“Indistinct Boundaries and Intersections: The Role of Threshold Concepts and Disposition in Students with Early College Credit”
This qualitative study investigates knowledge transfer in college students whose high school Advanced Placement (AP) or dual credit (DC) English courses enabled them to opt out of the first level of composition at Iowa State University (ISU). Although early college credit (ECC) students’ university writing performances have been studied, writing transfer has not been adequately studied in this population before. The influence of these students’ lived experiences requires more consideration from scholars because of the growing number of students who enter advanced university classes by virtue of credits earned in high school.
Thirteen students from a variety of backgrounds, majors, and years at ISU participated in this study. Discourse-based interviews encouraged participants to reflect upon high school writing experiences, university writing experiences, and moments of crisis and confidence they encountered in writing “for the university” (Bartholomae). Data were analyzed inductively with a constant comparative method using disposition and threshold concept lenses since, as scholars assert, transfer is heavily influenced by attitudinal and environmental influences, especially those encouraged by educational practices. The combination of disposition and threshold concept codes has not been used as a method in writing studies before; it answers the call of writing studies scholars to use multiple theories concurrently to more thoroughly examine all influences on students’ abilities to transfer (Driscoll and Wells).
Participant perceptions revealed evidence of positive transfer closely connected with generative dispositions. Instances of negative transfer revealed inability to access prior knowledge and paralytically anxious attitudes about needing to know the “right” way to proceed with assignments, revealing the tendency of some threshold concepts to work in concert with disruptive dispositions and create barriers to transfer. Students’ writing practices and products indicated that they do not need first level composition as much as they need more advanced writing guidance.
This project illuminates the need for teachers and administrators in both secondary and post-secondary settings to better understand transfer and support all students to become more successful in their college writing experiences. Ultimately it suggests that the field of writing studies is at a point where some redefining of roles and methods needs to happen, and where conversations need to occur across institutional divides.