Practice and Evidence of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
This journal offers an opportunity for those involved in University learning and teaching to disseminate their practice. It aims to publish accounts of scholarly practice that report on small-scale practitioner research and case studies of practice in a way that is not just descriptive but involves reflection, critique and implications for future practice and are informed by relevant literature. This publication thus offers a forum to develop and share scholarly informed practice in Higher Education through either works in progress or more detailed accounts of scholarly practice. There will be opportunities for discussions/comments regarding works in progress to be shared with journal readers on the journal site. The journal is published twice a year.
Authors retain the copyright for their work, while granting the journal the exclusive right of first publication. By virtue of their appearance in this open access journal, articles are free to use, with proper attribution, in educational and other non-commercial settings.
Authentic learning activities in engineering design course: What works well to cultivate engineers Australia’s professional attributes?
Authentic learning activities can help learners integrate knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for effective task performance similar to those they may encounter in the workplace. We developed a teaching and learning model that was connected and relevant to the students’ future workplaces with the goal of building authentic learning and assessment into a computer-aided design (CAD) course. New authentic elements such as project-based learning (PBL), electronic assessment, 3D printing and peer assessment were added progressively to cultivate life-long learning skills. This study was conducted to determine how the authentic learning activities and assessment methods influenced the overall course satisfaction and experiences of authentic learning among first-year undergraduate students studying the CAD course as part of their engineering degrees. Annual cohorts from Semester 1, 2014 to 2019 were included in this study. A qualitative research design, involving multiple data collection points via an online questionnaire, was used in this study. Content analysis was used to summarise students’ feedback and determine themes used to inform improvements needed. The results of this study suggest that the authentic learning activities had a positive impact on students’ learning outcomes and overall satisfaction with the course. A majority of students believed that the learning activities in the course embraced a hands-on approach that was closely associated with real-life workplace situations and they were able to apply their knowledge to support self-directed and independent learning.
With a big sigh of relief for our extremely patient authors, we, at last, bring you the latest issue of PESTLHE. We have five papers here that the authors have been waiting to be published for a long time now. Thank you to all of you for working with our reviewers who make this all possible. The last 20 months have been interesting, challenging and a whole host of words and sentiments that I could list here. Each of us has and continues to experience the pandemic very differently. One thing we know is that all of us that share a passion and enthusiasm for SoTL as a way of being educators in higher education today have cherished our communities more than ever before as we share the highs and lows of the evolution and revolutions that colleagues and we have made to their teaching. Thank goodness for your generosity to share this with our constant focus on enhancing our students' learning experiences. So let us continue to ensure strong SoTL underpins decision making about future teaching and learning in higher education whilst we balance the new opportunities new ways of teaching and learning have afforded us without being too quick to remove some of our traditions and reassuring customs and practices. Go gently with yourself and your colleagues, and this will ensure a compassionate, kind and caring higher education that embraces all our students to flourish.
Embedding reflection on graduate attributes in the psychology curriculum
Psychology graduates face a volatile job market: promotion of their skills is increasingly important, yet they often lack awareness of and engagement with their Graduate Attributes (GAs); the employability skills developed throughout university in order to prepare them for the world of work. To address this, we designed, implemented and evaluated a GA reflective activity in a UK university. Undergraduate psychology students completed a measure of their self-efficacy in GAs (GASE) before and after taking part in a GA reflective activity. Students were asked to provide qualitative feedback on the value of the activity. GASE was higher after the activity but this effect was relatively small. A thematic analysis indicated that the activity was valued, but students wanted clearer guidance on the development and application of GAs. In summary, the GA activity had a marginal impact on GA self-efficacy and appeared to raise awareness of GAs and career goals. This reflective activity can be embedded in the curriculum as a stand-alone workshop or as part of personal development planning. Further work is needed to support students in identifying opportunities for skill development.
