Invitation to Participate in a Research Study

Today I begin data collection for my doctoral thesis research at Lancaster University, and I invite you to consider participating in my study. I have all this information, along with the ethical consent form, in a permanent link on my Doctoral (Thesis) Research page on my website.

There are 3 criteria for participation:

1.  Are you doctoral student or have you completed a doctoral degree (in any discipline, with any type of doctoral degree, anywhere in the world)?

2.  Have you encountered any thresholds or had any troublesome experiences while engaged in your degree that left you with a new sense of your discipline or identity of yourself as a researcher / evidence-supported expert practitioner? Perhaps you experienced an aha! along the way? How about a transformed understanding or perspective?

3.  Did you engage in any aspect of your studies from a distance, online, or using any form of technology while engaging in your doctoral degree?

If you answered yes to these 3 eligibility criteria, I invite you to consider speaking with me about it in a single 60-90 minute interview (phone or Skype, as you wish). For more information, my email and contact information are here.

I appreciate any assistance with identifying participants for my study; please share this link or information with anybody who you think may be interested. Thank you.

Threshold Concepts Conference 2012: Call for Abstracts

I know that yesterday I mentioned I do not ordinarily mention calls for abstracts, but I think this conference is somewhat different in that it is so very specific and is not widely known about beyond the specific group that often attends (do I sense a trend here?!). As a matter of fact, I have never even attended this, though I hope to do so next year.

The 4th Biennial Threshold Concepts Symposium will be held 27-29 June 2012 at Trinity College, Dublin. The Call for Abstracts may be found here. The most comprehensive online repository of links to nearly everything related to Threshold Concepts is maintained by Mick Flanagan here, and it is a great place to begin for those who want to learn more about them.

Threshold concepts are a-ha moments that are central for learners to grasp or understand when working through some discipline or academic process in order for them to be able to progress or grow in that area. These thresholds are often transformative, troublesome, irreversible, integrative, bounded, discursive, reconstitutive, and linked to a liminal experience.

Threshold concepts are one of the frames I am using in my doctoral thesis, and while it stems from the 2003 work of Jan Meyer and Ray Land that focused around undergraduate education, Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Practising within the Disciplines, I am following these insights and application in the area of doctoral research and identity development itself.  

I really hope to attend this conference, as everything I have heard about it makes it seem central to my studies.