LDES 5001 | Fall 2024 | Session 5: Designing for Learning in Context

1. Identifying Threshold Concepts

1.1. How can educators systematically identify threshold concepts in their disciplines, and how can they adjust their instructional approaches to help students overcome these challenging learning thresholds?

1.2. How can we identify each student’s threshold concepts and make inclusive curriculum adjustments?

1.3. How can we identify threshold concepts, especially in the humanities?

1.4. How can we identify threshold concepts within our own disciplines?

1.5. Why does “threshold concepts” use the word “threshold” to express something essential and even could be hard to gain in a discipline?

1.6. Who has the authority to decide that something is a threshold concept within a specific field?

1.7. Are threshold concepts solely linear?

1.8. Every learner has their own pace of learning. In the case of groups, how can we create strategies for tolerating uncertainty in group learning environments?

1.9. In what ways can technology be used to support students in overcoming barriers to learning threshold concepts?

1.10. What innovative design iterations can be invented and adopted to accommodate the tricky presence of troublesome threshold concepts?

1.11. Do threshold concepts need to be approached differently in online courses than they are in traditional classrooms?

2. Challenges and Barriers to Learning Threshold Concepts

2.1. Are there any effective ways to eliminate students’ anxiety caused by uncertainty?

2.2. Why are certain concepts, like biological concepts or complex mathematical formulas, particularly difficult for students to grasp? Do you think the challenges come purely from how they're taught or the nature of the concept? Is there any way teachers can bridge that gap?

2.3. What research or examples substantiate the claim that making concepts easier to understand may damage acquiring threshold concepts?

2.4. Could a student's acquisition of threshold concepts without understanding their real-world application damage their ability to be effective outside of the academic environment?

2.5. What research or studies prove this statement? What examples support this statement?

2.6. Are there differences in the way that we approach threshold concepts in STEM vs. humanities fields?

2.7. At one point, Meyer and Land (2003) use foreign language instruction as an example in "troublesome language", in which it may hinder learning about different cultures. Think about children raised either bilingual or multilingual. Will one or more than one language come more "natural" based on what you practice more or is in your environment? Could it help you learn another language?

2.8. In what ways can technology be used to support students in overcoming barriers to learning threshold concepts?

3. Assessment and Feedback

3.1. How can instructors effectively assess whether their teaching methods are helping students to grasp these challenging concepts?

3.2. What type of assessment can help us realize that a student is stuck in a state of liminality?

3.3. What alternative assessment methods, beyond traditional tests and quizzes, can help identify when students are struggling with threshold concepts? How can these methods provide deeper insights into student understanding?

3.4. What assessment strategies can we use to measure students' confidence in using the troublesome knowledge in new contexts?

3.5. How do we know when to guide students towards the answers and show them versus letting them discover the answers on their own?

3.6. What role does student feedback play in identifying troublesome concepts, and how can it be effectively integrated into course design?

3.7. The sources discuss the importance of listening to student perspectives to understand their difficulties with threshold concepts. What specific strategies can teachers use to elicit and understand these student perspectives, particularly when students may struggle to articulate their own learning challenges?

3.8. What can we realistically do to improve students’ learning in response? Is there anything we can do?

4. Teaching Strategies & Learning Design

4.1. How can we think creatively and effectively address threshold concepts when designing more high-impact practices?

4.2. What innovative design iterations can be invented and adopted to accommodate the tricky presence of troublesome threshold concepts?

4.3. How can educators better support students in challenging the obstacles/challenges that prevent them from fully accepting, and ultimately mastering, challenging concepts?

4.4. Is it practical to continuously adjust the design based on the differences of each audience to ensure learning is met?

4.5. Is it proper protocol to change content delivery order mid-way through a course or engagement if you notice the learning outcomes are not being achieved?

4.6. How can we identify threshold concepts in our own disciplines?

4.7. What are some action steps for educators to enforce the idea of threshold concepts for their learners?

4.8. Is there a balance between “regular” topic-based questions to threshold concept questions to ensure the learning objective while gathering a grasp of the overall topic?

4.9. Every learner has their own pace of learning. In the case of groups, how can we create strategies for tolerating uncertainty in group learning environments?

4.10. How can teachers balance between providing students support and giving students enough space to work through threshold concepts?

4.11. When working with SMEs, how do we help them or communicate with them to remind them that they need to foresee the blind spots in their knowledge or skills, which they take for granted but are essential to teaching learners?

4.12. Science, math, and economics are frequently used examples in these studies, but in what ways will subjects like English, social studies, and foreign language be just as challenging?