Threshold Concepts - Readings and Resources - Threshold Concepts: A Pilot Project Sponsored by the Mansergh-Stuessy Fund for College Innovation

Bibliography

There is a massive bibliography of publications about threshold concepts in a variety of contexts compiled by Mike Flanagan at University College London. In addition to materials on the general idea of threshold concepts, there is an index by discipline and topic.

image courtesy of Pierre Metivier

Readings

Lori Townsend. and Korey Brunetti. and Amy R. Hofer. "Threshold Concepts and Information Literacy." portal: Libraries and the Academy 11.3 (2011): 853-869. Project MUSE. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.
Abstract: What do we teach when we teach information literacy in higher education? This paper describes a pedagogical approach to information literacy that helps instructors focus content around transformative learning thresholds. The threshold concept framework holds promise for librarians because it grounds the instructor in the big ideas and underlying concepts that make information literacy exciting and worth learning about. This paper looks at how this new idea relates to existing standards and posits several threshold concepts for information literacy.
Amy R. Hofer. and Lori Townsend. and Korey Brunetti. "Troublesome Concepts and Information Literacy: Investigating Threshold Concepts for IL Instruction." portal: Libraries and the Academy 12.4 (2012): 387-405. Project MUSE. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.
Abstract: Librarians regularly encounter students who struggle to understand and apply information literacy concepts. A qualitative survey administered to information literacy practitioners asked about troublesome content and analyzed results using the threshold concepts pedagogical
framework first described by Jan Meyer and Ray Land. A threshold concept transforms the learner’s view of content and helps integrate previously learned material; threshold concepts are portals that, once traversed, bring insight into how to think and act like a practitioner within a discipline.
This project uses the data collected to propose seven threshold concepts for information literacy.
Meyer, Jan, and Ray Land. 2006. Overcoming barriers to student understanding: threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge. London: Routledge.
From publisher's description: Overcoming Barriers to Student Learning explores why certain students "get stuck" at particular points in the curriculum whilst others grasp concepts with comparative ease. It proposes a "threshold concepts" approach to the curriculum, arguing that in certain disciplines there are "conceptual gateways" or "portals" that lead to previously inaccessible, and initially perhaps "troublesome," ways of thinking about something. A new way of understanding, interpreting, or viewing a topic may thus emerge - having a transformative effect on internal view of subject matter, subject landscape, or even world view. While maintaining that knowledge should indeed be "troubling" in order for it to be transformative, this book provides new perspectives on helping students through such conceptual difficulty in order to enhance learning and teaching environments in higher education, and in other educational sectors.
Composition Forum, vol. 26, Fall 2012: Special Issue on Writing and Transfer
Focusing on the problem of learning transferable knowledge about writing, this special issue includes an article on threshold concepts in writing in history. Abstract: Using "threshold concepts" (Meyer and Land) as a lens, this article examines several issues related to learning within and across two general education courses—one in writing and one in history—in which students were concurrently enrolled. Analysis of data from students and instructors (of the history course) suggests threshold concepts that are shared among history and writing courses; however, the data also indicate that the extent to which these shared concepts are enacted through instruction is somewhat inconsistent. The article ultimately suggests that threshold concepts might prove a productive frame through which to consider questions related to writing and transfer, and also to general education more broadly.