Plotting a route through SoTL: From bioscientist to pedagogic researcher
Despite increasing interest and engagement with SoTL the definition of, and what activities constitute, SoTL remain open to debate. This paper is aimed at life science academics whose primary role is within teaching and learning. It aims to provide support in plotting a route through SoTL to enhance professional practice, student learning, and consider promotion and reward. Given the current focus on teaching quality this paper may also be of use in a wider context. We explore models of SoTL, opportunities and pitfalls in SoTL, and strategies to develop an understanding of, and engagement with SoTL. In the latter part of this paper we consider colleagues’ experiences with SoTL, outlining the benefits of SoTL in enhancing individual practice and the student experience, leading to the development of an audit tool to encourage educators to reflect on their SOTL practice.
Copyright (c) 2021 Anne Tierney, Dorothy Aidulis, Julian Park, Katherine Clark
The Effect of Feedback Type on Academic Performance
Abstract Feedback is arguably the most important aspect of an assessment process, but its impacts are highly variable. Although universities have begun exploring new feedback types, very little is known about the impact of these on students’ academic performance. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of three types of feedback (written; audio; and face-to-face) on the academic performance of level six undergraduate students. This study recruited 91 level six physical education students from a University in the South of England. The students completed two assessments (A and B) that were assessed according to the same assessment criteria. Following Assessment A the students received either written feedback, audio feedback, or face-to-face feedback. The students were advised to utilise the feedback to positively impact their academic performance in Assessment B. The effect of the feedback on student grades between the two assessment points was measured. Analysis of the results showed a significant effect depending on the feedback type. Written feedback had limited impact on the assessment grade. However, both audio and face-to-face feedback resulted in a significant improvement in assessment grade. The findings suggest that audio and face-to-face feedback may enhance student engagement in the feedback process and that these types of feedback could improve academic performance by offering richer and clearer feedback.
Copyright (c) 2021 Practice and Evidence of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
Enhancing the Assessment Literacy of Distance Learning Students: A Case Study
Actively engaging students with mark schemes has been shown to improve their subsequent assessment performance. However, such activities rely on a degree of tactic knowledge transfer which can be difficult for large cohorts or distance learning students. This case study considers whether online discussion around a generic task can help distance learners improve their assessment literacy. Distance learning students engaged in a task to design their own mark scheme and use it to mark a series of ‘mock papers’ designed to mimic a range of common marking situations e.g. fail, including irrelevant material, plagiarism. The marks of the first essay these students subsequently undertook did not significantly differ irrespective of whether they had participated in this task. However, the range of marks obtained by those that did not engage in the task was significantly more variable that by those who had engaged (F-variance test, p=0.0003), suggesting the task may help to bring consistency to the performance and expectations of students from a range of academic background. The views of students on this task were positive with three quarters agreeing that it had improved their understanding of mark schemes and over 60% (63%) confirming it would help them to grade their own work in the future. This case study illustrates that interactive campus-based tasks designed to improve student’s assessment literacy can be converted into e-learning sessions that enable the explicit exploration of tacit knowledge.
How much importance do prospective teachers attach to facts? Comments on empirical results at the University of Bielefeld (Germany) in the subject history
What do history teachers think about hermeneutics? It is one of their main tasks to teach the handling with facts, historical sources and historiography. In particular, considering prominent forms like alternative facts or fake news, facts seem to be a really problematic item – not only in history classes. How severe are they? Do they represent the truth? With this in mind, it is important to check in how far students becoming teachers attach importance to this item. During empirical studies at the University of Bielefeld in researching students´ competencies in history (narrative and hermeneutic competencies) – part of the main project BiProfessional – we have received some interesting findings about defining and dealing with facts. Since 2016 we have been testing students enrolled in the Master of Education, who were prepared and attended academically while they completed their practical training at school. By attending them, we could manage to get some hints about their educational level in said competencies. Students´ thoughts about facts is one item of the testing design. The paper will present aspects of design and instrument in main focusing facts and report about previous results and consequences, which also will be discussed in the context of teacher training and the academic education of students.
