TESTING THE THEORY OF THRESHOLD CONCEPTS IN A CONTEXT OF DENTAL EDUCATION. PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS.

Authors

  • M. Kobus King's College, London

Abstract

This paper reports on the pilot phase of a phenomenographic study which explores the relationship between teachers’ and students’ perceptions of the curriculum and theory of threshold concepts, which claims that there are concepts in all disciplines which must be understood, if learners are to progress to a more advanced level of understanding. It is suggested that threshold concepts may represent ways of thinking and practising within disciplines [1]. In this study consideration is given to the troublesome aspects of knowledge as described by David Perkins (1999) [2] and further developed by Meyer and Land (2003) [3]. Researcher’s intention is to investigate if students experience any conceptual difficulties and what the nature of these might be. Students’ and teachers’ accounts of how they perceive the dental curriculum might help to verify if there is a relationship between the curriculum and the theory of threshold concepts. Analysis of the troublesome aspects of knowledge may lead to the identification of threshold concepts in the dental curriculum.

Author Biography

M. Kobus, King's College, London

King's College Dental Institute, King's College, London

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Published

2013-05-08

Issue

Vol. 51 No. 3 (2012)

Section

Short Communications

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I hereby certify that the authors of the above manuscript have all:

1. Conceived, planned, and performed the work leading to the report, or interpreted the evidence presented, or both;

2. Written the report or reviewed successive versions and shared in their revisions; and

3. Approved the final version.

Further, I certify that:

1. This work has not been published elsewhere and is not under revision in another journal;

2. Humane procedures have been followed in the treatment of experimental animals (if applicable);

3. Investigations in humans was done in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation or with the Helsinki Declaration (if applicable).

4. This paper has been carefully read by a native English speaker who is familiar with the field of work (this applies to authors who are not fluent in English); and

5. The copyright of the article is transferred from the authors to the Bulletin du Groupement International pour la Recherche Scientifique en Stomatologie et Odontologie upon acceptance of the manuscript.