Link: Identifying Threshold Concepts for Information Literacy, A Delphi Study
This study used the Delphi method to engage expert practitioners on the topic of threshold concepts–core ideas and processes in a discipline that students need to grasp in order to progress in their learning, but that are often unspoken or unrecognized by expert practitioners–for information literacy. A panel of experts considered two questions: First, is the threshold concept approach useful for information literacy instruction? … Second, what are the threshold concepts for information literacy instruction?
[The Six threshold concepts proposed by the Delphi study are as follows:]
>Authority is Constructed and Contextual
>Information Creation is a Process
>Searching as Strategic Exploration
[According to Jan Meyer and Ray Land, British educators who developed the threshold concepts,] threshold concepts have five definitional criteria:
>Transformative: cause the learner to experience a shift in perspective
>Integrative: bring together separate concepts into a unified whole
>Irreversible: once grasped, cannot be un-grasped
>Bounded: may help define the boundaries of a particular discipline
>Troublesome: usually difficult or counterintuitive ideas that can cause students to hit a roadblock in their learning
The authors [of the Delphi study] view information literacy as competence in working with systems of information to discover, evaluate, manage, and use information effectively in context, informed by an understanding of the social, political, cultural and economic dimensions that affect the creation and dissemination of information within those systems. Much like other new literacies (eg., financial, mathematical, visual), information literacy can be understood as a facility with the foundational concepts of a given area of inquiry, in this case information science, and the ability to apply those understandings and skills in other areas of life.
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