|
Understanding a threshold concept may entail a shift in learner subjectivity, which is implied through the transformative and discursive aspects already noted. Such reconstitution is, perhaps, more likely to be recognised initially by others, and also to take place over time. Jan Smith (2006) |
|
Within the liminal state an integration of new knowledge occurs which requires a reconfiguring of
the learner’s prior conceptual schema and a letting go or discarding of any earlier
conceptual stance. This reconfiguration occasions an ontological and an epistemic
shift. The integration/reconfiguration and accompanying ontological/epistemic shift
can be seen as reconstitutive features of the threshold concept:
We would not, however, wish to imply that this relational view has an overly rigid sequential nature. It has been emphasised elsewhere (Land et al, 2005) that the acquisition of threshold concepts often involves a degree of recursiveness, and of oscillation, which would need to be layered across this simple diagram [move the cursor across the above figure]. Ray Land, Erik Meyer and Caroline Baillie (2010) | |
|
In short, there is no simple passage in learning from ‘easy’ to ‘difficult’; mastery of a threshold concept often involves messy journeys back, forth and across conceptual terrain Glynis Cousin (2006) |
|
