Threshold Concepts,
Troublesome Knowledge, and
the Design of Digital Humanities
Projects
Randy Bass
Georgetown University
NEH Vectors Institute
on the Digital Humanities
July 22, 2011
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Outline
• Threshold Concepts and Troublesome
Knowledge
• Threshold Concepts and Epistemic
Frames
• Reading and Resistance
• Digital Stories and Threshold Concepts
• Digital environments and
approximations of expert practice
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Threshold Concepts and Troublesome
Knowledge
(Jan Meyer and Ray Land)
learning/site design
strategies rooted in
disciplinary practice
Decoding the Disciplines
(David Pace et. al.)
Social Pedagogies (“Designing for Difficulty”)
Randy Bass and Heidi Elmendorf
Randy Bass, Georgetown
From the Wiki
“The project will enhance users’ capacity to
1) visualize connections between environmental,
public health and economic crises, 2) move
across scales…3) understand how
scientifically-engaged media can generate new
perspectives on complex problems.” (Nick
Shapiro)
Randy Bass, Georgetown
From the Wiki
“Through its design, the goal of the project is to
show its users how representations of the
witnesses to the murder were works of projection
by cultural intermediaries... The project points to a
larger set of perceptual and epistemological
problems that trouble the social and moral act of
witnessing, ones that are structured by the
necessarily mediatic nature of witnessing.” (Carrie
Rentschler)
Randy Bass, Georgetown
From the Wiki
“I’ve been looking for ways to better share my
research with a general audience, especially the
community of people who grew up in the scene.”
(Oliver Wang)
“The site would therefore have the following goals:
1. To provide experiential points of entry to some
of the central arguments of the book.
2. To offer an accessible alternative to the more
esoteric academic arguments of the book so
that they might be more “available” to ongoing
discussions….” (Johnathan Sterne)
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Threshold Concepts
and
Troublesome Knowledge
Special thanks to Renee Meyers
U. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA, who
graciously allowed me to use, and
revise, her slides
Adapted from slides by
James Atherton.
Randy Bass, Georgetown
include
Threshold Concepts
and troublesome
knowledge
Threshold concepts
themselves
which are
Discipline specific
Randy Bass, Georgetown
include
Threshold Concepts
and troublesome
knowledge
Threshold concepts
themselves
are like
A portal to new
understanding
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Threshold Concepts
“A threshold concept can be considered as akin to a
portal, opening up 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….”
Jan Meyer and Ray Land, “Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge:
Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Practising within the Disciplines.” Occasional
Report 4, May 2003. Enhancing Teaching-Learning Environments in
Undergraduate Courses Project. University of Edinburgh.
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Examples of Threshold Concepts
From the 2003 Meyer and Land essay:
•
•
•
Opportunity Cost (Economics)
Limit / Infinity (Math)
Signification (Literary and Cultural Studies)
Others
•
•
•
Geologic time (Geology)
Visual literacy (Art history)
Personhood (Philosophy)
Randy Bass, Georgetown
“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. This
transformation may be sudden or it may be protracted
over a considerable period of time, with the transition to
understanding proving troublesome.”
Jan Meyer and Ray Land, “Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge:
Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Practising within the Disciplines.” Occasional
Report 4, May 2003. Enhancing Teaching-Learning Environments in Undergraduate
Courses Project. University of Edinburgh.
Randy Bass, Georgetown
include
Threshold Concepts
and troublesome
knowledge
Threshold concepts
themselves
are like
A portal to new
understanding
they are
likely to be
transformative
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Threshold Concepts
and troublesome
knowledge
include
Threshold concepts
themselves
are like
A portal to new
understanding
they are likely to be
transformative
irreversible
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Threshold Concepts
and troublesome
include
knowledge
Threshold concepts
themselves
are like
A portal to new
understanding
they are likely to be
integrative
transformative
irreversible
Randy Bass, Georgetown
•
•
•
•
•
•
Threshold Concepts in American
Studies / Interdisciplinary
Humanities?
