Experiments as Liminal Learning Spaces in Leadership Development: Threshold Concepts as Catalysts or Inhibitors of Transformation in the Education of Professional Practitioners

In this paper we address the question of what professional practitioner students learn from experiments in leadership development programs. Drawing from our own design and teaching in a leadership programme, we explore how certain models and frameworks become threshold concepts for students’ learning while others leave only minor traces. By relating the concept of threshold concepts to different notions of knowledge, we explore what concepts are of particular relevance to exec students and how they influence their learning. Conclusions from our study show that threshold concepts that invoke practicebased knowledge have a much stronger influence on students’ learning than those, which invoke theoretically based knowledge, have. We discuss the power of threshold concepts in education of professional practitioner students and how they influence student
learning. Finally, we conclude by suggesting practical implications for using threshold concepts in designing experiments in leadership development education for professional practitioners.