bottlenecks, thresholds, and transformers: new ways to look at old content jane s. halonen...
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Bottlenecks, Thresholds, and
Transformers: New Ways to Look
at Old Content
Jane S. HalonenUniversity of West Florida
Wellsprings of this Approach
Ray Land, originator of “threshold concepts”
Ray Land
Wellsprings of this Approach
Ray Land, originator of “threshold concepts”
Rob McEntarffer, proposer of single index assessment items at last year’s BEST PRACTICE CONFERENCE
Rob McEntarffer
Wellsprings of this Approach
Ray Land, originator of “threshold concepts”
Rob McEntarffer, proposer of single index assessment items at last year’s BEST PRACTICE CONFERENCE
J. William Hepler, my introductory teacher at Butler University (Go, Bulldogs!) A reasonable facsimile
Proceed from these assumptions..
Psychology is not just built from concepts; it has now run amok.
Not all psychology concepts are Easy to learn Easy to teach Equally valuable
We must make judicious selections.
What is a bottleneck concept?
Concepts that produce a reliable struggle to understand. [Sometimes they are also threshold concepts.]
Bottleneck Exemplar
What student in his or her right mind would understand functionalism vs. structuralism on first exposure ?
What is a threshold concept?
Threshold concepts have extra impact in imparting the nature of the DISCIPLINE.
Students stand on one side; teachers, through skilled teaching, stand on the other and pull students across to the enlightened side.
Threshold Exemplar
“the power of controlled comparison”
Students don’t easily get correlational vs. experimental design
Consequently, isolated terms are difficult to understand and apply
What’s wrong with this picture?
What is a transformative concept?
A concept that fundamentally changes who you are and how you think. The impact is PERSONAL.
Some bottleneck and threshold concepts can become transformers.
Transformers
Involve an “a ha” moment when your new understanding had profound effects on you
May or may not be in the classroom
May or may not have been instrumental in declaring a major
Transformer Exemplar
Defense Mechanisms Everybody does it It distorts the truth It makes your anxiety
go away People can’t realize
they are doing it or it doesn’t work
…I do it, too!
What are the conceptsin introductory psychologywith the highest impact?
Let the data sharing begin!
Take a moment and see if you can identify a psychology concept that was “high impact” for you when you were starting out and explain it to your neighbor.
Propose the category into which you think it fits best: Bottleneck Threshold Transformer
Pilot Study
I asked my honors students to identify the most transformative concepts
Taint of pandering Confusion between
content area and concept
2nd Attempt:Dr. Awesome’s Intro Class
Inquired about hard CONTENT/chapter area followed by CONCEPT
Inquired about easy CONTENT/chapter area followed by CONCEPT
Followed up by asking about Transformative CONCEPT
Executed through extra credit opportunity at the end of exam while everything is FRESH
Dr. Tom Westcott
What content is hard?
“Stuff on the brain” = 23 %
Emotions = 10% Cognition = 7% Abnormal = 5% Language = 4%
Memorable comments
“Remembering the names of the ‘state the obvious’ theorists”
“Too many theories” “The lecture” “Theories I don’t agree
with” “I’m very thickheaded
and that was too much information to learn”
Hardest Concept
Hormone release and function
Sleep phases Neurotransmitters Self-awareness Schachter Decay theory Evolutionary theory Arousal Erickson’s theory Negative
reinforcement
Piaget’s theories (3) Peripheral nervous
system Language acquisition Personality disorders
(2) IQ Yerkes Dodson Emotional intelligence Phoneme Creativity Darwin
Hardest Concept
US = UR, CS = CR “Endrocrent” system Learning theories Latent and manifest
content Probability Negative/positive
correlation Dream cycles Natural and artificial
concepts Push pull theory Neurological reaction
stimulus Experimental theories
And my personal favorite Internal “focus” on
control
What about transformation?
Of 216 responses 64 (30%) said none occurred 24 (11%) discussed an idea too vaguely to
count 128 (59%) offered at least one specific
concept 136 concepts were identified in total
Why no transformation?
“I’ve had the class before.”
“Interesting stuff but just another gen ed class.”
“Learned a lot but not life changing.”
“Not really transformation, but my thought processes on human behavior have been altered.”
“Psych is interesting but all just based on common sense.”
“..but I’m keeping the book”
Attitude and Self-Control (25)
Attitude is key to 90% of situations
You can choose to be mad
I’m trying to be more patient and think things through
After a bad shot, I don’t dwell on it. I just move on.
There isn’t any such thing as a bad day
You decide to let things bother you
Memory & Study Strategies (29)
How to remember 100 things
How to remember multiple things clearly
Best to study in 20 minute blocks for optimal retention
“Awesome”
Life Skills (13)
Ask open ended questions when people are upset
How to talk to others
How to look at people and the world
Reading people
I am more observant
I better understand people. In fact, I changed my major because of this course.
Sleep & Dreaming (11)
1/3 of our lives sleeping!
I focus more on dreams than before
Titling your dreams will help you remember them
Motivation & Emotion (11)
Different reasons behind peoples’ actions
How a person deals with stress and its effects on the body
Stress because I’m a very busy, stressful person
Sensation & Perception (11)
Made me want to go to medical school to study more about the human body
Everything we see around us is actually a figment of imagination
How the brain works and can be tricked
I had no idea images were upside down and our brain fixes them to be upright
Pathology (9)
Mental disorders opened my eyes to suffering and we don’t take the time to care
Throughout the course I was getting free counseling to deal with my wife and kids just be attending the class
I have cancer. Anxiety and depression made me realize a lot of people suffer
Better able to understand my friend’s schizophrenia
Deception (6)
I can tell if someone is being deceitful or not
Learning how to predict deception in others
Learning (5)
You can learn new things or ideas as you get older in life
The marshmallow effect
The idea that mental “fortacies” can contribute to learning barriers
I am not sure what it is called but the story where the rat wants food and he has the shocker in front of him and he turns around multiple times. I can relate this to peoples’ relationships around me.
Others
Social (5): territorial space, persuasion, love and distance
Personality (4)
Child behavior (3)
Creativity (1)
Research (1): how correlations work and what it really means to have a relationship between two things
What’s Wrong with This Picture?
Context didn’t produce solid reflection.
“Concepts” is an expert, not a novice, organizer.
Is it expecting to much for an introductory psychology course to be transformative? Hit rate for transformation is likely to improve
with declaration of major. Can this generation own transformation or is
it just not “cool?”
Challenge: Create the High Impact Roster
What is your best “bottleneck?” Operational definition:
A concept that is really difficult to teach/understand.
What is your best “threshold?” Operational definition:
A concept that most effectively introduces the nature of psychology.
What is your best “transformer?” A concept that produces the strongest
personal impact.
Bottleneck Roster
Action potential Heritability Split brain Culture Top-down bottom-up Natural
selection/evolution
Critical periods Classical conditioning Negative
reinforcement Color dynamics Emotion
Threshold Roster
Correlation vs. causation
Neurotransmitter influence
Research methods as a whole
Personality theory
Not all psychologists are clinicians
Basic vs. applied research
Multicausality
Transformer Roster
Alternative personality theory (different set of eyes)
Unreliability of personality tests
Brain change Psychology = biology Compassion and
reduced stigma
Bystander effect Attraction/liking Power of the situation Disorders Cognitive dissonance Groupthink/critical
thinking Classical conditioning
What does it all mean?
What would happen if we organize what we do to maximize high impact learning in introductory psychology?
What teaching strategies would follow those decisions?
What assessment ideas would work?
What is your take-away?
Does this framework influence how you think about
Content scope?Content depth? Students?