Identity
Race (whiteness, constructedness?)
Space
Visibility / invisibility (presence / absence)
Community
?
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Threshold Concepts in Digital Humanities
Scholarship
“They are spaces that people call home, which
is precisely why this spatio-temporal
cartography will adapt new media to allow
users to create their own narratives about
reservation space and time.” (Kara Thompson)
“This project theorizes community murals as a
discursive space of ‘provisional identities’ where
‘identity is about situatedness in motion:
embodiment and spatiality.”’ (Mike Rocchio and
David Kim, quoting Juana Maria Rodriguez).
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Threshold Concepts in Digital Humanities
Scholarship
“Re-Collecting Black Hawk is an image-text
essay investigating how Westward Expansion is
selectively commemorated and inadvertently reinscribed through the visual culture and memorial
landscapes…” (Sarah Kanouse and Nicholas
Brown).
Randy Bass, Georgetown
From the Wiki
“Through its design, the goal of the project is to
show its users how representations of the
witnesses to the murder were works of projection
by cultural intermediaries... The project points to a
larger set of perceptual and epistemological
problems that trouble the social and moral act of
witnessing, ones that are structured by the
necessarily mediatic nature of witnessing.” (Carrie
Rentschler)
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Identifying TCs
• Identify a threshold concept in your own
project
• Why did you choose this concept?
• How does it fit (or not fit) the definition
presented here?
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Threshold Concepts
and troublesome
include
knowledge
Threshold concepts
themselves
are like
A portal to new
understanding
they are likely to be
transformative
integrative
troublesome?
irreversible
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Threshold Concepts
and troublesome
include
knowledge
Threshold concepts
troublesome
themselves
are like
A portal to new
understanding
they are likely to be
transformative
integrative
irreversible
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Threshold Concepts
and troublesome
include
ritual
knowledge
Threshold concepts
troublesome
themselves
knowledge
inert
conceptually
difficult
are like
A portal to new
alien
understanding
they are likely to be
tacit
transformative
integrative
irreversible
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Implications of threshold
concept theory for teaching and
learning
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Implications of threshold
concept theory for teaching and
learning
•Often presented as just one more concept and then
move on.
•Tacit concept but operative continuously. Experts
underdetermine need to address the threshold
concept as part of course / learning design.
•Student’s get stuck. Wide variation among learners
in passing through the threshold.
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Characteristics
•
•
•
•
Liminality
Ambiguity, oscillation
Mimicry
Fear of learning
Regression
Changes in Movement
•
•
•
•
•
Being ‘in the threshold’
Rite of passage
Beginning to “think like”
Starting to take ownership
Getting beyond ‘stuckness’
Randy Bass, Georgetown
You don’t acquire threshold concepts by
listening…
Not just about knowledge to be acquired, but
Ways of thinking
Embodied
Ways of acting (practice)
Ways of talking
A sense of identity
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Decoding the
Disciplines:
Instructional
Bottlenecks
Randy Bass, Georgetown
• “Decoding the Disciplines” Project
(University of Indiana: David Pace
and Colleagues)
• how do experts in that discipline think
and practice their discipline?
• “instructional bottlenecks”
Randy Bass, Georgetown
“Decoding the Disciplines” Project (University of Indiana: David Pace and
Colleagues)
Identify
Expert
Thinkin
g
Model
Assess
Practice
Motivat
Randy Bass, Georgetown
“Decoding the Disciplines” Project (University of Indiana: David Pace and
Colleagues)
Identify
Expert
Thinkin
g
Model
Assess
Practice
Motivat
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Threshold Concepts and Epistemic
Frames
Epistemicgames.org/e
g
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Threshold Concepts and Epistemic
Frames
Donald Williamson Shaffer
Epistemicgames.org/e
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Threshold Concepts and Epistemic
Frames
Skills: the things that people
within the community do
Knowledge: the
understandings that people in
the community share
Identity: the way that members
of the community see
themselves
Epistemicgames.org/e
Values: the beliefs that
members of the community
Randy Bass, Georgetown
hold
Threshold Concepts and Epistemic
Frames
Threshold Concepts
(Meyer and Land)
Ways of thinking
Ways of acting
(practice)
Ways of talking
A sense of identity
Epistemic Frames
(“Ensemble”)
Schaffer (after Schon)
Skills
Knowledge
Values
Identity
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Michael Wesch: “From
Knowledgeable to Knowledgeable”
“I like to think that
we are not teaching
subjects but
subjectivities: ways
of approaching,
understanding, and
interacting with the
world.”
