Sunday, February 25, 2018

Wardle Threshold Concepts

Amy Lueck's Notes from Elizabeth Wardle's 2/12 Talk

Earlier this month, my colleague Julia Voss coordinated a visit with talk and workshop with Elizabeth Wardle, who spoke on the topic of threshold concepts. Below are the notes taken by other amazing colleague Amy Lueck. 

(Flyer for event)

 Erik Meyer and Ray Land (2003) developed Threshold Concept Framework. People get hung up on the notion of “concepts” here, but you might think “learning thresholds.”
Characteristics of these learning thresholds include:
  • transformative (change ways of being and knowing); sometimes bounded (may mark disciplinary territory); integrative (help learning perceive connections); troublesome (question ritualized or inert common sense views, are conceptually difficult, are counterintuitive, require adopting unfamiliar discourse, may conflict with your worldview, can make the world appear more problematic or troublesome). 



  • ways of thinking and practicing
  • not core concepts, which are important but don’t lead to “a dramatic shift to a new level of understanding” (Biggs and Tang 83)
  •  writing is a process



Liminality- the journey toward a threshold concept


Liminal space- you thought you had things connected, but now all the connections are gone and it can be uncomfortable until you find out how it all can fit together again.
  • repetition, application, reflection, connections across time, and dialogue with both peers and faculty
  • name them early and often. 
  • helps students to integrate and make connections across seemingly disparate contexts
  • help students learn by doing- then step back from it and name what they were doing
  • aid student in using throw to understand practice and vice versa
  • adaptation during the state of liminality results in Engfish or mush faking. Examples are important for providing a bridge to cross liminality- Science templates from Tracy Ruscetti
  • may make them feel robbed of a comforting idea, entailing a sense of loss

 (Me w/my eyes closed, Wardle, Voss, and Lueck)


First Year Writing threshold concepts

- brainstorm rhetorical strategies

-look at the rhetoric of your discipline
-opportunities for theorizing, doing, reflecting


 (Wardle's Handouts)