Who’s at the Door? Vantage Point in Threshold Concepts
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Transcript Who’s at the Door? Vantage Point in Threshold Concepts
Bottlenecks, Thresholds,
and Transformers:
New Ways to Look
at Old Content
Jane S. Halonen
University of West Florida
Wellsprings of this Approach
Ray Land, originator of
“threshold concepts”
Ray Land
Wellsprings of this Approach
Ray Land, originator of
“threshold concepts”
Rob McEntarffer,
proposer of single index
assessment items at last year’s
BEST PRACTICE CONFERENCE
Rob McEntarffer
Wellsprings of this Approach
Ray Land, originator of
“threshold concepts”
Rob McEntarffer,
proposer of single index
assessment items at last year’s
BEST PRACTICE CONFERENCE
J. William Hepler,
my introductory teacher
at Butler University
(Go, Bulldogs!)
A reasonable facsimile
Proceed from these assumptions..
Psychology is not just built
from concepts; it has now run
amok.
Not all psychology concepts
are
Easy to learn
Easy to teach
Equally valuable
We must make judicious
selections.
What is a bottleneck concept?
Concepts that produce a reliable struggle to understand.
[Sometimes they are also threshold concepts.]
Bottleneck Exemplar
What student in his or
her right mind
would understand
functionalism
vs.
structuralism
on first exposure ?
What is a threshold concept?
Threshold concepts have extra
impact in imparting the nature
of the DISCIPLINE.
Students stand on one side;
teachers, through skilled
teaching, stand on the other
and pull students across to the
enlightened side.
Threshold Exemplar
“the power of controlled
comparison”
Students don’t easily get
correlational vs. experimental
design
Consequently, isolated terms
are difficult to understand and
apply
What’s wrong with this picture?
What is a transformative concept?
A concept that fundamentally
changes who you are and how
you think. The impact is
PERSONAL.
Some bottleneck and
threshold concepts can
become transformers.
Transformers
Involve an “a ha” moment
when your new understanding
had profound effects on you
May or may not be in the
classroom
May or may not have been
instrumental in declaring a
major
Transformer Exemplar
Defense Mechanisms
Everybody does it
It distorts the truth
It makes your anxiety go away
People can’t realize they are
doing it or it doesn’t work
…I do it, too!
What are the concepts
in introductory psychology
with the highest impact?
Let the data sharing begin!
Take a moment and see
if you can identify
a psychology concept that was
“high impact” for you when
you were starting out and
explain it to your neighbor.
Propose the category into
which you think it fits best:
Bottleneck
Threshold
Transformer
Pilot Study
I asked my honors students
to identify the most
transformative concepts
Taint of pandering
Confusion between content
area and concept
2nd Attempt:
Dr. Awesome’s Intro Class
Inquired about hard
CONTENT/chapter area
followed by CONCEPT
Inquired about easy
CONTENT/chapter area
followed by CONCEPT
Followed up by asking about
Transformative CONCEPT
Executed through extra credit
opportunity at the end of
exam while everything is
FRESH
Dr. Tom Westcott
What content is hard?
“Stuff on the brain” = 23 %
Emotions = 10%
Cognition = 7%
Abnormal = 5%
Language = 4%
Memorable comments
“Remembering the names of
the ‘state the obvious’
theorists”
“Too many theories”
“The lecture”
“Theories I don’t agree with”
“I’m very thickheaded and
that was too much
information to learn”
Hardest Concept
Hormone release and function
Piaget’s theories (3)
Sleep phases
Peripheral nervous system
Neurotransmitters
Language acquisition
Self-awareness
Personality disorders (2)
Schachter
IQ
Decay theory
Yerkes Dodson
Evolutionary theory
Emotional intelligence
Arousal
Phoneme
Erickson’s theory
Creativity
Negative reinforcement
Darwin
Hardest Concept
US = UR, CS = CR
“Endrocrent” system
Learning theories
Latent and manifest content
Probability
Negative/positive correlation
Dream cycles
Natural and artificial concepts
Push pull theory
Neurological reaction stimulus
Experimental theories
And my personal favorite
Internal “focus” on control
What about transformation?
