1177-threshold-concepts-and-transformational-learning

SCHWARTZMANStrategies for Teaching: The Importance of Experiential LearningAs the mechanism of transformative learning, reflectiveness is required for productivelynavigating the interval of confusion that follows an encounter with theexistentially unfamiliar. Significant difficulties attach to teaching and cultivatingauthentic reflectiveness (Boud & Walker 1998), which involves becoming aware ofone’s habitual behavior. Citing Nietzsche, Segal notes that if self-observation isdone by rote, it leads to confusion rather than insight. ‘Never to observe in order toobserve. That gives a false perspective, leads to squinting and something false andexaggerated. ... One must not eye oneself while having an experience; else theeye becomes an evil eye.’ ... [A] dogmatic commitment to observation producesa disengaged and decontextualised relationship to one’s practice (Segal 1999 p. 75,Nietzsche 1974). Reflectiveness must come from a student’s internal process, asquestioning arises out of her dynamic engagement with the content. It cannot betaught in an explicit or linear fashion, experiential learning plays an important role.Furthering DiscourseRefining the definition of threshold concepts. Currently, no consensus exists onan intellectually rigorous, definitive criteria for identifying tc’s. In clarifyinghow to specify a threshold concept and how to identify the learning that leadsto understanding it, a distinction should be drawn between deep cumulativelearning and transformative learning. In terms of phenomenological awareness:In the former, the object upon which one’s mental activity is concentrated doesnot change; rather, one moves one’s attention with ease among a multiplicity ofits aspects (some previously unattended to). In the latter, one’s mental activity comesto be concentrated upon a previously unknown and existentially unfamiliarobject.The two can also be distinguished conceptually using Gurwitsch’s fields ofconsciousness: As a result of deep cumulative learning, one switches dynamically –within the same field of consciousness – among thematic foci, with correspondentrestructuring of thematic fields (Booth 1997 p. 144). The total set of elements inthe field remains constant, while boundaries among the thematic foci, the thematicfield, and the margin become fluid; and component elements shift betweenadjacent domains. The mechanism of dynamic switching among extant elementscorresponds to reflection; the operation corresponds to refinement and clarificationof one’s extant meaning frame.As a result of transformative learning, in contrast, the contents of the field ofconsciousness change. Elements formerly not found in any domain of consciousness,possibly including component parts of elements formerly classified as nondecomposable,now occupy the thematic focus or reside in the thematic field; andsome elements formerly found there are now relegated to the margin. Themechanism remains mysterious and corresponds to reflectiveness; the operation,which results in a different population in the field of consciousness, corresponds toreformulation of one’s meaning frame.40