DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Documenting Learning with ePortfolios and Threshold Concepts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This ePortfolio has been created as part of a workshop presentation for the Fourth Biennial Threshold Concepts Conference held in Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, June 27-29, 2012.

 

Meyer and Land's theory of "threshold concepts" has multiple and intriguing implications for electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) and documenting learning.  Inherent in ePortfolio practice is the act of making connections between and among learning that happens in different contexts through reflection.  This process allows learners to document not only what they know, but also how they know it (Penny Light, Chen and Ittelson, 2011).

 

When paired with threshold concepts, students are able to practice the "ways of knowing" characteristic of a discipline or between disciplines while also documenting the ways that they are able to apply and transfer that knowledge.  ePortfolios allow learners to document their learning in explicit ways while sharing how crossing the threshold has been transformative – they are able to document how and when the transformation in their thinking occurred; how their perspective has been irreversibly changed; the ways that they have integrated their knowledge of the threshold with other learning; the ways that the concepts learned are bounded or border on thresholds either in the discipline or beyond; and the ways that the concepts continue to be troublesome for them (Meyer and Land, 2003).

 

This presentation explores ways in which ePortfolio practice and threshold concepts can be paired in specific disciplines (such as history), between disciplines (such as in interdisciplinary programs) and in faculty development initiatives to promote transformative, irreversible, and integrative learning that is bounded and troublesome (Meyer and Land, 2003).  The identification of critical learning outcomes to allow learners to engage in this documentation while reflecting on crossing the threshold is also examined.  We present case studies and learner examples from each of these contexts and engage participants in exercises to explore how ePortfolios can be used to document the learning of threshold concepts in their own institutional contexts.

 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.