Operationalising a Threshold Concept in Economics: A Pilot Study Using Multiple Choice Questions on Opportunity Cost

Shanahan, Martin; Foster, Gigi; Meyer, Jan

doi:10.1016/s1477-3880(15)30119-5

Cited by 29 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Participants often demonstrated difficulty articulating how they would use threshold concepts in their practice or studies which support findings by Shanahan et al (). Although more than half of the participants in this study were practising clinicians, many still had difficulty in articulating concepts in a succinct and meaningful manner.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Threshold concept acquisition in occupational therapy: A mixed methods study of students and clinicians

Nicola‐Richmond

Pépin

Larkin

et al. 2019

Aus Occup Therapy J

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Background/aim Demand for occupational therapy graduates able to work in complex and diverse workplaces is increasing. The threshold concepts framework has emerged as one pathway to assist in the development of work‐ready graduates. A previous Australian study identified 10 threshold concepts for occupational therapy; the aim of this study was to explore the acquisition of these. Method A mixed‐methods study using observational, cross sectional design and a triangulation design convergence model was undertaken. A survey using Likert scales and open response questions was developed by the authors. Seventy‐three surveys were completed by 13 first and 20 final year Victorian occupational therapy students. Twenty recent graduates and 20 experienced clinicians from across Australia also participated. Seven first and 10 final year occupational therapy students, 10 recent graduates and 10 experienced clinicians also took part in in‐depth interviews. Likert scales were used by participants to rate confidence that they had acquired the threshold concepts, they also answered open‐response questions (via survey or interview) asking them to provide examples of how they would use threshold concepts in practice. Results Fourth year students were statistically significantly less confident than experienced clinicians for the threshold concepts Understanding the models and theories of occupational therapy and Applying clinical reasoning (P < 0.05). When whole group data were analysed, participants were most confident for Occupation and Client centred practice (P < 0.05). These results resonated with the qualitative findings which demonstrated a shift from surface to deep knowledge with increased experience. Fourth year students reported responses that suggested some threshold concepts were still in development, while experienced clinicians used a web of threshold concepts. Conclusion This exploratory study provides provisional data to suggest that students appear to still be acquiring some threshold concepts at graduation and experienced clinicians make use of a web of threshold concepts in their clinical practice.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Threshold concept acquisition in occupational therapy: A mixed methods study of students and clinicians

Nicola‐Richmond

Pépin

Larkin

et al. 2019

Aus Occup Therapy J

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For each topic, we identified four questions for a trial study with the previous cohort of undergraduate students. Five questions were taken from the Test of College Understanding in Economics (TUCE); seven questions were taken from A-level examination papers in England; two questions were taken from past first year examinations at one of the participating universities; one was taken from the question bank provided by the Economics Network in the UK; and one was taken from [38]. We chose these sources on the basis of the judgements about the validity and reliability employed when designing items.…”

Section: Instrumentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning Economics and Attitudes to Market Solutions to Environmental Problems

2017

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Climate change challenges governments to reduce emissions, and to gain support for such actions from their citizens. This can be in the form of taxation or legislation, or other forms of government interventions. In previous research, several instruments have been developed to capture attitudes towards the roles of markets and governments in the economy. Some of these instruments have assumed that respondents will have the same attitude towards the role of markets and governments, regardless of the context (e.g., welfare, environment, health) or the form of government intervention (law, taxation, subsidy, spending etc.). However, these studies have not examined attitudes towards, or belief in, the efficacy of government intervention in markets, through microeconomic policies on taxation (e.g., duties levied on particular products) or subsidies. This paper reports on the results of taking such a specific focus, that is, investigating economics students' knowledge of, and attitudes towards, government interventions in markets, specifically addressing the problem of climate change. We make use of unique, two-wave longitudinal data from Swedish university students. The data were collected during their initial semester at the university. The first data collection was performed at the beginning of the semester, August/September 2014, and the second wave of data collection was performed in December/January 2014/2015, at the end of the semester. We were able to match 414 students between the first and second survey. The results show that students of economics change their policy attitudes and become more knowledgeable in economics. After one semester, they are more likely to think of economic instruments/incentives (taxes and subsidies) as good and efficient policy instruments, and less likely to think that other instruments (regulation and information) are good and efficient policy instruments. However, further analyses show that knowledgeable students do not have different attitudes toward environmental policy instruments, compared to students who do not answer the questions correctly. Hence, there seems to be some other factor affecting students in economics during their first semester, that changes their attitudes towards environmental policy instruments.

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“…For example, atomic structure has been identified as a threshold concept, which has a variety of conceptual barriers, such as probability and quantisation, between the student and the teacher's desired outcome (Park and Light 2008). In economics, opportunity cost has been identified as a threshold concept for first year university students (Shanahan, Foster, and Meyer 2006). Thus, the idea of threshold concepts has taken hold across disciplines.…”

Section: Threshold Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lonergan's insight and threshold concepts: students in the liminal space

Heading

Loughlin

2017

Teaching in Higher Education

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Operationalising a Threshold Concept in Economics: A Pilot Study Using Multiple Choice Questions on Opportunity Cost

Cited by 29 publications

References 10 publications

Threshold concept acquisition in occupational therapy: A mixed methods study of students and clinicians

Threshold concept acquisition in occupational therapy: A mixed methods study of students and clinicians

Learning Economics and Attitudes to Market Solutions to Environmental Problems

Lonergan's insight and threshold concepts: students in the liminal space

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