Copyright (c) 2020 Practice and Evidence of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
Welcome to the first issue for 2020 (and we regrettably say since 2018). We are now in our 14th year of publication and have at last upgraded our journal systems so we are able to run a supported journal by a hosting company and slightly jazz up our ‘look’. This is with great thanks to Sam Nolan (Durham University, UK) on the editorial board supporting this funds to make this happen. We are getting used to the upgrade in terms of background operations and like all new software it’s an improvement only when you know how to do all the things you used to be able to do and discover the new features as well.
Graduate students’ motivations for participating in development workshops
Despite a clear interest in and demand for professional development opportunities, attendance is consistently poor for many development workshops. The aim of this project was to gain a better understanding of PGRs’ motivation for attending or not attending professional development workshops in order to explore potential areas for action which may improve future attendance rates. Initial evidence was gathered through a survey circulated to a large number of PGRs. Themes emerging form the survey were explored further through a pair of focus group interviews. PGRs are motivated to register for workshops seen as relating specifically to the process of completing a PhD such as viva preparation, thesis writing or research methodologies. Despite being relevant, the consequence of attending is sometimes seen as too high and other commitments such as PhD research, teaching responsibilities and other work, take priority at the last minute. This unpredictability is leading not only to low workshop attendance, but also high stress levels among PGRs. Based on these findings three key areas for action are proposed. Firstly, ensuring that specific benefits of participation are clear and relevant to individual participants. Secondly, ensuring our programmes are flexible enough to be accessible in light of the very unpredictable and diverse PGR contexts. This means diversifying our delivery modes to include on-line and remote access as well as asynchronous engagement opportunities. Finally, addressing the need for mental health support by recognizing and expanding how we can use our programmes to build resilient communities and peer support networks.
First encounters of receiving summative assessment feedback in audio format: expectations and experiences of final year undergraduate sport coaching students
Research suggests traditional written feedback may fail to adequately engage significant numbers of current higher education (HE) students. In recent years, university cohorts across wide-ranging disciplines have embraced audio feedback favourably, viewing it as a valuable strategy for enhancing capacity to learn confidently, competently and autonomously. Current understanding of audio feedback effectiveness with sports coaching students is limited, which is surprising considering coaching is an area where effective feedback provision is fundamental to athlete learning, motivation and progression. Employing surveys and semi-structured interviews, this study provides insight into the expectations and experiences of an undergraduate sport coaching cohort at a United Kingdom (UK) university after receiving summative assessment audio feedback for the first time. Student views were positively framed, providing strong evidence of the approaches value in supporting feedback literacy development and feeding forward. Implications to aid future practice and policy are discussed.
Development of online activities to support PGCE students' academic writing
This article outlines a collaboration between the Foundation Centre and the Education PGCE department at Durham University to support student teachers on a particular academic writing assignment (the Self Directed Study assignment). This project involved designing online academic writing activities tailored especially to the assignment. These activities made use of excerpts of exemplar student writing as well as the FOCUS corpus, a Foundation Centre initiated database of “good” (2:1 or First) Durham University student writing. The article outlines the challenges for the students with this particular assignment, details of the collaboration, student feedback from the first roll out of the activities as well as future steps in this ongoing project.
‘Not just men in grey suits’: an Accounting, Finance and Business Massive Open Online Course
In 2014, ICAEW asked the University of Leeds (UoL) to co-develop an accounting and finance massive open online course (MOOC), ‘The Importance of Money in Business’. The target audience was pre-university and undergraduate students. This article explains the development process, structure and pedagogies, and analyses learner characteristics, behaviour and feedback using a range of data. It builds on prior literature and a research programme at UoL (Elston and Morris, 2015; Morris, Hotchkiss & Swinnerton, 2015; Swinnerton, Hotchkiss, Morris & Pickering, 2017a; Swinnerton, Hotchkiss & Morris, 2017b), which has developed and delivered more than 30 FutureLearn MOOCs across a range of subjects. The development process took 15 months to develop a four week course, and included a range of resources and activities including animated video, interactive exercises and quizzes. Over 18,000 people enrolled on two runs of the course. This article contributes to the literature by providing insights into the development and delivery of the course, its learners, their preferences and behaviours while taking the course, which will assist others embarking on MOOC or online learning development.