Of 216 responses
64 (30%) said none occurred
24 (11%) discussed an idea too vaguely to count
128 (59%) offered at least one specific concept
136 concepts were identified in total
Why no transformation?
“I’ve had the class before.”
“Interesting stuff but just another gen ed class.”
“Learned a lot but not life changing.”
“Not really transformation, but my thought processes on
human behavior have been altered.”
“Psych is interesting but all just based on common sense.”
“..but I’m keeping the book”
Attitude and Self-Control (25)
Attitude is key to 90% of situations
You can choose to be mad
I’m trying to be more patient and think things through
After a bad shot, I don’t dwell on it. I just move on.
There isn’t any such thing as a bad day
You decide to let things bother you
Memory & Study Strategies (29)
How to remember 100 things
How to remember multiple things clearly
Best to study in 20 minute blocks for optimal retention
“Awesome”
Life Skills (13)
Ask open ended questions when people are upset
How to talk to others
How to look at people and the world
Reading people
I am more observant
I better understand people. In fact, I changed my major
because of this course.
Sleep & Dreaming (11)
1/3 of our lives sleeping!
I focus more on dreams than before
Titling your dreams will help you remember them
Motivation & Emotion (11)
Different reasons behind peoples’ actions
How a person deals with stress and its effects on the body
Stress because I’m a very busy, stressful person
Sensation & Perception (11)
Made me want to go to medical school to study more
about the human body
Everything we see around us is actually a figment of
imagination
How the brain works and can be tricked
I had no idea images were upside down and our brain fixes
them to be upright
Pathology (9)
Mental disorders opened my eyes to suffering and we
don’t take the time to care
Throughout the course I was getting free counseling to
deal with my wife and kids just be attending the class
I have cancer. Anxiety and depression made me realize a
lot of people suffer
Better able to understand my friend’s schizophrenia
Deception (6)
I can tell if someone is being deceitful or not
Learning how to predict deception in others
Learning (5)
You can learn new things or ideas as you get older in life
The marshmallow effect
The idea that mental “fortacies” can contribute to learning
barriers
I am not sure what it is called but the story where the rat
wants food and he has the shocker in front of him and he
turns around multiple times. I can relate this to peoples’
relationships around me.
Others
Social (5): territorial space, persuasion, love and distance
Personality (4)
Child behavior (3)
Creativity (1)
Research (1): how correlations work and what it really
means to have a relationship between two things
What’s Wrong with This Picture?
Context didn’t produce solid reflection.
“Concepts” is an expert, not a novice, organizer.
Is it expecting to much for an introductory psychology
course to be transformative?
Hit rate for transformation is likely to improve with
declaration of major.
Can this generation own transformation or is it just not
“cool?”
Challenge:
Create the High Impact Roster
What is your best “bottleneck?”
Operational definition:
A concept that is really difficult to teach/understand.
What is your best “threshold?”
Operational definition:
A concept that most effectively introduces the nature of
psychology.
What is your best “transformer?”
A concept that produces the strongest personal impact.
Bottleneck Roster
Action potential
Critical periods
Heritability
Classical conditioning
Split brain
Negative reinforcement
Culture
Color dynamics
Top-down bottom-up
Emotion
Natural selection/evolution
Threshold Roster
Correlation vs. causation
Neurotransmitter influence
Research methods as a whole
Personality theory
Not all psychologists are clinicians
Basic vs. applied research
Multicausality
Transformer Roster
Alternative personality theory
Bystander effect
(different set of eyes)
Unreliability of personality
tests
Brain change
Psychology = biology
Compassion and reduced
stigma
Attraction/liking
Power of the situation
Disorders
Cognitive dissonance
Groupthink/critical thinking
Classical conditioning
What does it all mean?
What would happen
if we organize
what we do to maximize
high impact learning
in introductory
psychology?
What teaching strategies
would follow those
decisions?
What assessment ideas
would work?
What is your take-away?
Does this framework
influence how you think
about
Content scope?
Content depth?
Students?
Questions/Comments
[email protected]
Thanks for having me!