Introducing threshold graphics: teaching and learning threshold concepts via inquiry graphics

Natasa Lackovic

This paper is about “threshold graphics”, the approach and term I introduced in the recent book “Inquiry Graphics in Higher Education: New Approaches to Knowledge, Learning and Methods with Images” (Lacković, 2020). In a nutshell, threshold graphics brings together threshold concepts and inquiry graphics.

Inquiry graphics are visual media such as photographs, videos or drawings applied to support student and teacher reflection, dialogue and analysis, towards shared conceptual and professional understanding. An inquiry graphics approach adopts a semiotic theory of concepts, building on the triadic sign by C.S. Peirce. Although the literature on threshold concepts is vast, only few publications explicitly consider a semiotic approach (e.g. Land, Rattray and Vivian, 2014), which is surprising if we accept that communication and interpretation are key in conceptual development.

A threshold graphics approach explores and advances how visual media can be applied in higher education to support the teaching and learning of threshold concepts across disciplines. It suggests that thinking and conceptual development are not only abstract or verbal but include other modes of expression and thinking (Lacković, N., & Olteanu, 2020). In particular, a threshold graphics pedagogy invites learners and/or teachers to find or create visual media for the purpose of an in-depth concept inquiry. I’ll present this new approach and provide an activity design that incorporates wider sensory modes.

References Lacković, N. (2020). Inquiry Graphics in Higher Education: New Approaches to Knowledge, Learning and Methods with Images. Cham: Palgrave McMillan/Springer International Publishing. Lacković, N., & Olteanu, A. (2020). Rethinking educational theory and practice in times of visual media: Learning as image-concept integration. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 1–16. Land, R., Rattray, J., & Vivian, P. (2014). Learning in the liminal space: a semiotic approach to threshold concepts. Higher Education, 67(2), 199–217.