Using threshold concepts to restructure an electrical and computer engineering curriculum: Troublesome knowledge in expected outcomes

Virginia Tech is in the process of an intensive restructuring of its Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department, driven by an NSF Revolutionizing Engineering Department (RED) grant. As a natural first step, discussion has centered on how the curriculum can be meaningfully enhanced to go beyond a mere reshuffling of core content without tangible changes in pedagogy. Accordingly, we have adopted the threshold concept framework, initially developed by Meyer and Land, as a lens to view elements of the curriculum that are often considered “troublesome” for students to learn and are both transformative and integrative in nature. We opted to frame the discussion of threshold concepts in terms of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), the knowledge associated with communicating concepts in such a way that others — primarily students — can understand. To capture PCK, we used an instrument called a “content representation” (CoRe). This paper describes one element of our sequential qualitative investigation, which had three primary stages: an individual reflection with CoRe, a series of focus groups discussing and synthesizing the CoRes, and the development of a culminating card sort workshop. The findings from the focus groups will be presented, which include the set of big ideas and the associated threshold concepts within ECE from the literature.