Crossing the THRESHOLD to New CONCEPTS

Like stepping out of darkness into the light, threshold concepts have been understood as
passing through a gateway toward a new level of learning. These concepts were introduced to the world of teaching and learning by British educationists, Meyer & Land, who considered these challenging "portal gateways" a must for students to cross if they were ever to become field experts and develop a professional identity. They further believed that this learning was not a once-off revelation or transformation, but a journey whereby there is a constant development of understanding and acquiring of knowledge - a series of steps along the way.

"A suspended state of learning"

Threshold concepts are what moves learners from being stuck in what Meyer & Land describes as a liminal space, which is challenging and unsettling, to enlightenment. Understanding where and why learners get stuck can help educators and librarians use their disciplinary expertise to guide, suggest, devise or implement helpful methods which assist learners with transcending the learning threshold.

Examples of Threshold Concepts in Disciplines

Geology: the scale of geological time
Writing/rhetoric studies: audience, purpose, situated practice, genre
Accounting: depreciation
Economics: opportunity costs
Biology: photosynthesis

Features of Threshold Concepts:

Transformative: explains a conceptual or mental shift that is characterised by a new way of thinking whereby the learner begins to think the way the professional does and not just as a student.

Example: Trainee chef learning about temperature control.

Integrative: refers to mastering a threshold concept allows learners to relate or make meaningful connections between different disciplines and their own which is referred to as "T" shaped learning. This helps learners make their own transformations within their own discipline by blending what they learn from other disciplines with what they know about their own.

Irreversible: simply put, once something is understood or learned, it cannot be forgotten or unlearned. 

Example: Adam and Eve. Once they ate the forbidden fruit and gained knowledge of good and evil, they could not simply undo this knowledge. 

Bounded: defines the boundaries of a particular discipline and trim the parameters of a curriculum. Concepts are considered unique to only that one discipline.

Example: Cultural studies would need to understand the barriers between high and low cultures, where as in English, there are no such concepts in English Literature. 

Troublesome: refers to difficulties encountered that cause learners to hit a "roadblock" in their learning.
Example: Learning statistics, students are taught techniques and formulas which they memorise in order to pass, however they fail to grasp the statistical lens which allows this world to make sense, so even if they manage to pass, they still don't understand the basic principles that separate statistics from mathematics.