Table 2.
Personal experiences that promote or hinder case study teachinga
| Category | Number of participants | Illustrative quote |
|---|---|---|
| Personal experiences that promote case study teaching | ||
| Self-considerations | ||
| I hate lecturing. | 9 | I hate lecturing. I do it all the time and I hate it, and at the end of every hour I feel like, well that sucked. (Cheryl) |
| Case studies are a good fit for me. | 9 | [Case studies appeal to me because] I can use my background so effectively, and part of it is that it makes a very real world. We’re not just sitting in this classroom, we’re learning a skill that is going to be something useful to the world. (Debra) |
| I’m willing to try and fail. | 6 | I mean, I don’t expect it to be perfect this year. I know that going into it. We’ll just kind of see how it goes, and then know that I can revise it for next time. (Brenda) |
| Interactions with other people | ||
| Students are more engaged in class and learn more when I use case studies. | 13 | As much as I try to be interactive when I lecture and ask the students questions, it doesn’t require all of the students to answer the questions, so I feel like case studies are more likely to … get everybody involved … I think generally it’s just more interesting for the students. (Brenda) |
| My colleagues are mostly supportive.b | 17 supportive 6 unsupportive 6 ambivalent | You know, there is a range of faculty members and ages and pedagogical methods. Some people are very enthusiastic about [case study teaching]. Other people are supportive and they are fine with it, but they are very much committed to lecture, so they are less interested, although they are supportive of me doing it, not particularly interested for themselves. (Karen) |
| My administrators are supportive. | 11 | [My administrators] are supportive in the fact that they paid for me to come here, so, I mean, I think it was around $3000 when everything was said and done. (Lori) |
| Contextual factors | ||
| I need teaching materials. | 10 | My habit until now has been sort of I look at what my lectures are that are coming up and I know that the students aren’t going to be terribly excited, so I’ll search through the case studies to see if I can find something that will spark them a little bit and then bring that in. It hasn’t been … It’s not integrated into my syllabus per se, it’s more [an] ad hoc kind of a thing. (Donna) |
| Personal experiences that hinder case study teaching | ||
| Contextual factors | ||
| I do not have enough time to prepare for class. | 6 | Time is a huge issue…. I have to be careful to pace myself that I’m not overwhelming myself … so it’s going to take probably more time than I thought to float around and find the right case or write the right case. (Debra) |
| I have to balance case study teaching with covering enough content. | 6 | Timewise, how does it affect my ability to deliver the content? That’s a huge issue for me. (David) |
| I do not feel sufficiently prepared for case study teaching. | 8 | Some of the things that I have had difficulty with are eliciting ... student discussion with each other as a whole class. I get it in small groups pretty easily, so ... the discussion case method is more tricky for me, and I want to get some insight into that. (Karen) |
aData include number of participants who expressed each idea and illustrative quotes.
bAll 17 participants reported having supportive colleagues. Additionally, 12 of the 17 participants also reported having unsupportive (six participants) or ambivalent (six participants) colleagues.