Threshold Concepts Troublesome Knowledge and the Design of

Threshold Concepts, Troublesome Knowledge, and the Design of Digital Humanities Projects Randy Bass Georgetown University NEH Vectors Institute on the Digital Humanities July 22, 2011 Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Outline • Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge • Threshold Concepts and Epistemic Frames • Reading and Resistance • Digital Stories and Threshold Concepts • Digital environments and approximations of expert practice Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge (Jan Meyer and Ray Land) learning/site design strategies rooted in disciplinary practice Decoding the Disciplines (David Pace et. al. ) Social Pedagogies (“Designing for Difficulty”) Randy Bass and Heidi Elmendorf Randy Bass, Georgetown University

From the Wiki “The project will enhance users’ capacity to 1) visualize connections between environmental, public health and economic crises, 2) move across scales… 3) understand how scientifically-engaged media can generate new perspectives on complex problems. ” (Nick Shapiro) Randy Bass, Georgetown University

From the Wiki “Through its design, the goal of the project is to show its users how representations of the witnesses to the murder were works of projection by cultural intermediaries. . . The project points to a larger set of perceptual and epistemological problems that trouble the social and moral act of witnessing, ones that are structured by the necessarily mediatic nature of witnessing. ” (Carrie Rentschler) Randy Bass, Georgetown University

From the Wiki “I’ve been looking for ways to better share my research with a general audience, especially the community of people who grew up in the scene. ” (Oliver Wang) “The site would therefore have the following goals: 1. To provide experiential points of entry to some of the central arguments of the book. 2. To offer an accessible alternative to the more esoteric academic arguments of the book so that they might be more “available” to ongoing discussions…. ” (Johnathan Sterne) Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge Special thanks to Renee Meyers U. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA, who graciously allowed me to use, and revise, her slides Adapted from slides by James Atherton. Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Threshold Concepts “A threshold concept can be considered as akin to a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something. It represents a transformed way of understanding, or interpreting, or viewing something without which the learner cannot progress…. ” Jan Meyer and Ray Land, “Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Practising within the Disciplines. ” Occasional Report 4, May 2003. Enhancing Teaching-Learning Environments in Undergraduate Courses Project. University of Edinburgh. Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Examples of Threshold Concepts From the 2003 Meyer and Land essay: • Opportunity Cost (Economics) • Limit / Infinity (Math) • Signification (Literary and Cultural Studies) Others • Geologic time (Geology) • Visual literacy (Art history) • Personhood (Philosophy) Randy Bass, Georgetown University

“As a consequence of comprehending a threshold concept there may thus be a transformed internal view of subject matter, subject landscape, or even world view. This transformation may be sudden or it may be protracted over a considerable period of time, with the transition to understanding proving troublesome. ” Jan Meyer and Ray Land, “Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Practising within the Disciplines. ” Occasional Report 4, May 2003. Enhancing Teaching-Learning Environments in Undergraduate Courses Project. University of Edinburgh. Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Threshold Concepts and troublesome knowledge include Threshold concepts themselves are like A portal to new understanding they are likely to be transformative irreversible Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Threshold Concepts and troublesome knowledge include Threshold concepts themselves are like A portal to new understanding they are likely to be integrative transformative irreversible Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Threshold Concepts in American Studies / Interdisciplinary Humanities? • Identity • Race (whiteness, constructedness? ) • Space • Visibility / invisibility (presence / absence) • Community • ? Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Threshold Concepts in Digital Humanities Scholarship “They are spaces that people call home, which is precisely why this spatio-temporal cartography will adapt new media to allow users to create their own narratives about reservation space and time. ” (Kara Thompson) “This project theorizes community murals as a discursive space of ‘provisional identities’ where ‘identity is about situatedness in motion: embodiment and spatiality. ”’ (Mike Rocchio and David Kim, quoting Juana Maria Rodriguez). Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Threshold Concepts in Digital Humanities Scholarship “Re-Collecting Black Hawk is an image-text essay investigating how Westward Expansion is selectively commemorated and inadvertently reinscribed through the visual culture and memorial landscapes…” (Sarah Kanouse and Nicholas Brown). Randy Bass, Georgetown University

