Threshold concepts and ‘troublesome’ students: the uneasy application of threshold concepts to marginalised students

ABSTRACT

For efficient and effective learning, intensive-mode programs have increasingly focused on threshold concepts – transformative, often-troublesome, moments in learning that represent the development of key knowledge. Threshold concept theory has support in the context of content-based, disciplinary domains, but questions remain about its applicability to curricula that have broader aims. This study investigated the ‘fit’ of threshold concept theory to participants, many of them previously marginalized, in an intensive Widening Participation (WP) program at a regional university in Australia. Thematic analysis of data from focus groups, comprised of students and teachers respectively, revealed that participants perceived not only the development of key conceptual knowledge as integral to learning, but that they also recognized that acculturation, metacognition, and affective attributes were important for success. This finding suggests that a narrow focus on academic knowledge – (both content- and skills-related) – is inadequate in programs that aim to include previously marginalized students in higher education.

KEYWORDS:

• Widening participation
• higher education
• curriculum and instruction
• threshold concepts

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to express their gratitude to all participants who kindly agreed to be involved in the focus groups for this study. They would also like to thank Rebecca Manners for her assistance in facilitating the focus group discussions and transcribing and collating the resultant data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).