ◽  
Development Center ◽  
Role Confusion ◽  
Improving Teaching And Learning

This article offers a case study about the collaboration between a student-led organization and an academic development unit dedicated to improving teaching and learning at [Institution 2]. We describe the genesis of our collaboration, how we nurtured and developed it over time into a substantive program, and what we learned in the process. While most existing case studies focus on partnerships between students and faculty, we turn the lens inward and investigate the challenges involved in enacting an “ethic of reciprocity” (Cook-Sather and Felten, 2017) in a partnership between an academic development center and a student organization.  Using the analytical framework of threshold concepts, we explore the rocky navigating of issues of trust, vulnerability, role confusion, the notion of expertise, and pre-existing power inequalities to move towards a more collaborative and equitable partnership.

scholarly journals Investigation of the relevance of the notion of a threshold concept within generic learning development work

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Edwards
Keyword(s):  
World View ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Development Work ◽  
Threshold Concepts ◽  
Learning Tools ◽  
Collaborative Relationships ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Threshold Concept ◽  
Powerful Learning ◽  
Learning Development

Since the term 'threshold concept' was applied within economics (Meyer and Land, 2003), its relevance has been demonstrated within disciplines ranging from biology (Taylor, 2006); to communication, culture, and media (Cousin, 2006); accounting (Lucas and Mladenovic, 2006); and philosophy (Booth, 2006). Grasping a threshold concept has been described as 'opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something' and gaining 'a transformed internal view of subject matter, subject landscape, or even world view' (Meyer and Land, 20061, p.3).In previous issues of this journal, Rust (2009) and Cousin (2010) have proposed that, by highlighting the relevance of threshold concepts within the course content of academic disciplines, we can support learning development work by academics within their departments. Cousin (2010) suggests that our acknowledgement of this particular contribution that academics can make to learning development work, may pave the way for more collaborative relationships between learning developers and academics. If threshold concepts are of such widespread relevance, and can be such powerful learning tools, it would be a shame if their potential were to be explored solely within academic disciplines. This article therefore swivels the spotlight back onto the field of generic learning development, and investigates the relevance of the notion of a threshold concept to study skills development across, rather than solely within, the academic disciplines.

scholarly journals Biological Variation as a Threshold Concept: Can We Measure Threshold Crossing?

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. ar36
Author(s):  
Elise Walck-Shannon ◽  
Janet Batzli ◽  
Josh Pultorak ◽  
Hailey Boehmer
Keyword(s):  
Curriculum Design ◽  
Biological Variation ◽  
Word Choice ◽  
Threshold Concepts ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Threshold Concept ◽  
Threshold Crossing ◽  
Cross Sectional Design

Threshold concepts are fundamental to a discipline and, once understood, transform students’ understanding and perception of the subject. Despite the value of threshold concepts as a learning “portal” for heuristic purposes, there is limited empirical evidence of threshold crossing or achieving mastery. As a threshold concept, biological variation within species is fundamental to understanding evolution and provides a target for analyzing threshold crossing. We aimed to 1) examine student understanding of variation using four dimensions of a threshold concept (discursive, troublesome, liminal, and integrative), 2) measure “threshold crossing,” and 3) investigate the utility of the threshold concept framework to curriculum design. We conducted semistructured interviews of 29 students affiliated with a “variation-enriched” curriculum in a cross-sectional design with precurriculum, current, and postcurriculum groups (Pre, Current, and Post) and an outgroup of three postbaccalaureate advanced learners (Outgroup). Interview transcripts revealed that Current students expand their “variation discourse,” while the Post group and Outgroup displayed conformity in word choice about variation. The Post and Current groups displayed less troublesome and more integrative responses. Pre, Post, and Outgroup explanations’ revealed liminality, with discomfort and uncertainty regardless of accuracy. When we combined all four threshold concept dimensions for each respondent, patterns indicative of threshold crossing emerged along with new insight regarding curricular design.

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