Learning Exercise Exchange: Translating Concepts into Learning Activities
Program Session 374, Saturday morning, August 10 from 10:15 – 12:15 in the Boston Marriott Copley Plaza, Boylston Room
Organizer: Thomas J. Mierzwa, U. of Maryland
Facilitator: G. James Lemoine, U. at Buffalo, The State U. of New York
Facilitator: Robert Gemmell, Georgia Institute of Technology
Description: This PDW brings together faculty who seek to expand their portfolio of teaching practices and will focus on ways management concepts can be translated into learning activities. Originally argued by Meyer and Land (2003), a threshold concept is described as a core explanation that both advances basic understanding of a subject and facilitates its further learning. Since management disciplines are built upon threshold concepts, students would face barriers to further learning in that discipline unless they fully understand them. Thus, gaining an understanding of a given threshold concept is seen as a portal for entry to further learning.
In this PDW, we will examine a range of learning exercises from different management disciplines and explore opportunities for incorporating threshold concepts into them. Building on one-page descriptions of learning exercises participants bring with them, we will identify ways that embedded threshold concepts can reveal essential pathways in the learning process. That one-page description will include its learning objectives, a few sentences describing which threshold concept appears to be the foundation of the exercise, a list of exercise steps, and a brief description of the expected learning outcome.
PDW Process: After introductions and a brief overview presentation on threshold concepts, we will begin with 15-minute demonstrations by the presenters of one of their own classroom learning activities. These presentations will serve the dual purpose of demonstrating the format for sharing activities in the remainder of the PDW. Following these initial presentations, participants will form into groups with each table led by one of the session presenters. In these groups, participants will have a few minutes to share the activity they brought with them. Participants should bring multiple copies of handouts and exercise instructions so that all participants can leave with the resources.
Following all presentations within the groups, each table will vote on the best incorporation of a threshold concept to a learning exercise in its group. The full audience will then reconvene, and the presentations voted the best at each table will be shared with all participants. Prizes will be awarded to participants who bring the activities deemed the most promising.
Results: Learning exercises will be shared among participants, along with a demonstration of how to incorporate specific threshold concepts into those learning exercises. All learning activity materials will be gathered by the presenters at the close of the session and uploaded to a public Dropbox. Access to this Dropbox will be shared with all attendees, providing ongoing access to all activities for our participants.
------------------------------
G. James Lemoine
University at Buffalo - SUNY
Buffalo NY
(716) 645-3236
------------------------------