Group met during the Fall of 2014

CFI invited faculty from varied academic disciplines to form a faculty learning community around case-based teaching methods.  Within the community, self-directed and self-facilitated work will allow Madison Teaching Fellows to explore such enduring questions as:

• How might cases be utilized to teach disciplinary habits of mind and ethical reasoning/the eight key questions?  What is the role and responsibility, as faculty members at a public university, to teach these kinds of skills?
• Can highly contextualized learning lead to better understanding, longer retention, and the ability to translate skills to new situations?  If so, how would an instructor know, and what are the best practices for writing and delivering cases to foster such high-impact learning?
• How can teaching and scholarship integrate and synergize when using case-based methods?  What teaching experiments can be designed and implemented?  How can faculty members measure learning outcomes?  Where might findings and/or teaching materials be published?
• How do case-based teaching methods align or conflict with disciplinary norms, and how might this affect work with students?

Minimally, group members will meet twice each month for planning, discussions, guided readings, and/or presentations.  In doing so, members will come away with expertise through the practice of sustained inquiry and exchange, intellectual debate, and cross-fertilization.  This enriching experience will poise members to innovate their teaching, develop competitive SoTL proposals for external and internal funding, publish their teaching materials and findings, and engage with visiting institute facilitator and author of “Start with a Story: The Case Study Method of Teaching College Science”, Dr. Kipp Herreid, during January Symposium.