Threshold concepts as one form of conceptual change in economics
Davies, P. and Mangan, J. (2007). Threshold concepts and the integration of understanding in economics.Studies in Higher Education, 32, 6, pp. 711-726.
This report reports exploratory work on the identification of threshold concepts in economics. One question which is addressed in the paper is how threshold concepts might act differently from other concepts in the development of students’ understanding. The paper suggests a typology (Table 1) of differences that may be observed in undergraduates’ work and their own accounts of their progress.
Table 1. Definition and exemplification of three types of conceptual change
Type of conceptual change / Type of transformation andintegration / Example in economics
1 Basic / Understanding of everyday
experience transformed through
integration of personal experience with ideas from discipline. / Distinctions between price/
cost; income/wealth (stocks/
flows); nominal/real values;
investment/saving.
2 Discipline / Understanding of other subject
discipline ideas integrated and
transformed through acquisition
of theoretical perspective. / Partial equilibrium,
interaction between markets,
welfare economics,
opportunity cost.
3 Procedural (in the case of
economics—how are models
of the economy constructed
and evaluated?) / Ability to construct discipline specific
narratives and arguments
transformed through acquisition
of ways of practising. / Comparative statics
(equilibrium, ceteris paribus),
time (short-term, long-term,
expectations), elasticity.
The paper also suggests that the development of students’ understanding is characterised by the integration of different threshold concepts. This means that talking of ‘acquiring a threshold’ is not a very accurate description. An understanding of a new threshold concept should change the student’s understanding of other previously ‘acquired’ threshold concepts – so it is better to speak of an understanding of a threshold concept. The paper speculates on a possible web of threshold concepts in someone’s thinking but this is not explored (e.g. through concept mapping). One possible line of investigation using this approach would be to give students a set of basic and discipline concepts and to see how they handle these in building concept maps.
Figure 1 A Web of Threshold Concepts
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