Crossing Over: Introducing The Threshold Project. 2013 Strengthening Student Success Conference

8/13/2019 Crossing Over: Introducing The Threshold Project. 2013 Strengthening Student Success Conference

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Crossing Over: Introducing

The Threshold ProjectKim Costino , CSU San Bernardino

Shawn Frederking , Yuba College

Nika Hog an, Pasadena City Co llege, SLI, 3CSNJi l lyan McK inney, Granite Bay High Schoo l

Chr is Padgett , Am erican River Col lege


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Creating a community of learners

Think of a time when you were in a

learning situation in community that wentvery well for you. What would it take to

make todays workshop that kind of

successful learning environment for you?

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Case Study #1

The story of Johnny and Ralph

As you listen, pay attention to assumptionsabout writing, college readiness, learning

and student capacity and the messages

students are receiving


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What are Threshold Concepts?

First identified by Ray Land and J.F. (Erik) Meyer, thresholdconcepts refer to concepts that are absolutely core to theways of knowing and doing in a discipline; ideas thatdisciplinary practitioners use to see through and thinkwith, ideas they use to ask questions and to problem-

solve. If you dont get them, you cant move forward toreally produce knowledge in a discipline.

Examples: History consists of a series of competing narratives (History)

Language use constitutes meaning; it shapes what we know andhow we know and how we know it. (Writing Studies)


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Characteristics of

Threshold Concepts

Transformative

Irreversible

Integrative

Provisional

Troublesome

Liminal

(Cousin, 2006)


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Why Focus on Threshold Concepts for

Intersegmental Conversation?

They get at the heart of disciplinarity andknowledge-production and therefore helpstudents become what Michael Wesch refers

to knowledge-able, rather than simplyknowledgeable.

Their emphasis on liminality challenges theidea of incremental learning that dominatesdiscussions of alignment, but flies in the faceof what we know about the recursive natureof learning.


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How People Learn

1. Students come to the classroom with

preconceived notions about how the

world works. If their initial understandingis not engaged, they may fail to grasp the

new concepts and information, or they

may learn them for a test, but revert to

their preconceptions outside the

classroom (1).


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How People Learn

2. To develop competence in an area of

inquiry, students must (a) have a deep

foundation of factual knowledge, (b)understand facts and ideas in the context

of a conceptual framework, and (c)

organize knowledge in ways that facilitate

retrieval and application (1).


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How People Learn

3. A metacognitive approach to instruction

can help students learn to take control of

their own learning by defining learninggoals and monitoring their progress in

achieving them (2).


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How People Learn

2. To develop competence in an area of

inquiry, students must (a) have a deep

foundation of factual knowledge, (b)understand facts and ideas in the context

of a conceptual framework, and (c)

organize knowledge in ways that facilitate

retrieval and application (1).


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Understanding & Transfer

Transfer of learning requires learning with

understanding; and

Learning with understanding has twoparts:

Factual knowledge must be placed in a

conceptual framework to be well-understood

Concepts are given meaning by multiple

representations that are rich in factual detail


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So, what does this have to do with

threshold concepts?

Intersegmental conversation is trying to get atalignment, which is really about helpingstudents transfer their learning.

A focus on threshold concepts helps us toidentify the core concepts that will need to berevisited across all levels of a studentseducation at differing levels of sophistication.

A focus on threshold concepts helps us torethink G.E., which is the site of overlap for 2-yr and 4-yr schools.


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How can threshold concepts

reframe our conversations?

What do students need to learn here, here,and here?

How can we reinforce and further developstudent understanding of particular thresholdconcepts and the disciplinary habits of mind

they foster across a students educationalcareer? How can we help them become moreexpert in these disciplinary habits of mind andways of seeing and doing?


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Communities of Practice

Make room for recursivity

Create safety, connectedness for risk-

taking Make room for growth

Shame resilience

Help us work productively withexpertise


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Our Values

Meaningful, sustained, scholarly

professional learning

Honoring and interrogating disciplinaryperspectives (which are not static)

Honoring the whole personbuilding

relationships


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Your disciplinary beginnings

Write about some key moments or events

in your journey towards mastery in your

discipline.


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Read Together

Please Read An Introduction to Threshold

Concepts and Talk to the Text (keep

track of questions, connections, insights,ah-has, etc.)

Share your notes with a partner


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With your partner

Come up with an explanation of Threshold

Concepts that you could share with a

colleague at the water cooler.

Share your explanation with another pair.


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Case Study #2

World History Institute

What would it look like to infuse anemphasis on Threshold Concepts and

communities of practice?


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Howdo we teach students to think,

read, and write like historians?

We introduced participants to the ReadingApprenticeship Framework Research-based classroom framework that helps

teachers apprentice their students in discipline-specific reading and problem solving

Developed by Strategic Literacy Initiative,WestEd

Routines designed to foster metacognitive

conversations about howwe read and problemsolvmakes the invisible visible

Dimensions: social, personal, cognitive,knowledge building


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Dimensions of Reading Apprenticeship


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Brainstorm

Consider a Threshold Project of your very

own.

Where is this conversation needed? Why?

Who needs to be involved?

What resources would you need?

What roadblocks do you anticipate?


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Working lunch

Working independently or in a team

(whatever makes sense), create a graphic

illustration of your Threshold Project

brainstorm.


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Crossing Over: Introducing The Threshold Project. 2013 Strengthening Student Success Conference

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Transcript of Crossing Over: Introducing The Threshold Project. 2013 Strengthening Student Success Conference