Threshold Concepts: A Lens for Uncovering Student Learning "Bottlenecks” Donna Harp Ziegenfuss, Ed.D. Associate Librarian, Assistant Head of Scholarship & Education Services donna.ziegenfuss@utah.edu

In This Session You Will: Objectives In This Session You Will: Engage in discussion about threshold concepts and how students learn Participate in an activity to help you develop strategies for helping students get unstuck, and Take away a toolbox of resources and references to help you deal with student learning bottlenecks in the future

Reflect on your own disciplinary learning experiences as a teacher and/or learner. Think about a key concept or theory in your discipline that either you or your students have struggled with. Jot down this “bottleneck” concept or theory and also anything you remember about how you learned it, or how you helped your students learn it.

Student Learning Approaches Can Depend On: Academic Engagement Social Engagement Intellectual Engagement Course/curriculum design and structure The learning environment and how learning is assessed (surface learning, deep learning, strategic learning) Integration of high impact practices (AACU) Active learning activities Time management skills Teacher presence A sense of social belonging Voluntary participatory engagement Individual differences Relationships both in and out of the classroom Expertise level (novice, expert) Cognitive investment in learning Developing good learning habits Learning confidence Disciplinary belonging Motivation and ownership for own learning

Student Perceptions

Intellectual Engagement So where do Threshold Concepts fit in to all of this? Academic Engagement Social Engagement Intellectual Engagement Course/curriculum design and structure The learning environment and how learning is assessed (surface learning, deep learning, strategic learning) Teacher presence A sense of social belonging Relationships both in and out of the classroom Expertise level (novice, expert) Learning confidence Disciplinary belonging Motivation and ownership for own learning

What are Threshold Concepts? Visual Literacy – “ability to recognize and understand ideas conveyed through visible actions or images, as well as to be able to convey ideas or messages through imagery.” Aanstoos, J. (2003). Visual Literacy: An Overview. Applied Imagery Pattern Recognition Workshop, 2003. Proceedings. 32nd.

Definitions Technology Literacy – “ability to responsibly use appropriate technology to communicate, solve problems, and access, manage, integrate, evaluate, and create information to improve learning in all subject areas and to acquire lifelong knowledge and skills in the 21st century.” As I mentioned, a Task Force was created to think about these literacies and it was named the VITL Task Force. The Marriott Library will be bringing that group back together to move this initiative to the next level. Recent discussions regarding the reform of General Education requirements has highlighted 21st Century Literacies as an important aspect of future requirements and many faculty are beginning to develop hybrid courses. Visual, Information and Technology literacies are pivotal skills for both students as they graduate and for course development as faculty consider harnessing the power of technology to teach students. Donna will now describe upcoming plans for bringing these efforts to the next level. Association of College and Research Libraries. (2000). Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Educationhttp://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency.cfm#f1

Kolb’s Model of Experiential Learning (1975) http://sebashines.blogspot.com/2011/05/organisational-learning.html

What is a Community of Practice? “Communities of practice are groups of people who share a passion for something that they know how to do and who interact regularly to learn how to do it better.” www.ewenger.com/theory/start-up_guide_PDF.pdf

Why Community of Practice Framework? www.ewenger.com/theory/start-up_guide_PDF.pdf

Exchanges Productive Inquiries Building Shared Understanding Producing Assets Creating Standards Formal Access to Knowledge Visits

Importance of combining synchronous and asynchronous Providing individual and group activities, events, and development Inclusive of variety of stakeholders Working toward the good of the group Developing a collection of resources, expertise, shared knowledge that benefits all

Community activities oriented to … … meetings … open-ended conversation … projects … content publishing Community activities oriented to … … access to expertise … individual participation … relationships In our research of CoPs we noticed 9 general patterns of activities that characterized a community’s orientation. Most had a mix, but some were more prominent in every case. Image: Wenger, White and Smith, 2007 … community cultivation … context Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities © 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith

References Aanstoos, J. (2003). Visual Literacy: An Overview. Applied Imagery Pattern Recognition Workshop, 2003. Proceedings. 32nd. American Library Association. (1989). Presidential Committee on Information Literacy. Final Report. Chicago: American Library Association. http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency.cfm#f1 Kolb. D. A. & Fry, R. (1975) Toward an applied theory of experiential learning, In C. Cooper (ed.) Theories of Group Process, London: John Wiley. Wenger, E. White, N. & Smith, J. (2009). Digital habitats: Stewarding technology for communities http://technologyforcommunities.com/ - resources online