Investigating Instruction for Non-Traditional Students Using Brookfield’s Critical Incident Questionnaire
As educators, we strive for continuous improvement in order to make our instruction more meaningful and engaging for all learners. Brookfield (1998; 2015) believes that critical reflective practices allow practitioners to thoughtfully and carefully consider their actions while focusing on the needs of the students. According to Brookfield (1995), educators who provide opportunities to reflect through journaling and interactive engagements are best able to meet the needs of the learners, thus making theory and practice, and the scholarship of teaching and learning, most beneficial for all. The purpose of this study was to determine what, if any, instructional methods impacted pre-service teachers’ perceptions regarding engagement and support. In addition, the impact of the instructor’s teaching practices within the classroom were also investigated. The following research question guided this study: How do students perceive the level of engagement and support fostered within an undergraduate college course as determined by the use of the Critical Incident Questionnaire (CIQ)? Participants, all of whom were pre-service teachers, were given Brookfield’s Critical Incident Questionnaire (1995) during the course. The initial survey was used to determine their perceptions of the impact of instruction and learning methods. The second administration of the survey was used to ascertain if changes made in instruction based on initial survey results helped to positively impact student engagement and support as perceived by the pre-service teachers.
Predicting the Aspirations of Vocational Learners: A Pilot Study
Since the late 1990’s, both nationwide and local initiatives have been focussed on reducing the disparity in higher education (HE) participation for underrepresented groups. More commonly known as ‘widening participation’ (WP), these initiatives increasingly focused on raising the awareness, aspirations and attainment levels of young people from low socioeconomic backgrounds. It has been widely recognised that background characteristics may contribute to determining a young person’s aspirations, influencing the educational or employment pathways they follow in the future. This study explores the background characteristics and aspirations of student’s studying vocational programmes (BTEC National Diploma) at further education (FE) colleges in the south west of England. The findings of the student sample demonstrate firstly that females are over three times more likely to aspire to attend university than males. Students who attend secondary schools with higher achievement rates are more likely to aspire to attend HE, and students who have two parents that have HE qualifications are over three times more likely to aspire to attend university themselves. The study concludes more needs to be done in order to raise aspirations and support young people to attend HE, especially those young people currently studying post-16 vocational pathways.
Copyright (c) 2018 Practice and Evidence of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
Integrated and situated academic development for all categories of staff: lessons for constructive alignment from an HEA-accredited Continuing Professional Development scheme
Higher Education Academy (HEA) Fellowship and the UK Professional Standards Frameworks (UKPSF) are increasingly used within British higher education institutions to support the professional formation of university teachers. This paper evaluates the use of practitioner inquiry within an HEA-accredited scheme (OpenPAD) to support the professional development of part-time Associate Lecturers at a large distance-learning institution. OpenPAD was available between 2013 and 2016 to all academic and academic-related staff in the Open University, including the 5000+ part-time teaching-only staff who are the main focus of this evaluation. OpenPAD used situated learning through practitioner inquiry to generate evidence against the UKPSF. Participant experience is evaluated and lessons drawn, which may have implications for similar schemes in other institutions. Opportunities for the further integration of academic development opportunities for all categories of staff in a successor scheme are identified in a proposed alignment between academic development; career-related processes such as induction and appraisal; institutional teaching and learning policies; and scholarship agendas.
A hybrid, gamified and mystery-driven approach for facilitating problem based learning in a postgraduate strength and conditioning module
This study examined students’ experience of a gamified, mystery-driven problem based learning approach in a postgraduate strength and conditioning module. A series of mystery packages were delivered to the students over a 4 week period providing information that was potentially relevant to their problem scenario. Focus group interviews revealed that students believed the approach was interactive, developed new skills and was vocationally relevant. However, students felt confused by the approach, perceiving this to be negative, unaware that the confusing elements were designed to prompt deeper learning. This study suggests that this approach can add value to the postgraduate experience.
Do Digital Technologies Enhance Anatomical Education?
