Threshold concept
Définition
The Meyer and Land Threshold Concept “The idea of threshold concepts emerged from a UK national research project into the possible characteristics of strong teaching and learning environments in the disciplines for undergraduate education (Enhancing Teaching-Learning Environments in Undergraduate Courses). In pursuing this research in the field of economics, it became clear to Erik Meyer and Ray Land [1-9, 10-16], that certain concepts were held by economists to be central to the mastery of their subject. These concepts, Meyer and Land argued, could be described as ‘threshold’ ones because they have certain features in common.”
Features of a Threshold Concept:
- Transformative: Once understood, a threshold concept changes the way in which the student views the discipline.
- Troublesome: Threshold concepts are likely to be troublesome for the student. Perkins [1999, 2006] has suggested that knowledge can be troublesome e.g. when it is counter-intuitive, alien or seemingly incoherent.
- Irreversible: Given their transformative potential, threshold concepts are also likely to be irreversible, i.e. they are difficult to unlearn.
- Integrative: Threshold concepts, once learned, are likely to bring together different aspects of the subject that previously did not appear, to the student, to be related.
- Bounded: A threshold concept will probably delineate a particular conceptual space, serving a specific and limited purpose..
- Discursive: Meyer and Land [10] suggest that the crossing of a threshold will incorporate an enhanced and extended use of language.
- Reconstitutive: "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 (Smith)".
- Liminality: Meyer and Land [13] have likened the crossing of the pedagogic threshold to a ‘rite of passage’ (drawing on the ethnographical studies of Gennep and Turner in which a transitional or liminal space has to be traversed; “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. (Cousin [7])”.
Synonymes
Traduit en français comme concept seuil ou concept clé.
Nombreuses similitudes avec l'obstacle épistémologique (avec une nette différence, d'après Ray land sur le fait qu'il n'y a pas forcément de préconception fausse dans le threshold concept).
Ressources
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Site web réalisé par les auteurs (Erik Meyer, Ray Land) http://www.ee.ucl.ac.uk/~mflanaga/thresholds.html