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.
Wow! Threshold concepts are something I’m beginning to work more with as I plan my teaching, and I’ve actually had an article published that looks at threshold concepts in teaching sex and gender in the ancient world. Thanks for flagging up this conference to me – I’ll have to see if I can get something together for the CFP.
Liz –
Really, you have used the Meyer and Land framework in your research?! Small world!! Can you give a link or the reference for it so I can see how you focused on it?
I plan to live and breathe this while engaging on my thesis . . .
Jeffrey
Sure! It will appear in the Fall 2010/Winter 2011 edition of Transformations – http://web.njcu.edu/sites/transformations/Content/default.asp. I can e-mail you a PDF of the final article if you DM me on Twitter with a good e-mail address.
Wonderful; done!
Jeffrey