Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge

The teaching challenge

'Threshold concepts' are likely to be difficult for learners to grasp, since an alteration in 'world-view' is needed. Such changes are challenging and unsettling. There is a clear link between the notion of a 'changed world-view' and the higher levels (categories 4 and 5) of 'approaches to learning' that Gibbs talks about with reference to deep and surface learning. In fact, it is useful to see 'grasping and internalising a threshold concept' as a paradigm case of 'deep learning'. When this is done, a number of issues clearly emerge to challenge us as teachers:

• If learners are involved in an element of 'reconstitution of self', what are the implications of this for us, as their teachers?

• If we are teaching a threshold concept, how should we pace and sequence the new content? What activities should we use, and how quickly can we expect the learners to make the transition into the new world-view?

• Encountering a threshold concept is like making a journey through new and strange territory. As teacher, what linguistic 'maps' and directions can we give our learners? Can the unfamiliar concept be approached through familiar words, images and/or analogies? (like the analogy of 'a journey through strange territory' to characterise what 'learning a threshold concept' is like!)

As we introduce the new terminology, are there linguistic or other 'bridges' that can take learners from pre-threshold language and understanding to the language of the changed world-view? Can we provide intellectual 'scaffolding' for our learners?

• Are there other forms of support that we can give learners while they attempt to grasp the new material and changed perception of the world?

• How can we (and they) know that a threshold concept has been successfully internalised?

• How often should we 'revisit' the threshold concept to ensure that it is being retained over time, and that, when new threshold concepts are introduced, the earlier material is integrated into the next stage?