1177-threshold-concepts-and-transformational-learning

SCHWARTZMANchallenge than interpreting feedback given retrospectively, a difference relevant tothe TC community concern with understanding and supporting student encounterswith challenging material.These students’ group produced an extremely strong project, and their respectiveindividual practices were significantly transformed by completing that project;indicating retrospectively that they responded reflectively. Their journal entriesduring the project indicate heightened levels of anxiety. Note, therefore, that inprocessanxiety does not necessarily equal defensiveness, and reflectiveness neitherequals contemplation nor means diminished affect.38THEORETICAL FOUNDATION: EVALUATING THE CANDIDATEIn this section, the proposed candidate theoretical foundation is considered in lightof the roles a theoretical foundation should play: illuminating coherence andmeaning in the body of existing literature, providing an organizing principle outof which the field can continue to emerge in a coherent way, and defining anexplanatory theory for practice.Illuminating Internal Coherence of Existing TC LiteratureReal learning requires stepping into the unknown, which initiates a rupture inknowing. The interval of difficulty that follows exposure to existentially unfamiliar,educationally critical material can be understood as a response to that rupture. It isfilled with confusion and uncertainty, even when it is also filled with learning(Brown et alia 2001). In the language of Heidegger’s dynamic of rupture, theinterval comprises a form of (response to) explicitness; that is, reflectiveness ordefensiveness. By definition, all TC scholarship is concerned (directly or indirectly)with encountering the unknown. In offering meaningful explanation for the intervalof confusion and uncertainty that is inescapably engendered by such encounters,a reflectiveness / defensiveness framework illuminates connections and an elementof commonality among all TC scholarship.Informing Future Theoretical and Application DevelopmentOwing to its relevance for all TC scholarship, a reflectiveness/defensivenessconceptual framework (comprising the proposed theoretical foundation) formsinfrastructure on which developing TC theory can be anchored. It also enablesissues of learning discipline-specific scholarship to be brought more sharply intofocus, clarifying relevant questions. The consequences of reflectiveness or defensiveness,learning – or not, provide an embedding context to contain, shape, andevaluate both developing theory and application.Defining an Explanatory TheoryThe reflectiveness/defensiveness conceptual framework, together with elements ofits explication and of its generative phenomenon, form an explanatory theory forstudent experience, as described in the next section.