Reflection of lecture 2017/08/22

According to Meyer & Land (2003), a threshold concept is essentially transformative and discipline specific. It is a very abstract concept, initially I found it difficult to grasp. But it can be compared to a portal which opens up different ways and what was previously incomprehensible in thinking about something. 

 It represents a transformed way of observing & understanding for students, without it, the learner will not be able to progress. The learner, if he masters a threshold concept, he/she will start to think like a professional of a specific discipline and not as a mere student of that discipline. The Biology student will be able to think like a biologist if the student masters the threshold concept of “photosynthesis”. The electrical apprentice will think like a professional electrician if the apprentice can analyse, understand and overcome the threshold concept of  an “electrical circuit”.

Features of a threshold concept, courtesy of Land, Meyer and Baillie, 2010.

 

Cousin (2006), posits that learning from “easy” to “difficult” is not a simple thing, the mastery of a threshold concept is a challenging prospect. The student will go back and forth covering conceptual territories.  

Here is a youtube link, explaining what Meyer means by the theory "Threshold Concept"   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtgdajSQlTk 

Blogging has made me hungry, Oh Ya...it's official my short term memory is shot. I could not remember and recall the originators and authors of the theory "Threshold Concept" in the class exercise. I'm off to take a bite, that should aid my memory....till later.