End of term at Polhill

A present for those of you in Polhill Yr 2 who actually read this!

After two Study Days

We have now had 1(/2) Study Day for second-year students and 1(/4) for first year students. We are still working on the detailed analysis of the evaluation forms, but it is clear that the response has been overwhelmingly positive!

And it is all down to you! Well, not all, I admit. There were a lot of people such as the admin. staff, and the catering staff who did us proud—particularly this Saturday—and colleagues from the college centres who made it possible. But you did the work, and the work you did was impressive. I thought that the tutors' review meeting after the first event on 17 November was one of the most up-beat it had been my pleasure to attend in a long career of such events. But Saturday's was exceptional!

You did have help, however. Not from tutors—we were always clear that the groups had to manage themselves—if we started teaching them it would undermine the whole process. But from the ideas; there is something about the theory of Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge which stimulates not merely reflection, but serious focused analysis of your practice. Some of the discussions in which I participated ranked with some of the best it has been my privilege to join in my teaching career; and—come to think of it—many of the others have been about the same kind of ideas, just without the "Threshold Concepts" labels.

Now, please make sure that—whether or not you are your group's scribe—your short report is posted on BREO. And if it is there, read it, comment on it, and carry on those discussion you started.

More material for Saturday

The first of the new Study Days will take place on Saturday, based on Interest Groups examining threshold concepts in their disciplines, and ways of relating those ideas to their own practice. There are now six papers and plenty of links to provide the background, so you will find it very useful to spend some time familiarising yourself with the ideas.

Looking forward to Saturday!

Mentor Material now available

I've now added the mentor briefing presentation (although you will have to use Internet Explorer to see it properly) and the Mentor Handbook to the material available for download.

Watch this space for more on Threshold Concepts.

More material on Threshold Concepts

The link is to the resources of the "Embedding Threshold Concepts" project at Staffordshire University. The project is specifically about economics, so it illustrates how TC material varies according to discipline, and also shows how it reaches down to the level of exercises for teaching. Enjoy!

Papers now available for printing

I have now posted Acrobat versions of the two introductory papers on Threshold Concepts for the Study Days, so that they can be printed; printing the web-pages directly leads to the ends of lines being cut off, etc.
I haven't done the "Fitting in" paper; it has an external link in almost every paragraph, so it is intended for use on screen.

For all you PowerPoint fans out there!

Fun presentation of some of the easier shots at PPt; see also http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00001B&topic_id=1&topic=Ask+E%2eT%2e for some of the more interesting ones.

Topic for Interest Groups

This may change, but it does look promising. We have posted several pages to help you get your heads around the notion of "threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge". Please enjoy and feel free to comment.

Study Days and Interest Groups

The site now includes some preliminary information about the Study Days and how the Interest Groups will work.

Dates for Study Days

The dates for the Study Days for the coming academic year can now be confirmed.

They are:

All second-year students, apart from those who have attended a symposium already, of course;

• 17 November
• 19 January 08

All first-year students;

• 1 December
• 10 May 08

They will all take place at the University (Bedford campus), from 10 am to 3 pm.

You will shortly receive forms seeking information for allocation to Interest Groups; please fill them and take them to class for collection and return.

We have adopted a new and interesting format for the Study Days and we look forward to your participation.

Links

Since we now have an open access site, it will be easy to set up a "useful links" page. Please respond with your favourite (relevant) links via the comment facility, and we'll create it.

Hi Everybody, this looks to be a very useful facility for us to use as a temporary measure until all have access to BREO.
Many thanks to James Atherton for setting this up.
Peter

Welcome

We didn't really want to begin the course with an apology, but we are victims of our own success. There are so many new participants on the programme this year (324 joining the first year, at the last count), that we have decided that the Induction and Registration Day in Bedford on Saturday would be overwhelmed, and we shall have to re-think.