Bottlenecks, Thresholds, and Transformers: New Ways to Look at Old Content

1. Bottlenecks, Thresholds, and Transformers: New Ways to Lookat Old Content Jane S. Halonen University of West Florida

2. Wellsprings of this Approach • Ray Land, originator of “threshold concepts” Ray Land

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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.

6. What is a bottleneck concept? Concepts that produce a reliable struggle to understand. [Sometimes they are also threshold concepts.]

7. Bottleneck Exemplar What student in his or her right mind would understand functionalismvs. structuralism onfirst exposure ?

8. 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.

9. 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

10. What’s wrong with this picture?

11. 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.

12. 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

13. 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!

14. What are the conceptsin introductory psychologywith the highest impact?

15. 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

16. Pilot Study I asked my honors students to identify the most transformative concepts • Taint of pandering • Confusion between content area and concept

17. 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

18. What content is hard? • “Stuff on the brain” = 23 % • Emotions = 10% • Cognition = 7% • Abnormal = 5% • Language = 4%

19. 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”

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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”

24. 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

25. 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”

26. 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.

27. Sleep & Dreaming (11) • 1/3 of our lives sleeping! • I focus more on dreams than before • Titling your dreams will help you remember them

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. Deception (6) • I can tell if someone is being deceitful or not • Learning how to predict deception in others

32. 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.

33. 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

34. 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?”

35. 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.

36. Bottleneck Roster • Action potential • Heritability • Split brain • Culture • Top-down bottom-up • Natural selection/evolution • Critical periods • Classical conditioning • Negative reinforcement • Color dynamics • Emotion

37. Threshold Roster • Correlation vs. causation • Neurotransmitter influence • Research methods as a whole • Personality theory • Not all psychologists are clinicians • Basic vs. applied research • Multicausality

38. 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

39. 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?

40. What is your take-away? Does this framework influence how you think about • Content scope? • Content depth? • Students?

41. Questions/Comments • jhalonen@uwf.edu Thanks for having me!