Tag: threshold concepts

Academic “Stuckness”

I recently started to read a most interesting blog, The Thesis Wisperer. While this blog is about doing a doctoral thesis, and my research is about researchers and the research process, it seems a natural fit.

This became even more apparent when I read their newest post, Why you might be ‘stuck.’ This post is about threshold concepts, a topic I have been studying especially intensely recently, that comes from the work of Meyer and Land. Not much to really add to this right now, as I am saving all that for my own research findings. On an even larger note, as I am narrowing down my doctoral research questions, let’s just leave stuckness alone, at least for the time being!

Let’s just say that I envision this being a most important framework for my thesis proposal, whose idea is due to be submitted for review within 2 weeks at Lancaster University. Back to my research . . .

What are Threshold Concepts?

Since I am working with a colleague on a research project around the idea of Threshold Concepts in doctoral education, I thought it may be useful to provide a fundamental definition of this to potentially assist those who supervise doctoral students to consider participating in this research.

As per Jan Meyer and Ray Land, the originators of this area:

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 world view (Meyer & Land, 2003, p. 1).

While there is certainly more to it, threshold concepts exist within disciplines of study and often result in a transformed perspective of something.

Reference:
Meyer, J., & Land, R. (2003). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge: Linkages to ways of thinking and practising within the disciplines. Enhancing Teaching-Learning Environments in Undergraduate Courses Project Occasional Report 4, May 2003. Retrieved November 5, 2010, from http://www.etl.tla.ed.ac.uk//docs/ETLreport4.pdf

Do You Supervise Doctoral Students?

Do you (or somebody you know, such as your doctoral supervisor or mentor) supervise, mentor, advise, or teach doctoral students?

Have you ever seen an aha moment occur with your doctoral students, when they suddenly grasp something related to their study in a way that helps them move into a new place in their work or thinking or experience? If so, we would love to speak with you for a research project we are engaging in that we are calling Faculty Support: Doctoral Student Threshold Concepts.

More information about what we are planning to do may be found here, including our research consent form.

Please consider forwarding a link to this study to anybody who you think may be interested in this work or email me if you have any questions or wish to participate.

Supervising the Doctorate Experience – Invitation to Participate in a Study

Who is Invited?

Are you (or were you) a staff / faculty member who supervises, directs, mentors, or tutors doctoral students, who for at least part of their programme (including thesis / dissertation writing) are studying at a distance?

If so, have you ever had experiences of helping or supporting these students confront and work through any threshold concepts or areas of troublesome knowledge (i.e., aha moments, trouble spots, breakthrough areas, or defining moments of epistemological or ontological shift that may be pivotal in one’s identity development)?

Want to share these experiences for an approved  research project sponsored through the Centre for Studies in Advanced Learning Technology (CSALT) in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University?

What is the Purpose of the Study?

The purpose of this research is to better understand the experiences of faculty members who work with doctoral students, at least in part via information and communications technology or technology-enhanced learning or e-learning, who have identified threshold concepts (i.e., aha moments, trouble spots, breakthrough areas, or defining moments of epistemological or ontological shift that may be pivotal in one’s identity development) for their students and were successful helping these learners through this troublesome knowledge.

Who are the Researchers?

This research is being conducted by Dr. Gale Parchoma (Lecturer / Assistant Professor in North America) and Jeffrey Keefer (Doctoral Student) at Lancaster University’s Educational Research Department, Centre for Studies in Advanced Learning Technology (CSALT).

What will Participation Involve?

Participation in this study will involve:

  1. An approximately one-hour interview via telephone or Skype.
  2. Approximately one hour of your time to review and potentially revise your interview transcript and/or summarized narrative.

We will organize our interview schedule as soon as we receive confirmation of participants. We anticipate interviews taking place between December, 2010 and January, 2011. We hope to be able to return transcripts to participants before the end of February, 2011.

How Can I Learn More?

Our approved Consent Form with more information is available for review. If you have questions, want to speak about this, or wish to participate, please email either Gale or Jeffrey.

Thank you for considering this request for participation. We hope to add to the academic body of knowledge through our work together.

Request for Doctoral Faculty Participants for a Study

I just received ethical approval for my study Faculty Support: Doctoral Students, Threshold Concepts, and Technology Enhanced Learning, and am now to the point of requesting faculty members who supervise / tutor / mentor doctoral students, and who have supported these students during periods of significant perspective / ontological / epistemological / worldview change as a result of their studies, to consider participating in my small research project. I have attached my approved Invitation to Participate / Consent Form for a Research Study for consideration and review.

Let me summarize elements of my research design, especially as my audience will want to know more about this given the subject matter and to assist in consideration:

Research Problem
While programs in doctoral higher education (HE) are increasingly moving online and are being supported via distance, blended, or technology-enhanced learning , faculty members need to support these learners while attending to the changing pedagogical landscape notable for its increasing reliance on technology with decreasing face-to-face class time. Mindful of the work of Meyer and Land (2008), it seems the more we can understand where threshold concepts exist, the more doctoral faculty can help their distance students through the doctoral research process while these learners develop as new researchers. By threshold concepts, I mean those (inter)disciplinary concepts that have the power to fundamentally change the perspective of the learner, and which can preclude advancing in the field unless they are understood. Examples of these in my own experience as a student in educational research (with influences of cultural, sociological, and communications theories) include concepts such as hegemony, Freirian pedagogy, Lyotard’s framework of postmodernism, and Richardson’s work on the power and role of writing as a method of inquiry; they have all shifted my perspective on my field and have in turn enabled my own advances in my understanding of and implications for my work.

Purpose
The purpose of this research is to better understand the experiences of faculty members who work with doctoral students via distance or technology-enhanced learning who have identified threshold concepts (or trouble spots, breakthrough areas, or defining moments of epistemological or ontological shift that may be pivotal in one’s identity development) for their students and who have found success with helping these learners through this troublesome knowledge.

Research Question
What can we learn about how faculty support their doctoral students, studying from a distance, through areas of disciplinary challenge or threshold concepts?

Methodology and Method
I am hoping to identify and interview 3 social science doctoral faculty members who work with students using TEL or Network Learning methods.  I will conduct and record one Skype or phone interview, of approximately an hour, and will then engage in grounded theory (cf. Kathy Charmaz) to develop a theory to explain this phenomenon.

These are my open-ended, semi-structured interview questions:

  1. Tell me about your experiences identifying (inter)disciplinary areas that your doctoral students commonly struggle with as they pursue their studies from a distance.
  2. How have you helped your doctoral students through these areas?
  3. As a result of these experiences, what did you learn about:
  • your students
  • your discipline
  • your role as a doctoral tutor / mentor

Please let me know if you or anybody you know may be interested in learning more about or participating in this study. I have a tight time line for this work, and need to have the interviews completed by June 26.

I appreciate the help, support, suggestions, and challenges I have already received on this work by such bright, giving, generous, and inquisitive colleagues around the world. Thank you.