Threshold concept approach to curriculum design. stuffing curriculum with content vs focusing on...

Threshold conceptapproach to curriculum design

stuffing curriculum

with contentvs

focusing on what is

fundamental

Contrast

‘less is more’ approach to curriculum design

concepts that are central to the mastery of a subject

portals to new ways of thinking

Mathematics:Algebraic notation

X2 = 1

X = 1 or X = -1

Y = X2

Cookery:Heat transfer

+ immediately

wait a few minutes then +

Sports Science:

Aquatic confidence

Gaining confidence in the water

Appreciation of water as a sporting environment

CharacteristicsTransformative

- 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

Oscillation between old and new understandings

Occupation of liminal space while mastering threshold concept

E-learninglends itself to required:

excursion

recursion

digression

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

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?