Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to our Website for case practitioners. Case-based teaching has captured the imagination of the educators globally. Case studies, those "slices of life" that illustrate a myriad of dilemmas from moral issues to classroom management, are increasingly being integrated into teacher preparation programs, as well as in the assessment of teachers’ professional expertise.

Research indicates that teaching with cases can offer teacher educators a variety of opportunities to expand and extend their teaching skills, problem-solving abilities, and grasp of contemporary issues in classrooms today. Case discussions also offer a window into preservice, inservice, or graduate students’ experiences, opinions, perceptions, or misconceptions of educational dilemmas. The benefits for students are also multiple: the development of higher-order thinking skills, and advanced research, problem-solving, writing, and presentation skills. Students also report increased satisfaction with their grasp of issues and the range of strategies explored to cope with life in schools.

However, many misconceptions abound about teaching with cases. Don’t cases teach themselves? Aren’t they intuitively engaging to students? Isn’t there a correct way to teach with cases? Don’t all cases have one "right" answer? These issues become particularly relevant when applying cases to specific content areas, student populations, and goals of instruction.

This Website is designed as a companion to the text, Case Applications for Teacher Education: Cases of Teaching and Learning in the Content Areas. The contributors to this volume present a wealth of experiences both as teacher educators and innovators in case-method teaching. They are in different stages of their careers, from several different geographic areas, and have adapted their teaching strategies with cases to fit their students and course goals. Cases are drawn from a variety of sources. Several of the contributors have authored or co-authored case study texts in their content areas. Several other contributors share their unpublished cases in their chapters. Still others offer samples of student case writing and case analyses that they use as part of their course content. All share their own stories of teaching and learning with cases and are represented on this Website.

I invite you to tour this Website to learn more about teaching with case studies in a variety of contexts and content areas. The five following sections are:

• About the Text - outlines the reasons for and philosophy of the text

• Table of Contents - lists specific authors and their chapter content areas

• Chapter Authors and Resources - gives photos, vitas, addresses, and ancillary resources for chapter authors including hyperlinked sites

• Bibliography - a compilation of approximately 50 text resources and research about teaching with case studies

• A Final Word - a mentoring and feedback message

 

Cordially, Mary R. Sudzina, Ph.D.
Editor, Case Applications for Teacher Education

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