CaseBased Pedagogy

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Case-Based Pedagogy

• Mary Lundeberg
• Teacher Education
• Michigan State University

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Criticisms of Conventional Pedagogy

• I have come to believe that most of what we teach
  in educational psychology is taught like phonics
  and vocabulary in reading, or like logarithms and
  geometry in mathematics
• That is, it is taught in a decontextualized
  manner.
• Perhaps much of our research lies fallow because
  we often fail to give it the quality of a tool.
• We fail to embed it in stories that teachers and
  policymakers can use.
• David Berliner, 1992

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Law

• Professor Kingsfields explanation of socratic
  method for developing legal reasoning

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Biology Cases

• National Research Council Standards (1996)
• science inquiry
• science in personal and social perspectives
  science and technology applications
• genetic and molecular basis of heredity,
• ethics

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Case It! Project in Biology

• Web-based framework for molecular biology
• Cases on genetic and infectious diseases
• Research sites for information on cases
• Simulation for testing data (antibodies, DNA)
• Web-page poster
• Internet conferencing
• Role-playing
• Http//www.uwrf.edu/caseit/caseit.html

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HIV Case studies Amarie

• African case study example

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Creating a case problem

• Authentic and relevant
• One that participants might encounter, they have
  a role in solving, requires them to use tools of
  the discipline and find information
• Pedagogically effective
• Content knowledge, standards, problem solving,
  peer collaboration, and self-directed learning
• Controversial (multiple solutions)
• Appropriately complex
• Uses group work and independent learning
• Engaging

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Results of Case Pedagogy

• Survey of case teaching in science
• (23 states Canada)
• 2004-2005 Faculty perceptions (n101)
• Contexts of case use benefits and challenges

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Contexts of Case Use

• 84 reported using case studies in teaching
• 47 used 1-2 cases per semester
• 41 used 3-5 cases per semester
• 12 used 6 or more cases per semester
• 66 of cases took one class period or less
• 33 of cases took 2-5 class periods
• 58 of faculty wrote their own cases
• 35 modified existing cases
• 7 used existing cases

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Faculty Perceptions Critical Thinking
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Faculty Perceptions Student Learning
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Obstacles Faculty Encounter Top Five
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Acknowledgements
Barb Levin Helen Harrington (co-editors) Mark
Bergland, Karen Klyczek, Kim Mogen and Doug
Johnson (NSF grant)
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Case It Investigator
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Method

• RQ Does using a case-based simulation increase
  students awareness of the ethics associated with
  the scientific results they obtain?
• Undergraduate Biology 100 (mostly non-science)
• 39 volunteers 26 non-volunteers
• Pre- and post-case analysis task
• As a genetics counselor, what would you advise
  this family about ethical issues raised by these
  results?

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Results

• Students' awareness of ethical issues increased
  significantly for those in the volunteer group, t
  (38) 2.24, p lt.03,
• but not for those in the control group, t lt1.