Using Case Studies for Teaching and Learning

Vicki Golich, California State University, San Marcos

Saturday, November 9, 2002, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

UC 202

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Center for Enhancement of Teaching and Learning

California State University, Fresno

and the California State University Institute for Teaching and Learning

Case teaching:

• Grounds academic instruction in reality by engaging students in discussion of specific situations.
• Is learner-centered, characterized by intense interaction between instructor and student, as well as among students in a group.
• Assumes that learning is more effective if students discover or construct knowledge with the guidance of an instructor.
• Allows students to simultaneously learn curricular content - knowledge - and how to learn - skills and competencies such as writing, speaking, listening, and critical thinking.

The case method is suitable for many more disciplines than you imagine - All faculty members are welcome!

What can you expect from this workshop?

• A live demonstration of the method
• Debrief and analysis
• Discussion of the mechanics of preparing and teaching a case
• Primers and resources on teaching cases

About the presenter:

Always interested primarily in teaching, Dr. Golich was selected as one of 24 Pew Faculty Fellows in International Affairs in 1992 and learned to use the case method of interactive teaching at the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University. In 1994, she was asked to create and direct a faculty development program at CSUSM, a position she has held ever since. Vicki has run case teaching workshops around the country and around the world, including back at Harvard with subsequent groups of Pew Fellows; with her teacher and mentor, John Boehrer, now at the University of Washington; Mt. Holyoke; the CSU Teacher Scholar Summer Institute; the European Crisis Management Academy and National Defence College in Stockholm, Sweden; the American Sociological Association; American Political Science Association; and the International Studies Association. She has written two cases, an article for a flagship journal of her disciplinary organization - the ISA, and a teaching manual: (1) "United States-Canadian Negotiations for Acid Rain Controls," (with Terry F. Young) Case Study #452-93-N in International Negotiation for the Pew Initiative in Diplomatic Training (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh, 1993); (2) "Debt-For-Nature Swaps: Win-Win Solution or Environmental Imperialism," (with Terry F. Young) Case Study #454-93-N in International Negotiation for the Pew Initiative in Diplomatic Training (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh, 1993); (3) "The ABCs of Case Teaching," International Studies Perspectives 1 (2000), pp. 11-29; and (4) The ABCs of Case Teaching: A Manual in Progress (w/ Patrice Franko, Mark Boyer, and Steve Lamy) for the Pew Initiative in Diplomatic Training (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2000; see http://www.guisd.org).