Abstracts - Earli

troublesome knowledge and builds on previous work (Wisker, Robinson, Trafford Leshem, Lilly,Warnes, 2004, Kiley et al) on postgraduate student learning and the roles played by researchdevelopment programmes, peer groups, supervisory dialogues and relationships in encouragingmetalearning, and the development of understanding of threshold concepts as well as the crossingof conceptual thresholds, the one related to the discipline area, the other to the postgraduate leveland stages of the student’s work (Kiley and Wisker, 2006). In reporting on this early work onpostgraduates, this paper focuses on research carried out with PhD students and their supervisorsinto the crossing of the conceptual threshold, the development of conceptual level research inparticular in relation to literature and art.The Israeli PhD programme as a community of practiceMiri Shacham, Carmiel College, IsraelThis paper explores the development and maintenance of communities of practice supporting parttime PhD students working at a distance. It considers how communities of practice operate, andhow the specific communities of practice of this series of PhD cohorts have both supported andenhanced the development of individuals’ research through to successful completion, and havefurther developed and sustained research communities beyond the PhD itself, leading in severalcases also to sustained social impact. In addition to the students’ learning in the workshops of thePhD programme, active learning progresses in two main channels: 1. Small support groupssustaining learning meetings in Israel 2. Activities offered by the Graduates’ Forum in Israel. Studtdas a graduate forum and symposia which bring together current and previous PhD students,sessions being led in the main b graduates of the programme. One key issue is the impact thesestudents continue to make in the economy and society because of their research when implementedand thus they continue to work with, build and extend their communities of practice and make asignificant contribution to society.Doctorateness and Threshold ConceptsVernon Trafford, Anglia Ruskin University, United KingdomMaking ‘original contributions to knowledge’ involves doctoral candidates conceptualising theirfindings within cogently argued theoretical perspectives. Doctoral supervisors and examiners are‘implicated’ in this model of research activity. However, our presentation will focus only ondoctoral candidates, showing how they encounter difficulties in learning about and usingconceptualization. We will argue that doctorateness represents a threshold concept for doctoralcandidates. Our data draws on extensive supervisory and examining experience, observations,participation and documents from conducting international workshops for supervisors andcandidates, plus a recent survey of 55 current and recent graduates (Trafford and Leshem, 2006).Candidates’ accounts will illustrate: 1 how candidates address restrictions to their learning; 2 seekto learn about and gain competence in conceptualising; 3 recognise the need for doctorateness intheir research; 4 gain doctorateness and conceptualization in their research. Thus, this evidencewill explain how doctorateness is dependent upon explicitly presented levels of conceptualizationin doctoral theses. Our contribution will illustrate: 1 how candidates acquire/develop anunderstanding of ‘conceptualising;’ 2 what difficulties were met and overcome in the process of‘acquiring’ that understanding; 3 how understanding the nature of conceptualising helpedcandidates to undertake their research; 4 how conceptual insights were used by candidates in theirresearch. We will show how doctoral candidates develop personal strategies to incorporateconceptualization in their research as ‘… a transformed way of understanding, or interpreting, orviewing something without which the learner cannot progress’ (Land and Meyer, 2006:4).– 515 –