Anatomy has been taught by traditional methods for centuries. However, there has been an explosion of a variety of digital training resources for anatomical education. There is also a requirement from regulatory bodies to embrace digital technologies in teaching, yet no formal analysis has been undertaken as to the effectiveness of these products and tools. A comprehensive electronic database search was performed to identify the use, and effectiveness or otherwise, of digital technologies in anatomy, medicine, surgery, dentistry and the allied health professions. The data was pooled, analysed and we identified 164 articles. We identified two groups – those that did, and those that did not, have empirical data for analysis of the effectiveness of digital technologies in anatomical education. We identified three categories within this –pro, neutral and against the use of digital technologies. For the pro category, there were 35 (21.3%) empirically tested articles, and 91 (55.5%) non-empirically tested articles identified. In the neutral category, there were 19 (11.6%) empirically tested articles, and 16 (9.8%) non-empirically tested articles. Only 3 articles were against the use of digital technologies, and were in the empirically tested category. The majority of literature related to digital technologies in anatomical education is supportive of its use. However, most of the literature is not supported with empirical data related to the use of digital technologies in anatomy specific education within the health and related disciplines. Further studies need to be conducted as to the effectiveness of technology in medical/healthcare related education.
Welcome to the first issue for 2018 and our 13th year of publication. We would like to thank all our authors for submitting such valuable papers for us all to enjoy and learn from. Also a huge thank you to the behind scenes work of the reviewers whose constructive and timely feedback on submissions enables PESTLHE to continue scholarly accounts of educational practices in higher education.
Enhancing graduate attributes and employability through initiatives with external partners
This research explores how projects with external partners can help enhance the employability-related attributes of higher education students, and is based on a combination of prior literature and an institutional initiative using projects as an alternative to the well-respected dissertation. Initiatives between higher education institutions and external organisations exist in many forms and the students in this research are shown to improve their understanding of the needs of external organisations, while enhancing their self-confidence and team-working abilities. The degree programme studied is in its sixth year and good balances of students have chosen between the project and dissertation options, slightly more the former. In addition to supporting the development of the students’ employability-related attributes, outward-facing activities such as these are also potentially of help to the higher education institution itself as the student experience is enriched and this ultimately supports any efforts being made to rise up many of the university ranking schemes.
Copyright (c) 2017 Practice and Evidence of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
Assessing Final-Year Practical Work Through Group Projects
The final year project is a valuable research experience for undergraduates and can be one of the most rewarding aspects of their degree course. With increasing student numbers it is becoming more difficult to supervise students effectively, as truly independent enquiry-based working requires significant supervision, time and resource. To address this, the Department of Chemistry at the University of Reading has recently explored the use of group projects for final year practical work. Students work in teams of 3 to 5 and are presented with a research problem to investigate. These are genuine problems where the answer is unknown and the work open-ended. The students must work together to investigate the problem, dividing the work and sharing results in a manner that more closely resembles project working outside of academia. The students’ output is assessed through a variety of means including a group presentation and report. The projects were successful, with all students completing the work to a satisfactory level and developing strong team-working skills. This paper will outline some of the issues faced in the first year of delivery, and the steps taken to alleviate them.
Realising the potential of sessional staff as educational scholars.
Larger and more diverse group of students are now entering university (Prichard, 2006). To accommodate this, free up staff for research and to save money, most HEIs now use sessional lecturers to teach (Bryson, 2013; Crimmins, 2016). Literature which considers this group of staff, who may have come from another career path, focusses on the need to develop them as pedagogues (for example, Sutherland and Gilbert, 2013; Byers and Tani, 2014) and this seems valid given the need to develop teaching excellence, however it is defined. It discusses the need to provide training opportunities that can be accessed at convenient times, and to provide mentors and support from full time staff. This paper argues that whilst there may be some sessional staff for whom this is needed, there is also a group of qualified, sessional lecturers who have chosen to be professional teachers. This group, should they be able to become fully involved in teaching focussed research, conducted collaboratively with full time academics, could develop teaching excellence and become valuable resources for their employers, committed to improving the student learning experience. It presents the case study of two such sessional staff, working as part of a small research group, to illustrate how communities of practice can help them develop an academic identity (Webb, Wong and Hubbell, 2013; Seemiller and Priest, 2015) and, in doing so, improve student learning, develop teaching excellence and increase staff motivation and engagement levels.