From the Wiki “Through its design, the goal of the project is to show its users how representations of the witnesses to the murder were works of projection by cultural intermediaries. . . The project points to a larger set of perceptual and epistemological problems that trouble the social and moral act of witnessing, ones that are structured by the necessarily mediatic nature of witnessing. ” (Carrie Rentschler) Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Identifying TCs • Identify a threshold concept in your own project • Why did you choose this concept? • How does it fit (or not fit) the definition presented here? Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Threshold Concepts and troublesome knowledge include Threshold concepts themselves are like A portal to new understanding they are likely to be transformative integrative troublesome? irreversible Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Threshold Concepts and troublesome knowledge include Threshold concepts troublesome themselves are like A portal to new understanding they are likely to be transformative integrative irreversible Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Threshold Concepts ritual and troublesome knowledge include Threshold concepts troublesome themselves knowledge inert conceptually difficult are like A portal to new alien understanding they are likely to be tacit transformative integrative irreversible Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Implications of threshold concept theory for teaching and learning Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Implications of threshold concept theory for teaching and learning • Often presented as just one more concept and then move on. • Tacit concept but operative continuously. Experts underdetermine need to address the threshold concept as part of course / learning design. • Student’s get stuck. Wide variation among learners in passing through the threshold. Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Characteristics • • Ambiguity, oscillation • • • Being ‘in the threshold’ Liminality Mimicry Fear of learning Regression Changes in Movement Rite of passage Beginning to “think like” Starting to take ownership Getting beyond ‘stuckness’ Randy Bass, Georgetown University

You don’t acquire threshold concepts by listening… Not just about knowledge to be acquired, but Ways of thinking Embodied Ways of acting (practice) Ways of talking A sense of identity Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Decoding the Disciplines: Instructional Bottlenecks Randy Bass, Georgetown University

• “Decoding the Disciplines” Project (University of Indiana: David Pace and Colleagues) • how do experts in that discipline think and practice their discipline? • “instructional bottlenecks” Randy Bass, Georgetown University

“Decoding the Disciplines” Project (University of Indiana: David Pace and Colleagues) Identify Expert Thinking Model Assess Motivate Practice Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Threshold Concepts and Epistemic Frames Epistemicgames. org/eg Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Threshold Concepts and Epistemic Frames Donald Williamson Shaffer Epistemicgames. org/eg Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Threshold Concepts and Epistemic Frames Skills: the things that people within the community do Knowledge: the understandings that people in the community share Identity: the way that members of the community see themselves Values: the beliefs that members of the community hold Epistemicgames. org/eg Epistemology: the warrants that justify actions Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Threshold Concepts and Epistemic Frames Threshold Concepts (Meyer and Land) Ways of thinking Ways of acting (practice) Ways of talking A sense of identity Epistemic Frames (“Ensemble”) Schaffer (after Schon) Skills Knowledge Values Identity Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Michael Wesch: “From Knowledgeable to Knowledgeable” “I like to think that we are not teaching subjects but subjectivities: ways of approaching, understanding, and interacting with the world. ” Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Implications for DH design projects? Threshold Concepts Ways of thinking Ways of acting (practice) Ways of talking A sense of identity Epistemic Frames (“Ensemble”) Skills Knowledge Values Identity What are threshold concepts of your project? What makes them troublesome, for which audiences? ? What kind of epistemic frame do you want users to have while navigating your project? Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Reading and Resistance • Frank Ambrosio, Eddie Maloney, William Garr, Theresa Schlafly (Georgetown, Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship) Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Reading and Resistance: My. Dante and threshold concepts (“contemplative reading practice”) • Literal narrative level • Metaphoric and ironic level • Reflective level http: //dante. georgetown. edu Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Reading and Resistance: My. Dante http: //dante. georgetown. edu Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Reading and Resistance: My. Dante explores ways to use a digital text environment to bridge the personal and social natures of the act of reading. http: //dante. georgetown. edu Frnak Ambrosio and Theresa Schlafly, “Toward a ‘Readerly Utopia, ’” (forthcoming) Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Reading and Resistance: My. Dante http: //dante. georgetown. edu Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Reading and Resistance: My. Dante and threshold concepts (“contemplative reading practice”) • My. Dante “slows down” reading (expert-like), decodes the act of reading • Translates into text/contexts as database • Reading as private and social • Understanding as convergent http: //dante. georgetown. edu Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Reading and Resistance Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Digital Stories and Threshold Concepts in the Humanities Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Digital Stories Multimedia Archive Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Digital Stories Cross-Campus Study Visible Knowledge Project Secondary study on digital storytelling (Coventry and Oppermann) Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Digital Stories Cross-Campus Study How does authoring in multimedia change student learning? How does authoring digital stories engage students in epistemic thinking? How does the explicitly social or public dimension of digital stories facilitate epistemic thinking? Randy Bass, Georgetown University

