1. http://www.freephotogaleries.com/picture/Metal_and_glass_structure/category/7-textures
Photo: Andrei Ceru. CC 3.0
Threshold Concepts:
A discipline-based approach to
learning and design

2. http://www.freephotogaleries.com/picture/Sqares/category/7-textures
Introduction
Photo: Andrei Ceru. CC 3.0
ims
ackground/context to threshold concepts
research
haracteristics of threshold concepts
hreshold concepts in the field
• What concepts arise in different disciplines?

3. Session aims
Overall aim: The aim of this
workshop is to help participants …
earn about ‘threshold concepts’
http://www.flickr.com/photos/steveberardi/3105721570/
and ‘troublesome knowledge’
onsider what threshold concepts
might exist in their disciplines
esign a learning activity around a Photo: Steve Berardi. CC BY-SA
threshold concept in their field

4. Background to threshold concept research
trongly discipline-focused: Initially engineering, history,
biology, economics
rose from ETL (Enhancing Teaching-Learning
Environments in Undergraduate Courses) project
• ESRC-funded
threshold concepts’ emerged in all the subjects being
studied
nitial research involved academics and students from a
number of UK universities

5. Activity 1: recalling a difficult learning
experience
Think back to your time as a learner in your
subject.
Try to remember a key concept or theory that
you struggled with.
Photo: Don Nelson
Please make some notes about the
concept/theory and the experience of learning
it.

6. http://www.freephotogaleries.com/picture/S_shape_structure/category/1-abstract_stock
Threshold knowledge as a
portal
Photo: Andrei Ceru. CC 3.0
‘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 worldview.’ (Meyer
and Land, 2003)

7. Some characteristics of threshold
concepts
ransformative – once understood, they should shift
one’s perception of the subject
http://www.flickr.com/photos/steveberardi/3968169976/sizes/l/in/set-72157622485017310/
rreversible – cannot be ‘unlearned’
• Troublesome - potentially counter-
ntegrative – has the capacity to ‘expose a hidden
intuitive.
interrelatedness’ concept a student moves
'In grasping a threshold
from a common sense understanding to an
understanding which may conflict with perceptions
that have previously seemed self-evidently true.’ Photo: Steve Berardi. CC BY-SA
(Davies, 2003)

8. http://www.freephotogaleries.com/picture/Antique_religious_writings/category/1-abstract_stock
Photo: Andrei Ceru. CC 3.0
Troublesome knowledge

9. Liminal spaces
CC 3.0
Photo: Andrei Ceru
http://www.freephotogaleries.com/picture/Half_moon/category/4-science

10. http://www.freephotogaleries.com/picture/Tramway_station/category/1-abstract_stock
Activity 2: initial responses
Photo: Andrei Ceru. CC 3.0
lease watch the interview with Glynis Cousin.
lynis Cousin Interview
• What is your initial response to Glynis’ account of
threshold concepts?
• Does anything in your background as a learner or
a teacher resonate with her account of threshold

11. Threshold concepts in the disciplines
Subject Threshold Concept
English literature Deconstruction; hegemony; signification
Economics Opportunity cost, the margin
Maths Limit, complex number
Electrical engineering Frequency response
Computer science Object-oriented programming (OOP);
memory/pointers, state
Academic literacies Writing as a social practice
Cultural studies; sociology Otherness
Accounting Depreciation
Engineering Spin
Politics ‘the state’
Land 2010; Land et al. 2008; Meyer and Land,
2003

12. Activity 3: identifying threshold
concepts in your discipline
onsider the threshold concepts on
the handout from your discipline (or
cognate discipline)
http://www.freephotogaleries.com/picture/Green_water_drop/category/1-abstract_stock
• Do you agree with the categorisation?
Please identify up to 3 additional
threshold concepts in your field.
lease discuss your findings with Photo: Andrei Ceru. CC 3.0
colleagues from similar disciplines.

13. Learning and threshold concepts
ow can we use threshold concepts to design learning
activities?
lease see one or both of the following resources for examples
to prepare for Activity 4 (slide 14):
tamboulis, et al. (2012) ‘Uncovering threshold values in first year engineering
courses and implications for curriculum design’ OER.
http://www.hestem.ac.uk/sites/default/files/uncovering_threshold_values.pdf
and, R. and Meyer, J. (2003) Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge:
Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Practising within the Disciplines (Section 4

14. Activity 4: designing a learning activity around a
threshold concept
lease take a threshold concept from your
discipline (from the handout or one that you
have identified)
pend some time drafting a learning activity
(or a series of activities) around the concept
hare the idea with up to four other people.

15. http://www.flickr.com/photos/steveberardi/3355029505/in/set-72157624777762120/lightbox/
Photo: Steve Berardi. CC BY-SA
Threshold concepts and curriculum design

16. Using threshold concepts to guide
curriculum design
http://www.freephotogaleries.com/picture/Fir_cone/category/5-nature
Photo: Andrei Ceru. CC 3.0

17. http://www.flickr.com/photos/steveberardi/3105721570/in/photostream
Activity 5: Curriculum design task
Photo: Steve Berardi. CC BY-SA
ow could you use an awareness of threshold
concepts for curriculum design?
lease take a curriculum (either from a single
module, a year or an entire degree).
onsider where the core threshold concepts
appear in the curriculum/curricula.

18. References
ousin, G. (2006) ‘An Introduction to threshold concepts’ http://gees.ac.uk/planet/p17/gc.pdf
avies, P. (2003) ‘Threshold Concepts: how can we recognise them? Embedding Threshold Concepts
project: Working Paper 1’. Embedding Threshold Concepts Project
and, R. (2010) ‘Threshold Concepts and Issues of Interdisciplinarity’. Third Biennial Threshold
Concepts Symposium: Exploring transformative dimensions of threshold concepts: The University
of New South Wales Australia, 2010.
and, R., Meyer, J. and Smith, J. (2008) Threshold Concepts within the Disciplines. Rotterdam: Sense.
eyer, J. and Land, R. (2003)’Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: Linkages to Ways of
Thinking and Practising within the Disciplines’. ETL Project Report No. 4.
http://www.etl.tla.ed.ac.uk/docs/ETLreport4.pdf
erkins, D. (2006) ‘Constructivism and troublesome knowledge. In JHF Meyer and R Land (Eds)
Overcoming barriers to student understanding: Threshold Concepts and troublesome knowledge.
London: Routledge.
erkins, D. (1999). ‘The many faces of constructivism’, Educational Leadership, 57 (3).

19. Learning Resource Metadata
Field/Element Value:
Title Disciplinary Thinking – Threshold concepts: Workshop slides
Description Presentation slides for a workshop on threshold concepts.
Theme Threshold Concepts
Subject HE - Education
Author Colleen McKenna & Jane Hughes: HEDERA, 2012
Owner The University of Bath
Audience Educational developers in accredited programmes & courses in higher education.
Issue Date 24/05/2012
Last updated Date 01/08/2012
Version final
PSF Mapping A1, A2, K1, K2, K3
License Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
ukoer, education, discthink, disciplinary thinking, hedera, university of bath,
Keywords threshold concepts, curriculum design, academic practice
DRAFT 19