Rationale for the approach

It has been suggested that problem-focused learning might be a good way to embed the teaching of threshold concepts in the curriculum. There are a number of possible justifications for this:

1. Threshold concepts identify problematic (troublesome) ways of understanding, and it might be natural for students to encounter these in learning contexts where they are being asked to wrestle with problems. Through this, their previous conceptions should be challenged.
2. It has been argued (Gibbs, 1992) that problem-based learning fosters a deep approach to learning.
3. Threshold concepts identify ways of thinking and practising in a subject. A student who has acquired a threshold concept has learnt to approach the task of trying to find solutions to particular types of problem in a way that it is appropriate to the discipline. The assumption here is that not only (i) there is no common way of solving all classes of problems across all subjects but (ii) there is not a common way of solving all types of problem within a particular discipline.
4. A student who has acquired a threshold concept should be able to relate that concept to their thinking about everyday and professionally contextualised problems without prompting: it should become their way of construing situations. Problem-based learning avoids the 'theory-first' problem by which students acquire a sound structure of theoretical knowledge but prove very limited in their capacity to use that theoretical knowledge to make sense of unfamiliar situations.
5. It has been argued (Maxwell and Bellisimo, 2003) that students learn more when they care about what they are learning. The problems can be chosen in topics that students care about and may be familiar with, both from a personal standpoint, and from current affairs. This may be particularly important in economics when the majority of students taking level 1 modules are not economics degree specialists.