Troublesome Thoughts on Electromagnetic Forces and Deconstruction
I reached a liminal space trying to understand what threshold concepts are. Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding: Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge and its companion book[i], feel like a whole lot of learning and knowledge about a whole lot of learning and knowledge (which I think may be what metacognition is about).
In perfect timing, I had a conversation with my son the day before I started to read this book that seemed to be a great example. My son is a white, Christian, hetero male in a physics/ engineering major, a field that has traditionally been taught to such as he. He was talking with me about an equation regarding electromagnetic forces. I was responding in awe of how all these unseen forces, particles, etc. work to make our universe work. Of course, we somehow ended up on quantum physics, which always blows my mind. My son proceeded to tell me that if I just knew how to do the equations that quantum physics is more unified with the laws of physics than I am implying. “Ok, 19-year-old son who knows everything and is always right! Knowing a mathematical model of how something may work does not take out the awe and mystery that is there. Also, I am so impressed that you figured out the unified field theory that no other physicist has been able to do for decades.” was my impassioned response. I will never be able to do the equations my son can so excitedly do, and he has a hard time looking at the big picture and its implications for his life. Have we both reached a threshold? Are my thresholds more expansive then his because he can only see the details, head down? Are his thresholds farther out than mine because he can figure out all the details while I have my head up looking for the meaning of life in it all? In the end, he said that people just cannot understand if they cannot grasp the equations. To which I replied that I cannot do all the equations but wondered if he thought I had a pretty good understanding of the concepts of physics. He looked up, as in thought, smirked and graciously said, “You do have a pretty good understanding, so I guess my prior statement was untrue”. We discussed further, which lead us to the agreement that physics seems to push us to a complex and creative God. Now that sounds integrative and transformative to me!
Another connection to threshold concepts is the current trend in Christian churches and people to deconstruct their faith. A “believer” reaches a threshold in their ritualized knowledge (Land and Meyer 2006, 9-11)[ii]. They have come to question the beliefs and knowledge that had formed the basis of their lives. They have stepped into their inconceivable. This can be a good and necessary thing to transform one’s knowledge into a deeper and wider understanding of their faith and God. I see it as a brick tower in a field. Brick by brick or a sudden sledgehammer causes the bricks to scatter onto the surrounding field. In the end, some may have a foundation left and some may have a field of scattered, broken bricks with no sign of a tower at all. Unfortunately, this is as far as many will go. They remain stuck in the liminal tunnel (Rattray 2016, 72)[iii]. They are left with an empty field in place of their knowledge of God. One must reconstruct (as an active, social and creative learner) to truly transform. One can ask, What is left over to build upon? What can be used to build another structure? To reconstruct beliefs and knowledge may look completely different then the previous tower. It is something solid and new, maybe rebuilt with the bricks of the old. It is not until one can conceptualize a new way through that they can push past the threshold to the transformative space of meaningful and interrelated knowledge.
After writing all this, I am not sure if I understand these concepts correctly through my experiences. Please offer me insight if you pick up on anything. I recognize that I blurred the line and spilled past knowledge and learning into broader areas of faith and belief. Do you think this is a fair thing to do in context of the readings?
[i] Flanagan, Micheal T., Ray Land and Jan H.F. Meyer. Threshold Concepts in Practice, Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense Publishers, 2016
[ii]Land, Ray and Jan H. F. Meyer. 2006. Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge, 9-11. New York, NY: Routledge
[iii] Rattray, Julie.2016. “Affective Dimensions of Liminality” in Threshold Concepts in Practice, 72. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense Publishers
About the Author
Jess Bashioum
8 responses to “Troublesome Thoughts on Electromagnetic Forces and Deconstruction”
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Jess, I had a thought as I read your analogy of the tower in the field. For the project portfolio I’m currently looking at trauma. Trauma is anything that disrupts our connections or meaning systems. Then are threshold concepts like deconstruction, when not handled well, similar to trauma. Would it be helpful to respond to deconstruction like we do trauma – to recognize sense of loss and establish safety, grieve and mourn, and reconnect in healthy ways. I may be way off on that – what do you think?
Wow, Robert, that is a truly insightful perspective and I wish I had been more perceptive of it writing on deconstruction. I didn’t think of the phycological aspects of trauma and concentrated mostly in the cognitive transformation.
I think you’re right on point and it resonates deeply with me. Thank you for proposing the thoughtful question.
Robert, I think it is trauma. This came up in another thread. The disorientation is certainly a part of life, but spending too long there can lead to unnecessary trauma. I think this is a specific type of trauma though. There are certainly others that are much more immediate and not connected to a long wander. Great insight here.
Jess, Your knowledge of physics has already surpassed mine! On a more serious note, I personally appreciate you blurring the lines between learning and faith/belief. I don’t see how those two topics can be mutually exclusive while being authentic.
When thinking through Threshold Concepts, the idea of being Integrative may fit your brick analogy. “Integrative – It connects and ties together previously isolated ideas within the discipline.” How someone reorders those bricks in the reassembly process will look different and produce a different outcome than the original, even though using the same inputs.
Maybe?
Jess, I smirked at your characterization of a 19-year-old who figured out the unified theory of everything. There is probably a threshold concept that we don’t know what we don’t know.
For my own post, I had a line of thought on the rigidity versus flexibility of our theological foundation. If faith is built brick-by-brick, then what happens to the foundation if a brick gets destroyed? I would have been way over the word count, so that line gets put back on the shelf. Thus, I was already up for your transition to deconstruction. If deconstruction is a liminal tunnel, then reconstructing can help us get through. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “We are to find God in what we know, not in what we don’t know.” That is comforting wisdom.
Jess, wouldn’t it be great if we could have a smidge of our teenage sons’ confidence in the concepts we are learning? I wonder how much that confidence pushes them through the troublesome knowledge. Instead of stopping at the threshold in fear, they push right through. I want to push through the discomfort as well and press on to the other side.
There are so many great questions in your post! I love how you engage with your son. It seems like you have a wonderful relationship with him. Thank you for sharing your experience and your example of physics and learning. I find it fascinating that as we learn new things, it consistently leads us to more questions, and as we search for answers, we discover new information. I believe that in this cycle, we never stop learning, and there is always room for more. As a Christian pastor, anything related to science or physics makes me wonder about how big and mysterious our God is.
Your comparison of bricks and reconstruction aligns well with our reading and the topic of learning. When I think of bricks and buildings, I envision a lot of hard, heavy work. Constructing a building is challenging and demands significant effort. Without hope and physical labor, the scattered bricks will remain lying in the field; however, I believe we are called to uplift those who feel discouraged. If I continue to assemble bricks on my journey, perhaps that will inspire others to do the same.
Jess, I am continually delighted by the resonance I feel with your thinking. I almost went down the quantum physics path for my post on this topic but chose deconstruction/reconstruction instead (or what’s more true is that the writing chose itself once I finally got started). And you chose both!
Tell your son that once he solves string theory I want the equation. I have a feeling Michio Kaku (Quantum Supremacy) will get there first now that we have quantum computing and AI but best of luck to him!
You have some thoughtful questions here on both of your thresholds. Which is more expansive? I don’t know. I guess it’s based on the fruit of how it changes you? He thinks quantum physics is more related to classical physics than you’re admitting to and you think there is magic holding the universe together. Either way, neither of you are going back. And either way, it is marvelous. The equations, once we get them, are just going the make the magic more accessible through technology. Eventually, he is going to have to be in awe. So, I think your threshold is more expansive, but I may be biased.