NCLC 203 Threshold Concepts Spring 2013 Threshold Concepts

NCLC 203 Threshold Concepts Spring, 2013

Threshold Concepts – a portal to transformation of thinking & understanding – irreversible (usually) & paradoxical – may render familiar concepts strange and difficult – involves a significant shift in perception, including loss – integrative in exposing unseen interrelatedness

Liminal Zones Threshold concepts often throw us into liminal zones: • being in a intermediate state • simultaneity - able to look back to past certainty and forward to future uncertainty • suspension • disconcerting but also liberating

Troublesome Knowledge Threshold concepts challenge: – ritual knowledge - names, dates, formulae – inert knowledge - unconnected to other knowledge – tacit knowledge - implicit, unexamined (often shared specific group or community)

A Praxis of Stuck Places • A praxis (practice) of not being sure: “…to speak from discontinuities, the failures of language, self-deception, guilty pleasures and vested interests…to provoke something else into happening --something other than the return of the same. ” --- a dwelling in the question ---

Consequences • can offer new and empowering forms of expression • provide “enabling, motivating” source of new insights • move from either confirming or condemning to analysis from several perspectives • shift from the particular to the structural • develop mastery and confidence