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Implications for DH design projects?
Threshold Concepts
Ways of thinking
Ways of acting (practice)
Ways of talking
A sense of identity
Epistemic Frames
(“Ensemble”)
Skills
Knowledge
Values
Identity
What are the threshold concepts of your
project?
What makes them troublesome, for which
audiences? ?
What kind of epistemic frame do you want users
to have while navigating your project?
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Reading and Resistance
•\
Frank Ambrosio, Eddie Maloney, William Garr, Theresa
Schlafly (Georgetown, Center for New Designs in Learning
and Scholarship)
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Reading and Resistance: MyDante and threshold
concepts (“contemplative reading practice”)
• Literal narrative
level
• Metaphoric and
ironic level
• Reflective level
http://dante.georgetown.edu
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Reading and Resistance: MyDante
http://dante.georgetown.edu
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Reading and Resistance: MyDante
MyDante explores ways to use a digital text
environment to bridge the personal and social natures
of the act of reading.
Frnak Ambrosio and Theresa Schlafly, “Toward a ‘Readerly
http://dante.georgetown.edu
Utopia,’” (forthcoming)
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Reading and Resistance: MyDante
http://dante.georgetown.edu
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Reading and Resistance: MyDante
http://dante.georgetown.edu
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Reading and Resistance: MyDante and threshold
concepts (“contemplative reading practice”)
• MyDante “slows down”
reading (expert-like),
decodes the act of
reading
• Translates into
text/contexts as database
• Reading as private and
social
• Understanding as
convergent
http://dante.georgetown.edu
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Reading and
Resistance
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Reading and
Resistance
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Digital Stories and Threshold Concepts in the
Humanities
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Digital Stories Multimedia Archive
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Digital Stories Cross-Campus Study
Visible
Knowledge
Project
Secondary study
on digital
storytelling
(Coventry and
Oppermann)
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Digital Stories Cross-Campus Study
How does authoring
in multimedia change
student learning?
How does authoring digital stories
engage students in epistemic
thinking?
How does the explicitly social or public
dimension of digital stories facilitate
epistemic thinking?
Randy Bass, Georgetown
“All Made Up,” Kathy Bayer and Jessica Koslow
Randy Bass, Georgetown
From their additional
reflection about the digital
story authoring process
When we reviewed the finished product we were
pleased based on our time constraints and lack of
budget. Kathy was a bit nervous about portraying the
story’s main character because she did not want
viewers to assume that the fictional plot reflected her
personal views. Since we are both women there
certainly was a little Kathy and a little Jess in the
character, but it was really intended to be a fictional
representation of what one woman thought about
during a day spent wearing makeup as opposed to not.
Randy Bass, Georgetown
From their academic paper
theorizing the digital story
Our digital story displays our main character’s dependence on her mirror.
In Jacques Lacan’s “mirror stage” an individual’s ideal Self is
formed through identification with his/her reflection in a mirror in early
youth. This image of self is a complete visualization of the self and is
misrecognized as the self. The misrecognized Self is ideal becWe suggest
that the relationship with one’s reflection and the preference for an ideal
Self continues after socialization and throughout life. ause its (preferred)
totality cannot be viewed without the mirror. This explains the pleasure
found when viewing a “made-up” face in the mirror...
