Transforming Perspectives

Technology to Support the Teaching and Learning of Threshold Concepts

Project Activities and Outcomes

Activities

20-21 September 2006: TEL Conference, Wolverhampton Members of the project team attended the TEL Conference and made a presentation of the project aims and activities.

19 October 2006: TEL Seminar, London Knowledge Lab Members of the project team attended the TEL Seminar on 'Knowledge Cumulation'.

20-22 November 2006: TLRP Annual Conference, Glasgow Members of the project team attended the TLRP Annual Conference and presented a short paper on Initiating Interdisciplinary Discourse.

8 December 2006: TEL Seminar, Sussex University, Brighton Patrick Carmichael and Richard Procter (CARET) attended the TEL Seminar on 'Technology Enhanced Research' and presented an account of their work researching user activity and collaboration in online spaces.

16 January 2006: TEL Seminar, Edinburgh Naomi Irvine attended the TEL Seminar on 'Capacity Building'.

September 2007: BERA Conference, IOE, London The Project team presented a paper in the Higher Education conference stream.

Case Studies

Participants in project seminars have produced case studies of candidate threshold concepts in their own disciplines. You can download A2 posters of these here:

Author Discipline Candidate Threshold Concept
Clare Folkes Biomedical and Health Sciences The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health
Dan Sheppard Computer Science Y and Recursion
Aidan Reilly and Hugh Hunt Engineering Spin
Christopher Burlinson English Ethical Reading
Lucy Taylor and Keith Macaulay Plant Sciences C4 Photosynthesis
Fran Tracy, Katy Jordan and Keith Johnstone Plant Sciences Photoprotection
Lee Wilson and David Leitner Social Anthropology Reflexivity
Richard Procter Sports Science The Static Paddle
Andrew Brown Comparative Religion Biblical Texts as Literary Texts

Publications and Other Outcomes

You can download a 'flyer' describing the project as a Word Document or as a PDF Document.

An account of the background to the project and its relation to other research and development activities undertaken by the project team is presented in:

Carmichael, P., Johnstone, K., Tracy, F. and Burchmore, H. (2007 forthcoming) 'Threshold Concepts: an Emerging Interdisciplinary Research Agenda in Higher Education Research' in: D. Good, S. Greenwald, R. Cox, and M. Goldman (eds.) University Cooperation for Innovation: Lessons from the Cambridge-MIT Institute (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers)

A paper was presented at the SGAI Conference in Cambridge in December 2006 on Threshold Concepts and one of the potential technologies which might support their teaching and learning:

Taylor, K. , Carmichael, P and Irvine, N. (2006) 'Developing an Adaptive Tutoring Environment to Support the Teaching and Learning of Threshold Concepts' Paper presented at the BCS Special-interest Group on Artifical Intelligence Workshop: 'AI and Education', 11 December 2006 Peterhouse, Cambridge.

Naomi Irvine and Patrick Carmichael presented a paper on the work of the project and some emerging findings to the 2007 conference of BERA. This can be downloaded here: http://www.caret.cam.ac.uk/tel/downloads/tel_bera_paper.pdf.

The Project Literature Review, compiled by Helen Burchmore, Naomi Irvine and Patrick Carmichael was completed and submitted to ESRC as an illustrative output of the project. This can be downloaded here: http://www.caret.cam.ac.uk/tel/downloads/tel_literature_review.pdf.

center for Applied Research in Educational Technologies, University of Cambridge Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge Rainbow Research Group, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge Teaching and Learning Research Programme