Teaching less popular modules, putting ideas into practice
Most programmes contain one or two modules that are very unpopular with students. These are often core modules which are considered by academics to provide important foundation knowledge, for example statistics and research methods modules or subjects requiring a different knowledge base to the rest of the programme. This paper focuses on a slightly different type of problem subject, Public Sector Management, an optional module that was so unpopular with students that it had not run for several years. Ideas and best practice guidance from teaching and learning literature (in particular Warwick & Ottewill 2004, and Fallows & Ahmet 1999) are reconsidered in this new context. The outcome of the module review highlights the need for emphasis to be placed on demonstrating the relevance of the teaching material and helping the students to experience the subject rather than simply studying it. Further, we demonstrate value in identifying an aspect of the optional subject that will be more appealing to students than the previous offering; in this case the opportunity to look at issues through a management consultancy lens. The article argues for the importance of reconsidering problem subjects as key challenges that can act as a spur to innovation in the design and delivery of these modules.
‘Find the Gap’: can a multidisciplinary group of university teachers influence leaning and teaching practice?
Abstract This paper describes and analyses a year’s project undertaken by a small, multidisciplinary group of academic staff in a UK post -1992 university. The purpose of the group was to: take a scholarly and inquiring approach to learning and teaching; build staff confidence and expertise in teaching and leadership in teaching; and offer a model of a potential approach to institutional change in educational practice. The project involved colleagues with interest and expertise in teaching sharing ideas for practice together through dialogue. They also undertook an Appreciative Inquiry into effective professional learning in this field and shared the findings with colleagues and institutional leaders. Evaluation identified individuals’ professional learning over the year and their growth in confidence to share practice ideas beyond the local. Barriers to using this approach for university practice development included perceived issues of authority to act in an institutional context, and performative approaches to change in teaching. Colleagues identified that they needed to find ‘gaps’ in allocated time schedules and in perceptions of teaching development and leadership if they are to influence more than their own practice. It is suggested that universities need to build the expertise and leadership capacities of academic staff with knowledge and skills in teaching by bringing them together in multidisciplinary groups to share ideas and create new practice. Gaps in policies and systems need to be opened up to enable these colleagues to have time and opportunities to work together, network with others and enhance university educational practice.
Guest Editorial - Special Issue: ELSTIS16
In this short editorial, we’ll discuss the second Enhancing Student Learning through Innovative Scholarship conference, of which this volume contains contributed papers. This conference, the second national meeting open to all teaching (as opposed to teaching/research) focussed academic took place at University College London in June 2016.
Using audio diaries to identify threshold concepts in ‘softer’ disciplines: a focus on medical education
Within Medical Education students more readily engage with the ‘hard’ sciences seeing sociology, psychology and ethics as ‘nice’ rather than ‘need’ to know. Yet within the published literature, there has been little research into students’ experiences of these subjects. In this paper we discuss a research method that allows the application of threshold concept theory to the exploration of the process of ‘non-biomedical science learning in medical education’. 16 students from a UK medical school were asked to record on their smart phones, their experiences of ‘doctor facilitated’ small group sessions. The students uploaded their recordings to a secure drop box facility and recordings were removed daily and transcribed. 68 transcripts were analysed for both substantive concepts and exemplars (within students’ language) of threshold concept criteria. Concepts were then cross-referenced against threshold criteria. Where concepts appeared to meet the criteria of transformation, liminality, integration and troublesomeness we speculated that these might be ‘threshold’. Audio diaries appear to be a promising methodology for applying threshold concept theory to understanding learning. The study provided an insight into students’ experiences. We learned that our students currently re-appropriate sociological ideas to the medical setting often finding new terminologies situated in their own ‘student speak’. We were able to spot gaps in their learning and notice how and where students get ‘stuck’. A resolvable limitation is we were unable to test for irreversibility. We also found little evidence of boundedness leading us to speculate about the nature of threshold concepts in the non-biomedical sciences.
