Interventions for Threshold Concepts

When edu­ca­tors rec­og­nize that stu­dents are faced with thresh­old con­cepts they can take proac­tive steps to sup­port stu­dents’ learn­ing.

Here is what educators can do:

1. Pro­vide Explic­it Instruc­tion
   • Edu­ca­tors can offer clear expla­na­tions and demon­stra­tions of the thresh­old con­cept, break­ing down com­plex ideas into small­er, more digestible com­po­nents. They can use analo­gies, visu­al aids, and real-world exam­ples to illus­trate the con­cept and make it more acces­si­ble to stu­dents.
2. Encour­age Explo­ration and Inquiry
   • Edu­ca­tors can cre­ate oppor­tu­ni­ties for stu­dents to explore the thresh­old con­cept through hands-on activ­i­ties, inquiry-based tasks, and open-end­ed ques­tions. They can encour­age curios­i­ty, exper­i­men­ta­tion, and inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion, allow­ing stu­dents to dis­cov­er and con­struct their under­stand­ing of the con­cept.
3. Fos­ter Col­lab­o­ra­tive Learn­ing
   • Edu­ca­tors can facil­i­tate col­lab­o­ra­tive learn­ing expe­ri­ences where stu­dents can engage in dis­cus­sions, share per­spec­tives, and col­lab­o­rate on prob­lem-solv­ing tasks relat­ed to the thresh­old con­cept. Peer inter­ac­tions can pro­vide valu­able insights, pro­mote deep­er engage­ment, and fos­ter a sup­port­ive learn­ing com­mu­ni­ty.
4. Address Mis­con­cep­tions
   • Edu­ca­tors can address com­mon mis­con­cep­tions or mis­un­der­stand­ings relat­ed to the thresh­old con­cept by pro­vid­ing cor­rec­tive feed­back, engag­ing stu­dents in dia­logue, and offer­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for reeval­u­a­tion and revi­sion of their under­stand­ing. They can encour­age stu­dents to ques­tion assump­tions, chal­lenge pre­con­ceived notions, and recon­sid­er their per­spec­tives.
5. Pro­mote Metacog­ni­tive Aware­ness
   • Edu­ca­tors can help stu­dents devel­op metacog­ni­tive aware­ness by encour­ag­ing reflec­tion on their learn­ing process, mon­i­tor­ing their under­stand­ing, and iden­ti­fy­ing areas of con­fu­sion or uncer­tain­ty.
   • They can teach stu­dents strate­gies for self-assess­ment, self-reg­u­la­tion, and self-cor­rec­tion, empow­er­ing them to take own­er­ship of their learn­ing jour­ney.
6. Offer Scaf­fold­ing and Sup­port
   • Edu­ca­tors can pro­vide scaf­fold­ing and sup­port to help stu­dents nav­i­gate the chal­lenges asso­ci­at­ed with the thresh­old con­cept.
   • This may involve break­ing down com­plex tasks into man­age­able steps, pro­vid­ing guid­ed prac­tice and feed­back, and offer­ing addi­tion­al resources or instruc­tion­al assis­tance as need­ed.
7. Cre­ate a Safe Learn­ing Envi­ron­ment
   • Edu­ca­tors can cre­ate a safe and sup­port­ive learn­ing envi­ron­ment where stu­dents feel com­fort­able tak­ing risks, mak­ing mis­takes, and ask­ing ques­tions relat­ed to the thresh­old con­cept.
   • They can fos­ter a growth mind­set by empha­siz­ing the val­ue of per­sis­tence, effort, and resilience in the face of chal­lenges.
8. Dif­fer­en­ti­ate Instruc­tion
   • Edu­ca­tors can dif­fer­en­ti­ate instruc­tion to meet the diverse needs of stu­dents fac­ing the thresh­old con­cept.
   • This may involve pro­vid­ing addi­tion­al enrich­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties for stu­dents who grasp the con­cept quick­ly, offer­ing extra sup­port for strug­gling stu­dents, and adapt­ing instruc­tion­al mate­ri­als to accom­mo­date var­i­ous learn­ing styles and pref­er­ences.

READING: Threshold Concepts (A Guide)

LINK TO READING: Here is a guide on Thresh­old Con­cepts from the Tay­lor Insti­tute at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­gary. The guide pro­vides infor­ma­tion on the char­ac­ter­is­tics of Thresh­old Con­cepts and appli­ca­tions in the dis­ci­plines. The the­o­ret­i­cal frame­work of thresh­old con­cepts has become an emerg­ing line of inquiry across all aca­d­e­m­ic dis­ci­plines and areas of research, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the schol­ar­ship of teach­ing and learn­ing. The notion of a thresh­old con­cept arose out of research by Jan Mey­er and Ray Land, who define it as a core idea that’s con­cep­tu­al­ly chal­leng­ing for stu­dents, who strug­gle to grasp it—but once grasped, it rad­i­cal­ly trans­forms the stu­dents’ per­cep­tion of the sub­ject. Although this mate­r­i­al is dif­fi­cult to learn, under­stand­ing thresh­old con­cepts is essen­tial to the mas­tery of any field of study.

READING: Integrating Threshold Concepts into the Curriculum

LINK TO READING: From the Office of Teach­ing and Learn­ing at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Guelph. The Office of Teach­ing and Learn­ing (OTL) is the leader in cham­pi­oning the Uni­ver­si­ty of Guelph’s ped­a­gog­i­cal mis­sion. The Office pro­vides exper­tise in, and pas­sion­ate­ly advo­cates for, inno­v­a­tive and evi­dence-informed ped­a­gog­i­cal approach­es to build, main­tain, and pro­mote col­lab­o­ra­tive suc­cess­es for their learn­ers and cam­pus com­mu­ni­ty.

READING: Threshold Concepts in Medical Education: A Scoping Review

LINK TO READING: The thresh­old con­cept frame­work (TCF) was first described near­ly 20 years ago, but its appli­ca­tion in the field of med­ical edu­ca­tion has recent­ly seen a sig­nif­i­cant growth of inter­est with a diverse range of lit­er­a­ture pub­lished on the sub­ject. The trans­for­ma­tive nature of thresh­old con­cepts (TCs) offers poten­tial for the design of learn­ing expe­ri­ences and cur­ric­u­la across the med­ical edu­ca­tion con­tin­u­um. A scop­ing review was con­duct­ed to map the extent of the cur­rent lit­er­a­ture regard­ing TCs in med­ical education—to describe the types of avail­able evi­dence and its focus—and iden­ti­fy research gaps.

READING: Threshold Concepts: Informing the Curriculum (Higgs et al.)

LINK TO READING: From Emerg­ing Issues in High­er Edu­ca­tion, this arti­cle focus­es on ways of think­ing that stu­dents find dif­fi­cult, par­tic­u­lar­ly when they act as thresh­olds to fur­ther learn­ing.