Transformative Learning in Architectural Education

In liminality: interdisciplinary teams learning through challenges

“…Christine, however, moved into a constructive “fight-mode” and initiated a shift in the team’s feelings about changing the idea at this late stage in the process. Similar to observations in other studies, Christine may have been an example of a mature learner who was more relaxed about being in the liminality zone, maybe even finding it exhilarating (Hokstad et al , 2016; Mohamed et al , 2016). As described by Stenner (2017), liminality is not only an experience but also an emergence.…”

“…However, this only helped to escalate the tension and the polarity between the two parties in the team. As stated by Hokstad et al (2016), liminality is not a linear process, but rather iterative and recursive, and a process that takes time. Maybe Team 2 did not exit liminality sufficiently after situation 3, but rather had a small break from the tough confrontations?…”

“…Most of the literature describing liminality suggests that because it contains troublesome feelings, it is a state that most learners want to leave and resolve (Kiley and Wisker, 2009). Hokstad et al (2016), however, find suggestions in their material that a learner who is maturing in his or her learning approach becomes more relaxed about the liminal zone and can find the tension stimulating and a necessary part of learning. Furthermore, Meyer et al (2008) described variations in threshold concepts acquisition in four stages: (1) Subliminal variation, (2) Pre-liminal variation, (3) Liminal variation, and (4) Post-liminal variation.…”

“…Therefore, in this paper, we will focus our attention on applying liminality as a way to better understand the team processes, including the teacher or facilitator’s role from the state before the team get stuck till they get unstuck, and discuss their perceived learning. Although liminality may be seen as a sequential or linear process through visualisations like Figure 1, it is rather a process of “messy journeys back, forth and across conceptual terrain” (Cousin, 2006, p. 5), or as described by Hokstad et al (2016), processes that are “time consuming, iterative and recursive, and for most learners certainly painful” (p. 326). This process will now be illustrated by two team narratives as examples of teams being in liminality.…”

Towards an epistemically neutral curriculum model for vocational education: from competencies to threshold concepts and practices

“…Recognition of the significance of embodied knowledge for our understanding of human experience (Merleau-Ponty, 2012), of 'implicit knowledge' in learning (Masters, 1992), and the 'corporeal turn' in general in social theory (Iveson, 2012), draw attention to the unique theoretical challenges of comprehending and representing skilled techniques and practices. This recognition underlines the difficulties of articulating embodied, practical or 'tacit' dimensions of occupational competence, although recent work on threshold concepts has started to grapple with embodied knowledge (Hokstad, Rødne, Braaten, Wellinger & Shetelig, 2016;Rowe & Martin, 2014). Any attempt to bring the threshold concepts approach to vocational education would have to contend with these basic challenges of access to and articulation of threshold objects in potentially undertheorised or difficult-to-theorise occupations.…”