Friday, February 1, 2013

Case-Based Learning in Preservice Teacher Education Courses


The preservice teachers in this course complete two case-based learning activities. The cases were created by inservice teachers; they described an instructional situation that they believed could benefit from technology. For example, one secondary history teacher described that her high school students needed constantly updated resources for a current events class. Preservice teachers completed a Case Analysis using a scaffolded template. The template provided structured guidelines for students to follow, in order to help them make strong technology integration decisions. As they were at the beginning of their teacher education program, the Case Analysis template helped them consider different technologies and scaffolded development of their technology integration abilities. They were required to list potential options, select the best option, and explain the rationale for why it is the best option.

For example, in the secondary history example above, preservice teachers could have provided a range of RSS feeds, websites, twitter accounts, or blogs as technology options for constantly keeping high school students updated on current events. After considering the additional restrictions embedded in the case (availability of resources in the school, time restrictions, student disabilities, etc.), each preservice teacher selected one of the options and explained why that option was the best choice. After receiving feedback from the instructor, each preservice teacher created the Case Artifacts they selected in the Case Analysis. As the cases were ill-structured problems, the Case Artifacts varied for each preservice teacher. By constructing the Case Artifacts, preservice teachers developed a wide range of technical skills and technology integration abilities within their own subject-area contexts. They received feedback on how to use technology, as well as how to structure technology artifacts to promote student learning. The case assignments began in the middle of the course, during unit two. Over the last six weeks of the course, preservice teachers completed one case analysis or artifact each week (e.g., Case Analysis #1 in week six, Case Artifact #1 in week seven).

Here are several examples of student's completed Case Analysis and Artifacts:

Here is a link to the course: http://www.indiana.edu/~educw200/index.html
All our materials are embedded in them. All we ask is if you use these materials, please provide attribution back to Dr. Anne Ottenbreit-Leftwich or link directly back to the page.

Dr. Anne Ottenbreit-Leftwich
AECT Teacher Education Division President
left (at) indiana (dot) edu

2 comments:

  1. I really like how you turned the cases into an assignment that students complete over time--reflecting on their options for technology integration and tying those back to audience characteristics, content standards, and learning goals and objectives. Allowing them to develop artifacts based on the case is also a good way to get them involved in technology integration. I'm curious if you ever tie these cases to needs that teachers have near your university. Are they always hypothetical or can students design artifacts that teachers might modify and use in their own classroom?

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  2. Case-informed discussion has been a key element of medical training for decades. My recent work as an online instructor in a Medical Education M.Ed. Program has offered me additional insights as to the benefits of case-based instruction.
    Authentic clinical experiences and events contribute to future instructional resources. Experiences in clinical settings and collections of digital images and laboratory test results are often combined to build the content of cases for analysis.
    The power of technology to document, share and collect ongoing discussion surrounding the specific medical content and options for treatment facilitate the needs of training physicians for interactive and relevant instructional resources.
    On a more scholarly note, David Jonassen's last book emphasized the power of case-based instruction as several chapters of this book are devoted to this topic, and how case-based instruction can inform the design of learning environments to solve problems.

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