Presentation by Mia O'Brien to the MDTV Brisbane Winter Symposium

1. Making
Disciplinary
Thinking
Visible
Winter
Symposium
Brisbane
12 June 2012

2. Making disciplinary thinking visible: the team
• Dr Mia O’Brien (TEDI -> School of Education) CI
• Peter Worthy (Laelaps Project Implementation & Research Support) PM/PC
• Prof Keith Trigwell (U.Syd) & Prof Kerri-Lee Krause (GU)
• Prof Noel Entwistle (Deep learning, disciplinary thinking and reasoning; UK)
• Prof Erik Meyer (Threshold Concepts/Troublesome Knowledge; UK -> UQ)
• Prof Fred D’Agostino (UQ via several D’Agostino/O’Brien collaborations!)
• A/Prof Karen Moni (School of Ed, UQ)
• Cluster Leaders
• Dr Nic Carah (Journalism & Communication)
• Dr Winnifred Louis (Psychology)
• Prof Sylvia Roger (Occupational Therapy)*
• A/Prof Nick James (Law)
• Dr Elizabeth Musgrave (Architecture)
• Dr Kirsten Zimbardi (Biomedical Science)
• Dr Margaret Wegener (Physics)*
• Dr Greg Birkett (Chemical Engineering)
• Education…(in progress!)
Winter Symposium | Brisbane

3. Our process…
Your experiences?
Thoughts? Outcomes?
Potential?
To Date/In Progress:
Your feedback on our
Cluster discussions emerging
conceptualisation of
Student perceptions MDTV…
Analysis of above
Lunch 
Next Steps – How can we
help you?
Winter Symposium | Brisbane

4. Our focus of inquiry and for Making
discussion today…
Disciplinary
Thinking
Are there disciplinary
concepts that are Visible
‘threshold’ to learning..?
Where,
when and What are the
how are distinctive
these forms of
learned, thinking and
taught, reasoning…?
assessed?
What is significantly
troublesome (challenging)
for students…?

5. The postmodernist critique
of social text and discourse.
The analysis of systems and
Disciplinary thresholds relationships.
Concepts and beyond…learning Hypothesise about
‘thresholds’ can include: phenomena.
propositions, discourses about Imagining spaces and
Concept/Positioning Connection
phenomena; and/or experiences created by
‘positioning’(both of perspective form.
Are there disciplinary and procedural) to phenomena or
concepts that are A reasoned professional
‘threshold’ to learning..? practice?
response to an ill defined,
complex situation.
Where, when
What are the
and how are
distinctive
these
learned,
forms of
thinking and
Thresholds seem Disciplinary mythologies
taught,
assessed?
reasoning…? troublesome by nature… (D’Agostino & O’Brien 2010)
Are they less about ‘knowing’ a Misconceptions that
concept and more about ‘how do I students hold about what it
What is significantly
view the world or phenomena as means to ‘be’ an architect, a
troublesome (challenging) an lawyer, a scientist, an
for students…?
architect/engineer/physiologist/la occupational therapist, etc?
wyer etc..?
Does the concept rely on the These need to be dispelled
threshold (crossing) to be fully so that the ‘threshold’ can
understood? be crossed…?
Often implicit in curriculum, teaching and
assessment planning processes..?
Winter Symposium | Brisbane