Hello! I am Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead, an Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut and a member of the Case Collaborative. I know from personal experience how powerful cases can be for building others’ capacity, be it in the evaluations I do or the evaluation classes I teach. I am excited to share a brief summary of what the research has to say about teaching and learning with cases, and some rad resources to help you integrate cases into your capacity building efforts.
A Brief Look at What the Research Says
In 2021, New Directions for Evaluation (NDE) published an entire special issue on Case-Centered Teaching and Learning in Evaluation. Two articles were included in this NDE issue that summarize important literature.
The first of these articles—How do we teach and learn with cases?—reviews literature on teaching and learning with cases drawing from established professions, such as education, business, medicine. These applied professions use cases with a wide and deep scholarship base supporting use. Several important points are made:
- There are four types of cases one can use: (1) cases as exemplars, (2) closed problem cases, (3) cases as simulations of practice, and (4) open problem cases.
- A backward design process—identifying desired learning goals, determining acceptable evidence of learning, and planning learning experiences with these ideas in mind—is a useful model for planning capacity building efforts with cases.
- Asking meaningful questions and creating the conditions that support case teaching and learning is important. A figure in the article gives examples of Socratic and Bloom Taxonomy-oriented questions.
- The article also briefly touches on what it looks like to take a critical, transformation lens in case teaching and learning. Example guiding questions for bringing a social justice lens to case teaching and learning are included in the article.
The second article—How do we deepen our story reservoir by designing, developing, and writing instructional cases for teaching evaluation?—aims to increase your capacity to write cases for learning by providing guidance on:
- What to think about for a case you want to write: (a) select the case type based on the learning goals and objectives, (b) identify and determine key elements of the case, (c) frame the case, (d) write the case, and (e) develop instructor resources.
- Writing a good case: (a) write the case with clarity about intended learning goals and objectives, (b) embed the appropriate level of complexity aligned with case type, (c) ensure the case is realistic and authentic to what happens in the real world, (d) structure the case around a central or critical incident, and (e) include stylistic elements of a narrative story.
- Writing good case teaching resources: When and what to include in instructor or facilitator resources.
Rad Resources
- AEA members get access to two journals (NDE and AJE). While signed into your AEA account, you can access the two hyperlinked NDE articles in this post for free!
- A checklist to help you write cases developed by David Ensminger and myself
- A set of reflection questions to facilitate case analysis for creating a case narrative by David Ensminger
- The book Designing and Implementing Effective Evaluations: Comprehensive Case Studies in Program Evaluation, edited by Kenneth Linfield and Steven Kniffley, includes access to instructor or facilitator resources with purchase.
The American Evaluation Association is hosting Case Collaborative week. The contributions all this week to AEA365 come from members of the Case Collaborative, a global group of evaluators focused on the use of evaluation cases. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this AEA365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the AEA365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an AEA365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to AEA365@eval.org. AEA365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators. The views and opinions expressed on the AEA365 blog are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the American Evaluation Association, and/or any/all contributors to this site.