“All Made Up, ” Kathy Bayer and Jessica Koslow Randy Bass, Georgetown University

From their additional reflection about the digital story authoring process When we reviewed the finished product we were pleased based on our time constraints and lack of budget. Kathy was a bit nervous about portraying the story’s main character because she did not want viewers to assume that the fictional plot reflected her personal views. Since we are both women there certainly was a little Kathy and a little Jess in the character, but it was really intended to be a fictional representation of what one woman thought about during a day spent wearing makeup as opposed to not. Randy Bass, Georgetown University

From their academic paper theorizing the digital story Our digital story displays our main character’s dependence on her mirror. In Jacques Lacan’s “mirror stage” an individual’s ideal Self is formed through identification with his/her reflection in a mirror in early youth. This image of self is a complete visualization of the self and is misrecognized as the self. The misrecognized Self is ideal bec. We suggest that the relationship with one’s reflection and the preference for an ideal Self continues after socialization and throughout life. ause its (preferred) totality cannot be viewed without the mirror. This explains the pleasure found when viewing a “made-up” face in the mirror. . . What differs in this account is the social construction of the ideal Self and the subject’s awareness that he/she is not in fact that image. A woman knows that her made up appearance is temporary and “unnatural, ” however she can still derive pleasure from identifying with her reflection. Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Distinctive to Multimedia? Authoring Layers Compression Editing Audience Randy Bass, Georgetown University

From Hierarchy to Grid Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Writing into history Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Writing into history “The idea that one can contribute to a past life is unscientific but not necessarily ahistorical, when one considers a wider understanding of history as constructed…This story isn’t content to tell/show the discovery of one’s ancestral history and its impact on a life, but it proposes conceptually and visually that we do in the present and future reshapes how we understand retell the past” “In my story, the concept of advocacy is also closely related to alliance and solidarity. Robert was an ally for the common people…. Through my story, Robert and I can also be allies for each other. His actions give me the power to stand up when others do not…I included a picture of Robert standing on a wagon platform with his fist in the air while I stand beside him with my fist in the air too. Through these images I show that we can become sources of strength for each other…” (Kristen Lafollette) (Rina Benmayor) Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Multiple literacies: Novice, Intermediate, Expert “ My close analysis of student storytelling and reflection argues for the importance of recognizing and valuing ‘hidden’ theorizing (what I call narrative theorizing), along with the more visible and complex manifestations of meaning-making (applied and critical theorizing)…My foray into visual theorizing suggested that indeed, even novice theorizers with words can be expert theorizers with pictures, and vice-versa. And there are those who achieve a synergy between the two. …What I’ve discovered…is that theorizing is done in multiple ways, using multiple media, for multiple intended effects” (Rina Benmayor) Randy Bass, Georgetown University

For whom were you writing? Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Digital Environments and Approximations of Expert Practice Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Distinctive to Multimedia? Authoring Layers Compression Editing Audience Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Collaborative editing as approximation of expert practice (writing a large complex argument) Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Michael Smith & Ali Erkan, Ithaca College • Using Wiki’s to teach history • Students work in collaborative teams to write history wiki-texts on subjects that interest them in historical context • Help overcome “bottlenecks” in history: making connections, constructing interpretations Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Michael Smith & Ali Erkan, Ithaca College Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Michael Smith & Ali Erkan, Ithaca College “Thin Slicing”? “How can students be engaged so that there is meaning in the structure of wikis they produce? ” “If there is meaning in the structure of student wikis, how can it be harvested and, subsequently, analyzed? Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Threshold Concepts and Epistemic Frames Randy Bass, Georgetown University

Implications for DH design projects? Threshold Concepts Ways of thinking Ways of acting (practice) Ways of talking A sense of identity Epistemic Frames (“Ensemble”) Skills Knowledge Values Identity What are threshold concepts of your project? What might make them troublesome, for which audiences? How might your project decode / slow down the elements of epistemic thinking as well as create an experience that enacts an epistemic frame? Randy Bass, Georgetown University

bassr@georgetown. edu Thanks to: Ali Erkan and Michael Smith, Ithaca College Frank Ambrosio, Theresa Schlafly, Bill Garr and Eddie Maloney The Teagle Foundation Heidi Elmendorf, Georgetown Michael Coventry and Matthias Oppermann Renee Meyers (UW Milwaukee) Rina Benmayor, Kristen La. Follette Kathy Bayer and Jennifer Kostlow My colleagues at the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship cndls. georgetown. edu