What differs in this account is the social construction of the ideal Self and
the subject’s awareness that he/she is not in fact that image. A woman
knows that her made up appearance is temporary and “unnatural,” however
she can still derive pleasure from identifying with her reflection.
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Distinctive to
Multimedia?
Authoring
Layers
Compression
Editing
Audience
Randy Bass, Georgetown
From Hierarchy to Grid
Randy Bass, Georgetown
From Hierarchy to Grid
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Writing into history
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Writing into history
“The idea that one can contribute to a past life
is unscientific but not necessarily ahistorical,
when one considers a wider understanding of
history as constructed…This story isn’t
content to tell/show the discovery of one’s
ancestral history and its impact on a life, but it
proposes conceptually and visually that what
we do in the present and future reshapes how
we understand and retell the past”
“In my story, the concept of
advocacy is also closely related to
alliance and solidarity. Robert was an
ally for the common people….
Through my story, Robert and I can
also be allies for each other. His
actions give me the power to stand up
when others do not…I included a
picture of Robert standing on a
wagon platform with his fist in the
air while I stand beside him with my
fist in the air too. Through these
images I show that we can become
sources of strength for each other…”
(Kristen Lafollette)
(Rina Benmayor)
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Multiple literacies: Novice, Intermediate, Expert
“ My close analysis of student storytelling and reflection argues for the
importance of recognizing and valuing ‘hidden’ theorizing (what I call
narrative theorizing), along with the more visible and complex
manifestations of meaning-making (applied and critical
theorizing)…My foray into visual theorizing suggested that indeed,
even novice theorizers with words can be expert theorizers with
pictures, and vice-versa. And there are those who achieve a synergy
between the two. …What I’ve discovered…is that theorizing is done
in multiple ways, using multiple media, for multiple intended effects”
(Rina Benmayor)
Randy Bass, Georgetown
For whom were you writing?
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Digital Environments and Approximations of
Expert Practice
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Distinctive to
Multimedia?
Authoring
Layers
Compression
Editing
Audience
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Collaborative editing as approximation of expert practice
(writing a large complex argument)
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Michael Smith & Ali Erkan,
Ithaca College
•
•
•
Using Wiki’s to teach history
Students work in collaborative teams to
write history wiki-texts on subjects that
interest them in historical context
Help overcome “bottlenecks” in history:
making connections, constructing
interpretations
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Michael Smith & Ali Erkan, Ithaca College
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Michael Smith & Ali Erkan, Ithaca College
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Michael Smith & Ali Erkan, Ithaca College
“Thin Slicing”?
“How can students be engaged so that there
is meaning in the structure of wikis they
produce?”
“If there is meaning in the structure of student wikis,
how can it be harvested and, subsequently, analyzed?
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Threshold Concepts and Epistemic
Frames
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Threshold Concepts and Epistemic
Frames
Randy Bass, Georgetown
Implications for DH design projects?
Threshold Concepts
Ways of thinking
Ways of acting (practice)
Ways of talking
A sense of identity
Epistemic Frames (“Ensemble”)
Skills
Knowledge
Values
Identity
What are the threshold concepts of your
project?
What might make them troublesome, for which
audiences?
How might your project decode / slow down the
elements of epistemic thinking as well as create
an experience that enacts an epistemic frame?
Randy Bass, Georgetown
bassr@georgetown.edu
Thanks to:
Ali Erkan and Michael Smith, Ithaca College
Frank Ambrosio, Theresa Schlafly, Bill Garr and Eddie
Maloney
The Teagle Foundation
Heidi Elmendorf, Georgetown
Michael Coventry and Matthias Oppermann
Renee Meyers (UW Milwaukee)
Rina Benmayor, Kristen LaFollette
Kathy Bayer and Jennifer Kostlow
My colleagues at the Center for New Designs in Learning
and Scholarship
cndls.georgetown.edu