Babs Anderson
Liverpool Hope University
Threshold concepts of facilitation: A Journey
Abstract
The research project in this paper focuses on an established Problem-based learning (PBL) course, chosen by third-year undergraduate students studying Childhood studies in the North-West of England.
Following Cousins (2009), we examine three aspects of the learning context for both staff and students, a. what may be considered fundamental to the effective facilitation by tutors required by a PBL course, b. how tutors feel they have managed the process of supporting students in learning in such a manner, c. what support strategies are required for both tutor and student in order to create maximum engagement within this type of course.
The concept of Threshold concepts as proposed by Meyer and Land (2005, 2006) articulates that students need to gain knowledge and understanding of fundamental concepts in order to gain access to mastery of the subject. Therefore the question arose as to what are the threshold concepts for successful facilitation of PBL courses by tutors.
Paper
The research project in this paper focuses on an established Problem-based learning (PBL) course, chosen as an option, by third-year undergraduate students undertaking a University programme in Childhood studies in the North-West of England. In PBL courses (Savin-Baden and Major, 2004), the students are posed a question as part of an enquiry. One of the forms that this question can take is that of a scenario, so that through their self-directed research, the students actively explore a range of potential professional responses to this scenario. The specific scenario in the PBL course, examined in the research, is one requiring Multi-Agency teams to collaborate successfully in order to support four young children and their family when faced with a problematic issue.
Following on from the work of Cousins (2009), we examine three aspects of the learning context for both staff and students, a. what may be considered fundamental to the effective facilitation by tutors required by a PBL course, b. how tutors feel they have managed the process of supporting students in learning in such a manner, c. what support strategies are required for both tutor and student in order to create maximum engagement within this type of course.
The concept of Threshold concepts as proposed by Meyer and Land (2005, 2006) articulates that students need to gain knowledge and understanding of fundamental concepts in order to gain access to mastery of the subject. However this is also true for tutors in learning to use a range of teaching and learning strategies effectively, such as PBL, which may be widely divorced from the traditional didactic tutor style they themselves may have experienced as successful students. Therefore the question arose as to what are the threshold concepts for successful facilitation of PBL courses, given the four areas identified by Meyer and Land (2005:373-374) as ‘transformative’, ‘irreversible’, ‘integrative’ and ‘troublesome’. As part of the study, we examine liminal states for both tutors and students, where for the tutors, there is the requirement to relinquish what may have been difficult to have mastered in the first place, that of expert knowledge transfer specialist and to occupy an unstable place where knowledge and understanding must be created by the participants, with the tutor one of many enquirers. For the students also, the course provides a difficult transformation from the known to the unknown within a context of high personal value, for as a third year undergraduate course, the assessments for the course carried a proportion of the degree classification.
A previous research project (Orlandi and Anderson, 2012) had investigated student perceptions of PBL and the potential learning gains experienced at the end of such a course. The course design was intended to give the students an opportunity to engage with the professional duties, skills, knowledge and understanding required in order to equip them more fully with the exacting requirements of entering the children’s workforce as graduate workers. The research indicated clearly that the students felt the course equipped them well to enter the workplace with confidence in their own abilities, although the learning journey through the course was felt to be difficult and uncertain and it was only at the end of the course, that the students could recognise the learning gains from their experiences undergoing the process.
Yet in this the requirements acting on tutors were unclear. Understanding the threshold concepts for the tutors in gaining mastery of effective facilitation in PBL courses required further research from a different perspective.
Therefore we examine the journey of the tutors from that of the sharing of expertise as one who narrates their truth to the students (Freire, 1970) to one, who co-constructs alongside the students.
The present opportunity arose when three experienced members of staff in PBL were joined on the team in October 2012 by a colleague, unused to working with PBL courses and deciding to use her insights and those of the other members of the team as a form of ethnographic enquiry ( Fetterman, 2010), rendering the now familiar practices for the experienced tutors unfamiliar once again in order to problematise and therefore better comprehend them.
After gaining ethical approval from the University Education Ethics committee, the research project explores the responses of the new colleague, the established PBL practitioners and the students to the lived experiences within such a means of tutor/ student interaction as PBL over the period of the academic year. The ethical approval was cognisant of the challenges to staff well-being as well as to that of the students, given that the staff members were exposing their belief in themselves as effective lecturers and tutors in a Higher Education institution, both individually and within the team, within the present climate of change and uncertainty in Higher education in the United Kingdom.
The research project uses a case study approach (Bassey, 1999) in the aim of adding incrementally to a body of knowledge rather than aiming for grounded theory generation as the experiences described and analysed may be pertinent only to this unique context. However the role of facilitator in Higher Education is one familiar to many, from a wide range of disciplines (Heron, 1989).
The methods used involve a focus group interview with the academic tutors, group interviews with the students, peer observation by the tutors and documentary analysis. Qualitative data analysis is conducted in seeking common themes or anomalies.
The preliminary findings show how a perceived lack of confidence on the part of the tutor in PBL can impact on the confidence of the students and their engagement with their learning. They also highlight that even for experienced PBL practitioners, the tension between their other didactic teaching roles and the ethos of PBL can lead to overly prescriptive strategies within the Problem-based learning course, thus diminishing the potential gains provided by PBL.
References
Bassey, M. (1999) Case Study research in educational settings. Maidenhead: Open University Press
Cousins, G. (2009) Researching learning in Higher Education. Abingdon: Routledge
Fetterman, D.M. (2010) Ethnography. Step-by-step (3rd edn).Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Freire, P. (1996) Pedagogy of the oppressed. London: Penguin
Heron, J. (1989) The facilitator’s handbook. London: Kogan Page
Meyer, J.H.F. and Land, R. (2005) Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (2): Epistemological considerations and a conceptual framework for teaching and learning. Higher Education, 49, pp. 373–388
Meyer, J.H.F. and Land, R. (2006) Overcoming barriers to student understanding: threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge. London: Routledge
Orlandi, K. and Anderson, B. (2012) Researching the role of dialogue, writing and critical reflection in unlearning for students with professional backgrounds. Teaching Anthropology, 2 (1), pp. 22-27
Savin-Baden, M. and Major, C. H. (2004) Foundations of Problem-based learning. Maidenhead: Open University Press