Threshold Connections: Engaging trainee teachers in collaborative curriculum research to explore Threshold Concepts within secondary school science disciplines
In-person event.
This seminar explores the pedagogical potential of investigating secondary school science curricula through the lens of the Threshold Concept Framework (TCF). A cohort of trainee secondary school science teachers in England worked collaboratively to co-construct their understanding of threshold concepts in A-level sciences based on their individual perceptions and experiences. Themes emerged which I argue to be inter-disciplinary Threshold Epistemes, concepts that are not the difficult content areas identified as troublesome but constitute more abstract ideas which are fundamental to thinking as a scientist within and across sub-disciplines. These are ways of understanding, and/or systems of ideas. Threshold Epistemes identified and discussed are: models, scale, randomness and language. I also further argue that the process of engaging with the TCF as a theoretical framework has potential to be pedagogically productive for teachers and pupils.
Date: 9 March 2023, 16:00 (Thursday, 8th week, Hilary 2023)
Venue: Seminar Room B
Speaker: Jenny (Wynn)
Organising department: Department of Education
Organiser: Dr Gabriel Stylianides (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: gabriel.stylianides@education.ox.ac.uk
Host: Dr Gabriel Stylianides (University of Oxford)
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Public
Editors: Hannah Freeman, Heather Sherkunov