PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME

Programme content is subject to change.

Day 1: Wednesday 29 September 2010
1.00– 5.00pm Pre-conference workshop:  ‘An Introduction to Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge’ led by Professor Land Quality Hotel
5.30-7.30pm Welcome to Wellington social event (registration open)
Day 2: Thursday 30 September 2010
8.00am Registration open Quality Hotel
9.00am Mihi Whakatau
9.30am Keynote address: Professor Ray Land
10.30am Morning tea
11.00am
  1. Nina Nola & Stephanie Wyatt: University of Auckland. As easy as 1, 2, 3, … 4: Establishing sound essay-writing practice in the foundation year. 
  2. David Bull: University of Southern Queensland. Open Education Resources (OERS): What could be their contribution to bridging education?
  3. Rangi Nathan, Carol Wills, Tia Roos, Shona Trass, & Maree Gibson: Manukau Institute of Technology. Changing the 'course' of Te Tiriti: Stories from Manukau.
  4. Trisha Hanifin & Nick Marsden:Unitec Institute of Technology. Sustainable development through enquiry work.
11.45am
  1. Joyleen Christensen: University of Newcastle. What more can I do? Linking student learning to proactive lecturer practices.
  2. Sheena Parnell & Moira Statham: University of Auckland. Collaborative group tutorials as presented in the mathematics courses for the Tertiary Foundation Certificate at the University of Auckland.
  3. Elana Curtis, Sonia Townsend, & Dr. Airini: University of Auckland. Achieving success for indigenous and ethnic minority students - Teaching and learning lessons for foundation/bridging Health Science programmes.
  4. NA
  5. Evonne Irwin & Annette Morante: University of Newcastle. Accessing success: Linking student success to writing assessment and student uptake of academic skills support.
12.30pm  Lunch
1.15pm
  1. Panel Discussion 1.  David Nicholson, Leanne Smith, Kirsty Weir, & Linda Sissons: Tertiary Education Commission, Tertiary Education Commission, Ako Aotearoa, & Wellington Institute of Technology. The Tertiary Education Strategy 2011-2015 and the roles of different providers in preparing students for degree level study.  
  2. NA
  3. Panel Discussion 2. Cheryl Wilson & Judy Paterson: Tertiary Education Commission. Getting on with embedded literacy and numeracy: Turning LLN into business as usual.
2.15pm Afternoon tea
2.45pm
  1. Willfred Greyling & Evelyn McKnight: Waikato Institute of Technology & University of the Free State, & Waikato Institute of Technology. Aligning the activities in the literacy-embedding value chain at the Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec).
  2. Rosalie Bunn:University of Newcastle. 'Noticing the unnoticed': Empowering enabling students through sociological theory.
  3. Elizabeth Chinlund & Meegan Hall: Victoria University of Wellington. Views from 'Last Resort': Experiences of Māori undergraduate students who transitioned from tertiary bridging programmes.
  4. Alison Simmonds, Helen van Toor, & Warwick Hill: Waiariki Institute of Technology. Kinaesthetic Mathematics.
  5. Matthew Steele: Victoria University of Wellington. 'Know thyself and understand others': Cross-cultural understanding and communication within an enabling/bridging education programme.
3.30pm
  1. Claire Goode & Linus Treefoot: Massey University. Towards establishing a benchmark for vocabulary difficulty level.
  2. Alistair Shaw: Victoria University of Wellington. University Bridging without EFTS funding; second best options?
  3. Gary Orth & Clare Robinson: University of Southern Queensland. Enhancing the distance student learning experience, by encouraging engagement through the on-line Study Desk.
  4. Jessamyn Clarke & John Clarke: University of Southern Queensland. High educational aspirations as a barrier to successful university participation: Learning from the Sudanese student experience.
  5. Francesca Costa: Victoria University of Wellington. Empowering students through 'reflective' learning.
5.00pm NZ Association of Bridging Educators AGM (drinks provided)
7.30pm Conference dinner Portofino Italian Restaurant
Day 3:  Friday 1 October 2010
9.00am Keynote address: Associate Professor Liz McKinley & Dr. Irena Madjar Quality Hotel
10.00am Morning tea
10.30am
  1. Rowan Jeffrey & Julie Hardie: University of Canterbury. 'Hungry for it': Mature, second chance students in a 'do more with less' tertiary funding environment
  2. Shondell Williams: University of Newcastle. Images of enabling education in a technological age.
  3. Anne-Marie Tokley: Victoria University of Wellington. 'I hated that at school': Teaching humanities to reluctant students.
  4. NA
  5. Glen Bryant & Doreen Smith: Unitec Institute of Technology. Percentages - Blowing the cobwebs away.
11.15am
  1. Sue Crossan & Susie Jacka: Unitec Institute of Technology. Writing the way to better teaching and learning in Foundation Nursing.
  2. Nadine Adams, Sherie Elliott, & Antony Dekkers: Central Queensland University. Making videos that click: Helping bridging mathematics make the connection.
  3. Kevin Walliss: University of Newcastle. Using Youtube as a teaching tool.
  4. NA
  5. Alexandra McKegg: New Zealand Qualifications Authority. External evaluation and review - Collecting and using evidence of achievements and valued outcomes.
12.00pm
  1. Teresa Fernandez & Stephen Gardyne: University of Waikato. The development and implementation of a bridging general science paper: Through a sociocultural lens.
  2. NA
  3. Carine Stewart: University of Ottawa. A humanitarian approach to tertiary education: Facilitating the transition from high school to university.
  4. Peter Howland & Dylan Taylor: Open Polytechnic & Victoria University of Wellington. Team-based creative learning, social science and bridging education.
  5. Judy Paterson: University of Waikato. The life of an idea: The growth and development of a numeracy resource.
12.45pm Lunch
1.30pm   Structured Korero Time. TBA.
2.15pm Afternoon tea
2.45pm
  1. NA
  2. Barbara Miller-Reilly: University of Auckland. Mathematics is a 'frypan, I use it often': Utilising metaphors in research.
  3. Frances Rewharewha: Victoria University of Wellington. Recruiting Māori - Why move mountains when you can go to university, stand at the top and enjoy the view.
  4. Karen Seary & Julie Willians: Central Queensland University. Bridging the divide: Scaffolding the learning experiences of the mature age student.
  5. Moira-Clare Donavon: Victoria University of Wellington. Teaching critical thinking.
3.30pm
  1. Elizabeth Chinlund, Yvette Erasmus, & Kate Messent: Victoria University of Wellington, Whitireia Community Polytechnic, & Wellington Institute of Technology. When will I ever use this? Decompartmentalising skills with an integrated assessment.
  2. Heather Martin: Eastern Institute of Technology. A hands-on resource for rearranging equations. 
  3. Briar Hamilton: Massey University. Putting the 'how to' into 'study'.
  4. NA
  5. Robyn Gandell: Unitec Institute of Technology. Origami and group work in mathematics.
4.15pm Conference close

