1177-threshold-concepts-and-transformational-learning

SCHWARTZMANunprecedented to attract an enduring group of adherents away from competingmodes of [discipline] activity ... [and] ... sufficiently open-ended to leave all sortsof problems for the redefined group of practitioners to resolve …The practices of both development and discovery in science are communitybasedactivities. To discover and analyze them, one must first unravel the changingcommunity structure of the [discipline] over time. During periods of development,a paradigm governs, not subject matter but ... a group of practitioners. Duringperiods of discovery, a shifted paradigm is forged by the concentrated collectiveintention of a group of practitioners. Any study of paradigm-directed [i.e., development]or paradigm-shattering [i.e., discovery] research must begin by locatingthe responsible group or groups. ... The pre-paradigm period, in particular, isregularly marked by frequent and deep debates over legitimate methods, problems,and standards of solution, though these serve rather to define schools than toproduce agreement (Kuhn 1996 pp. x, 10, 46, 47, 179, 180) (all emphasis added).Illuminating TCDifferences and implications. The formation, practice, and research of a scientificcommunity profiled by Kuhn is impelled by a profession-defining, concentrated,collective intention among its members. They act to formulate and rigorouslypursue the most productive questions (from which a theoretical foundationtypically evolves) in a content area of shared primary focus. Community cohesion –even perhaps existence – depends on continuing evolution of a workable paradigm.Education into the field does not merit significant attention. In contrast, TCtypically occupies a position secondary to their respective disciplinary pursuits inmost participating faculty’s professional lives. Concern for education and effectiveteaching defines the TC community. Rather than disputing each other’s suggestions(the rigorous debate Kuhn mentions), most of the individuals interested in TCthat I have met display receptivity to – even hunger for – any and all ideas abouthow to support student learning.Given the combination of secondary focus and readiness to consider profferedsolutions, TC is missing the traditional structure and implicit procedures forrigorously producing a paradigm. It lacks the stimulus for normatively generatinga set of theoretical foundation candidates, as well as any process for determiningthe most viable from among the collection of associated explanatory theories. Nowidely accepted initial paradigm has been established, and the community hasengaged in none of the debates that characterize classic pre-paradigm status.TC: on its own. Lacking an operative paradigm, TC is valued as an agent ofconnection and communication by committed teachers who seek others of likemind. TC provides a common vocabulary for discourse and a meeting ground atconferences for a coalescing multi-disciplinary community of teaching practice anddescriptive scholarship. Such a community plays a critical role in the ongoingdevelopment of faculty who are teaching in their respective disciplines, and even ofthe disciplines themselves (Lister 2008).28