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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