Threshold Concepts, Jared and Aperture Science Laboratories.
I haven't posted in a while, my partner and I had a baby, called Jared :)
However I'll keep my baby talk to personal networks, in this post I'd like to reflect on a recent session I had with a course I'm undertaking at my institution. The course is PgC in Academic Practice and this weeks session was around 'Designing for Learning' specifically looking at 'Threshold Concepts'.
The term was coined in 2003 with the following definition:
Before I get into it, I'll lay down the task for the session. Basically we had a couple of hours to think of a threshold concept in our teaching, either new or what we currently do. We then had to purchase (max of £5) something to represent the concept to aid in visually grasping the idea or concept. We then had to present our ideas to the rest of the group, not in a lecturer space, in the local cafe, coffee included!
I'd recently given a workshop on 'Social Media for Researchers'. A couple of examples of threshold concepts sprung to mind looking back at the workshop. Firstly shifting the context for learners on how social media can be transmogrified from a common view of a tool for friends and family, to an incredibly powerful resource for learning through the creation of a Personal Learning Network (PLN). I believe learners when showed an example of sourcing previously unknown knowledge in their discipline, jump through this 'portal' and are granted a chance to have their own light-bulb moment.
Secondly and I think more importantly though is the joined up networking I suggest in the workshop. It's fine having multiple social networks, pushing your thoughts and research out in multiple forms. However it's a little clumsy, managing the multiple platforms and articulating your thoughts in the different mediums. Facebook for example you can write a lot of text, the same can't be said for Twitter, capped at 140 characters. I encourage the learners to have hub. A central place they dump their findings and thoughts, a blog for example. Here they direct all those social networks to, there are even tools that allow you to do this autonomously.
This is what I decided to visually represent for the session, myself and a colleague dashed into town to the local supermarket and I sourced the perfect tool to show what I meant:
Fun with Gears is a little toy I found for exactly £5. It demonstrated exactly what I meant about joined up social networks. Each gear I gave to a social network, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc etc
But it was only until I put the middle cog in with the handle on, or in this case, representing the blog, that the whole geared machine worked in unison.
The session gave me the opportunity to not think about threshold concepts as something to stroke my chin about or in fact worry about. It gave me an opportunity to shift some focus on some of the support I give people. To focus on that troublesome knowledge and work my activities around getting the students to leap through that portal. I'll certainly revisit some of my workshops I facilitate to see if there already opportunities available to expand on or at least make room make sure there are.
I loved the idea of presenting in a local cafe! Some people didn't like the fact that it was noisy, or the fact it was recorded on a mobile phone, a bit antithetical to traditional educational settings. But I enjoyed it, I feel it helps reinforce the fact, as educators, we should have the ability to adapt and explore new methods of teaching.
I'm not quite Chell, and I haven't found any companion cubes yet, but this is only level 1. I've got a long way to go!
However I'll keep my baby talk to personal networks, in this post I'd like to reflect on a recent session I had with a course I'm undertaking at my institution. The course is PgC in Academic Practice and this weeks session was around 'Designing for Learning' specifically looking at 'Threshold Concepts'.
The term was coined in 2003 with the following definition:
“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. This transformation may be sudden or it may be protracted over a considerable period of time, with the transition to understanding proving troublesome. Such a transformed view or landscape may represent how people ‘think’ in a particular discipline, or how they perceive, apprehend, or experience particular phenomena within that discipline (or more generally).” (Meyer and Land, 2003b: 1).
Before I get into it, I'll lay down the task for the session. Basically we had a couple of hours to think of a threshold concept in our teaching, either new or what we currently do. We then had to purchase (max of £5) something to represent the concept to aid in visually grasping the idea or concept. We then had to present our ideas to the rest of the group, not in a lecturer space, in the local cafe, coffee included!
I'd recently given a workshop on 'Social Media for Researchers'. A couple of examples of threshold concepts sprung to mind looking back at the workshop. Firstly shifting the context for learners on how social media can be transmogrified from a common view of a tool for friends and family, to an incredibly powerful resource for learning through the creation of a Personal Learning Network (PLN). I believe learners when showed an example of sourcing previously unknown knowledge in their discipline, jump through this 'portal' and are granted a chance to have their own light-bulb moment.
Secondly and I think more importantly though is the joined up networking I suggest in the workshop. It's fine having multiple social networks, pushing your thoughts and research out in multiple forms. However it's a little clumsy, managing the multiple platforms and articulating your thoughts in the different mediums. Facebook for example you can write a lot of text, the same can't be said for Twitter, capped at 140 characters. I encourage the learners to have hub. A central place they dump their findings and thoughts, a blog for example. Here they direct all those social networks to, there are even tools that allow you to do this autonomously.
This is what I decided to visually represent for the session, myself and a colleague dashed into town to the local supermarket and I sourced the perfect tool to show what I meant:
 |
| +Aaron Burrell - Not quite GLaDOS |
But it was only until I put the middle cog in with the handle on, or in this case, representing the blog, that the whole geared machine worked in unison.
The session gave me the opportunity to not think about threshold concepts as something to stroke my chin about or in fact worry about. It gave me an opportunity to shift some focus on some of the support I give people. To focus on that troublesome knowledge and work my activities around getting the students to leap through that portal. I'll certainly revisit some of my workshops I facilitate to see if there already opportunities available to expand on or at least make room make sure there are.
I loved the idea of presenting in a local cafe! Some people didn't like the fact that it was noisy, or the fact it was recorded on a mobile phone, a bit antithetical to traditional educational settings. But I enjoyed it, I feel it helps reinforce the fact, as educators, we should have the ability to adapt and explore new methods of teaching.
I'm not quite Chell, and I haven't found any companion cubes yet, but this is only level 1. I've got a long way to go!
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