An Illustration of Teaching and Assessment Practices of the “Conceptual Framework” as a Threshold Concept

Abstract

Threshold concepts are critical to student learning, providing gateways to understanding particular fields or disciplines. This paper adopts this idea of threshold concepts and relevant teaching and assessment practices to illustrate its use in postgraduate students' teaching and learning activities when developing a conceptual framework for their research. This paper addresses several key topics, namely: (1) How conceptual frameworks are introduced and explained; (2) Differentiating quantitative variance conceptual frameworks from qualitative process conceptual frameworks; (3) Explaining and illustrating how to conduct process theory in qualitative research using the case study method, grounded theory method, and critical incident technique; and (4) Illustrating the role of formative and summative assessment as a form of scaffolding in the teaching and learning process.