A framework for working with university teachers to create and embed ‘Integrated Threshold Concept Knowledge’ (ITCK) in their practice

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a framework to help educational developers navigate the now vast literature on threshold concepts, so that they may effectively support university teachers in their work to embed threshold concept knowledge into courses and programs. This research- and practice-informed framework consists of seven principles and seven clusters of activities. It includes an ‘actionable literature review’ – a distillation and synthesis of threshold concept-related knowledge that can be acted upon and adapted in a variety of settings by educational developers and teachers.

Keywords:

• Actionable literature review
• educational development
• framework
• Integrated Threshold Concept Knowledge
• threshold concepts

Acknowledgements

We thank the reviewers and editor for their very thoughtful feedback, which helped to improve the article. We also thank Dr Ben Daniel from the Higher Education Development Centre, University of Otago, for his help designing the figure. The Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo, is gratefully acknowledged for creating a supportive environment for earlier stages of writing this article.