Threshold Concepts and Authentic Assessment: Learning to Think Like an Occupational Therapist
Threshold concepts have been used to inform curriculum design in a number of disciplines including occupational therapy. Assessment is integral for effective learning within curricula, however, limited attention has focused on how assessment can be utilised to help students engage with threshold concepts. This mixed methods research explored students’ and academics’ experiences of engagement with threshold concepts through assessment tasks. Authentic assessment activities were designed to engage students with the threshold concepts embedded within three consecutive pre-clinical child and youth courses of undergraduate and graduate entry masters occupational therapy curricula. All students completing these courses (n=224) were invited to participate in on-line surveys and focus groups. Academic staff (n=4) involved with the courses participated in an individual or group interview. These were transcribed and content analysed to establish emerging themes. Results indicated that all assessment activities provided opportunities for students to engage with the five identified threshold concepts. Two key themes emerged. First, “Pulling it all together” related to how students viewed assessment activities as facilitating integration of knowledge, and development of identity as therapists. Second, “Moving from stuck places” reflected the supports that assisted them at different stages of their learning journey. Authentic assessment activities enabled students to engage with troublesome knowledge and demonstrate threshold crossing. Facilitators and barriers to student engagement with these activities were identified that can inform the development of assessment to support learning within a threshold concepts informed curriculum.
Understanding evidence in scientific disciplines: identifying and mapping ‘the thinking behind the doing’ and its importance in curriculum development
Understanding research, the uncertainty of the resultant data and research claims are widely held aims of HE science curricula. Expertise in scientific research involves, inter alia, an understanding of evidence. The underpinning knowledge-base of evidence can be specified – the concepts of evidence – and represented as a conceptual network of ideas an understanding of which underpins decisions made while conducting research and also forms the basis of evaluation of others’ research; the ‘thinking behind the doing’ of research expertise. Students’ responses to an undergraduate module that explicitly teaches the concepts of evidence so that students can conduct open-ended investigations and evaluate others’ research are reported. The implications of this conceptualisation of research expertise for curriculum specification, approaches to teaching and assessment and for Threshold Concept research are discussed.
In the liminal space: software design as a threshold skill
In previous work we proposed the idea of ‘threshold skills’ as a complement to threshold concepts. The definition of threshold concepts assumes that theoretical knowledge is paramount: gaining the understanding of particular concepts irreversibly transforms the learners. We noted, however, that mastering computing, like many disciplines, requires learning a combination of concepts and skills, and we suggested that this required further investigation. In this paper we examine the activity of designing software as a possible example of such a threshold skill. We looked at 35 software designs collected from students nearing graduation in computing courses, and see many of the characteristics of threshold skill and also of students being in liminal space. A close examination of the students’ designs leads to some useful implications for teaching this fundamental activity.
Identifying Threshold Concepts in Physics: too many to count!
This study used a variety of methodologies to outline the omnipresence of Threshold Concepts in Physics. We found out that interview methods searching for Threshold Concepts have to be discipline-specific. We pointed out that transformative thinking through recursiveness takes place in two directions. Quantitative methods borrowed from Physics Education Research may not work well when used to ascertain the experimental uncertainty as a Threshold Concept.
Stokes’ Theorem: A candidate threshold concept.
An investigation into whether Stokes’ Theorem, a mathematical concept in the field of Vector Calculus, is a threshold concept was conducted. This concept is taught as part of a second year undergraduate course for physicists at the University of Bristol. The investigation has two phases; first a theoretical examination of some of the criteria of a threshold concept to see if Stokes’ theorem fits them, and then a student survey to analyse the applicability of the threshold concept label from the more subjective point of view of the learner. It was found that there is compelling evidence to support the case that Stokes’ Theorem is indeed a threshold concept, and a brief discussion is made to assess how this identification can inform teaching and learning methods.