 Pre Conference Workshop:

An Introduction to Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge  

with Ray Land

Wednesday 29 September 2010 from 1.00-5.00pm at the Quality Hotel.

Professor Land will lead a workshop,  ‘An Introduction to Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge’,  on a new analytical framework to inform programme design and assessment. The approach builds on the notion of 'Threshold Concepts', which can be considered as akin to a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something. It represents a transformed internal view of subject matter, subject landscape, or even world view. Typical examples might be 'Marginal Cost', 'Opportunity Cost' or 'Elasticity' in Economics; 'Evolution' in Biology; 'Gravity' or 'Reactive Power' in Physics; 'Depreciation' in Accounting; 'Precedent' in Law; 'Geologic Time' in Geology; 'Uncertainty' in Environmental Science; 'Deconstruction' in Literature; 'Limit' theory in Mathematics or 'Programming' in Computer Science.

This transformation may be protracted over a considerable period of time, with the transition to understanding often involving 'troublesome knowledge'. Depending on discipline and context, knowledge might be troublesome because it is ritualised, inert, conceptually difficult, alien or tacit, because it requires unfamiliar discourse, or perhaps because the learner remains 'defended' and does not wish to change their customary way of seeing things.

Difficulty in understanding threshold concepts may leave the learner in a state of 'liminality', a suspended state of 'stuck place' in which understanding approximates to a kind of 'mimicry' or lack of authenticity. Insights gained by learners as they cross thresholds can be exhilarating but also might be unsettling, requiring an uncomfortable shift in identity, or, paradoxically, a sense of loss. A further complication might be the operation of an 'underlying game' which requires the learner to comprehend the often tacit games of enquiry or ways of thinking and practicing inherent within specific disciplinary knowledge practices. In this sense we might wish to talk of 'threshold practices' or 'threshold experiences' that are necessary in the learners development.

The thresholds approach addresses disciplinary contexts and emphasises transformation in learning. It results in a reformulation of the learners' frame of meaning. It is currently being implemented in a wide range of disciplinary areas and has been the focus of two international conferences in the UK and Canada with a third taking place in Australia in July 2010 and a fourth in Ireland in 2012. Ray will outline key dimensions of the thresholds approach followed by discussion of implications for practice in participants' own contexts.