Threshold knowledge

Threshold knowledge is a term in the study of higher education used to describe core concepts—or threshold concepts—which, once understood, transform perception of a given subject, phenomenon, or experience.^[1]

The term was introduced by Jan Meyer and Ray Land,^[1][2][3][4] Meyer and Land also discuss the related idea of troublesome knowledge, ideas that appear alien or counter-intuitive.^[1][3][4] The theory holds that:

... there are certain concepts, or certain learning experiences, which resemble passing through a portal, from which a new perspective opens up, allowing things formerly not perceived to come into view. This permits a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something. It represents a transformed way of understanding, or interpreting, or viewing something, without which the learner cannot progress, and results in a reformulation of the learners' frame of meaning. The thresholds approach also emphasises the importance of disciplinary contexts. As a consequence of comprehending a threshold concept there may thus be a transformed internal view of subject matter, subject landscape, or even world view. Typical examples might be 'Personhood' in Philosophy; 'The Testable Hypothesis' in Biology; 'Gravity' in Physics; 'Reactive Power' in Electrical Engineering; 'Depreciation' in Accounting; 'Legal Narrative' in Law; 'Geologic Time' in Geology; 'Uncertainty' in Environmental Science; 'Deconstruction' in Literature; 'Limit' in Mathematics or 'Object-oriented Programming' in Computer Science.^[2]

These ideas have been explored by several subsequent researchers in a variety of disciplinary contexts including:

• International theory^[5]
• Science education^[6][7]
• Economics^[8][9]
• Healthcare education^[10]
• Miscellaneous^[11][12]
• Statistics^[13]
• Information literacy^[14]
• Writing studies^[15]

The theory has also been criticised.^[16]

The notion of threshold concept is related to the notion of bottleneck in the Decoding the Disciplines framework. It can be considered a special case of the latter.^[17][18]

See also

• Eureka effect
• Decoding the Disciplines
• Paradigm shift
• Tacit knowledge
• Propaedeutics