As pointed out in the lecture, the case-based method appears to have a lot in common with several other contextual-based instructional methods presented in previous weeks. There is the presence of a narrative structure to present content, an emphasis on higher-order thinking skills, and a context anchored in real-world situations. At the elementary level, case-based instruction as used in secondary and higher education poses a challenge for teachers due to the limited reading skills and the ability of students to follow lengthy narratives. If used on a very small scale, however, it is very useful approach to framing instructional problems. The realistic narrative format can allow student to connect new content and skills to existing knowledge and prior experiences and provide that necessary bridge between the known and unknown.
I’ve often made use of “cases” with my elementary students in the context of math and science instruction. The quotation marks, however, signify that these cases are really small scale versions of what would be considered a normal case. It usually consists of a short paragraph, perhaps two at the most, detailing a semi-realistic situation in which the problem at hand might occur. For example, in mathematics, we might be working on area and perimeter, and the lesson would begin with a short story about a boy and his grandpa interested in building a sandbox, but are limited by the amount of building material and sand that they have. While a “case” like this doesn’t involve the complexity or amount of embedded content that a true case-study may entail, it does provide a realistic application for the content to be learned.
I can easily envision MOST environments and case-based scenarios meshing well to provide elementary students with an opportunity to explore more in-depth case studies. While lengthy text-based case studies may be too difficult for students to attend to, providing video or media embedded cases could provide the necessary supports for students to explore them. Although these may take time too much time for a teacher to develop, there are countless video clips and longer videos through sites such as YouTube and United Streaming that are at the teachers disposal.
Shaun,
ReplyDeleteI liked your example about the “cases” that you use with elementary students. Math, Science, and even Social Studies are useful subjects that can be used with the case based model. The math example about building a sandbox would be useful for students. This is a math word problems which frequently appear on the EOG test. Several of my students have trouble answering word problems because they do not read carefully and the problem may have multiple steps that need to be solved. I agree that videos and cased based learning would work well together.