Threshold Connections: Engaging trainee teachers in collaborative curriculum research to explore Threshold Concepts within secondary school science disciplines

This seminar explores the pedagogical potential of investigating secondary school science curricula through the lens of the Threshold Concept Framework (TCF). A cohort of trainee secondary school science teachers in England worked collaboratively to co-construct their understanding of threshold concepts in A-level sciences based on their individual perceptions and experiences. Themes emerged which I argue to be inter-disciplinary Threshold Epistemes, concepts that are not the difficult content areas identified as troublesome but constitute more abstract ideas which are fundamental to thinking as a scientist within and across sub-disciplines. These are ways of understanding, and/or systems of ideas. Threshold Epistemes identified and discussed are: models, scale, randomness and language. I also further argue that the process of engaging with the TCF as a theoretical framework has potential to be pedagogically productive for teachers and pupils.