{"id":29003,"date":"2022-10-06T22:46:33","date_gmt":"2022-10-07T05:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29003"},"modified":"2022-10-06T22:46:33","modified_gmt":"2022-10-07T05:46:33","slug":"encouraging-news-sobering-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/encouraging-news-sobering-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Encouraging News, Sobering News"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to the research and concluding theories of Jan Meyer and Ray Land,\u00a0<\/em>students can experience quite a range of success or lack of success, based on their ability to grasp and digest certain key concepts in the curriculum. <\/em>Some students progress through the learning process easily and successfully, while others struggle to grasp these crucial ideas, which can result in stalled learning or a failure to complete their study plan. Meyer and Land refer to these vital ideas and potential intellectual and emotional hurdles as \u201cthreshold concepts,” that when understood and internalized, serve as a doorway to new and more complete views of the disciplinary material that can potentially reveal pathways to an entirely new worldview. David Mossley, building on the idea of threshold concepts, adds that they provide the core of a student\u2019s \u201clearning gain,\u201d opening the possibility of a broader, inter-connected, better-informed understanding of a particular discipline.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

I find Meyer and Land\u2019s presentation challenging, exciting, and sobering. The idea that learning \u201cportals\u201d exist through which we can gain an increased understanding of our discipline is intriguing and motivating!\u00a0 Specifically, I think of my current research project focused on the relationship of humans and nature within God\u2019s created community. I am standing at the threshold but have not yet crossed through the doorway. Having gathered quite a lot of information, I\u2019m still lacking some key concepts that I hope will bring increased clarity, transformation, integration, and some structured boundaries around my subject. I appreciate that scholars emphasize that the learning process through which we gain transformative knowledge can progress slowly and may involve much ambiguity and uncertainty.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 This certainly captures some of my current experience.<\/p>\n

I also respect that scholars recognize that this knowledge can often be troublesome and difficult to integrate into our practical experience of life and may require changes in our being and behavior in the world. Meyer and Land refer to the Brothers Limbourg\u2019s account of Adam and Eve in the garden who, upon sampling from the tree of knowledge, gain an irreversible perspective on their world that carries grave consequences.[3]<\/a> An example of an everyday lesson I learned regarding troublesome knowledge with irreversible consequences comes to mind. My husband and I moved to Tecate, Mexico in 1999 to pursue new jobs. I was struck by the intense poverty and uneven acquisition of resources among the residents of the city. It could not be missed, as neighborhoods contained luxurious homes, modest homes, and homes built out of pallets, side-by-side within a single block. I remember thinking that I could ignore this challenging scene of human struggle. Or, I could try to process through it, with God\u2019s help. Once seeing, I could no longer go back to my former worldview. My being and my behavior in the world changed at that point and in the years following. This was troublesome knowledge that for a moment, I considered ignoring.<\/p>\n

Meyer and Land give us much to consider as students. Their framework describing barriers to learning and threshold concepts, though not perfect, can be inspiring and motivating. As well, it normalizes the struggles we may experience as we grow and change in our being and behavior in the world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Mossley, David, Threshold Concepts: An Introductory Tool. (<\/em>Heslington, York: Higher Education Academy, 2017), 4.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid, 4.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Brothers Limbourg, The Fall and Expulsion from Paradise (1415) <\/em>in Meyer<\/em>, Jan H.F. and Land, Ray, Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding, Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge. (Oxon, Abingdon: Routledge, 2006), xiv.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the research and concluding theories of Jan Meyer and Ray Land,\u00a0students can experience quite a range of success or lack of success, based on their ability to grasp and digest certain key concepts in the curriculum. Some students progress through the learning process easily and successfully, while others struggle to grasp these crucial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":157,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2349],"class_list":["post-29003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-meyer-dlgp01","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/157"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29003"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29004,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29003\/revisions\/29004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}