Abstract:

Objectives:
Participants will learn about the effective use of case studies to teach pre-service teachers about special education and working with students with disabilities in the general education setting.
Participants will learn about case study design and implementation in a university level exceptional child course.
Participants will review successful strategies for utilizing case studies in their own courses.

A case study is a “description of an actual situation, commonly involving a decision, a challenge, an opportunity, a problem or an issue faced by a person or persons in an organization” (Leenders et al., 2001). Cases do not give simple or explicit answers; rather, they provoke students' critical thinking, illustrate how to think professionally, and urge students to use theoretical concepts to highlight a practical problem solving (Dowd and Davidhizar, 1999). The purpose of case studies is to promote active student learning and critical thinking. Case studies help students build on prior knowledge, integrate current knowledge, and consider application for future situations. Case teaching is an engaging strategy that emphasizes analysis, evaluation, conceptualization, and discussion (Kunselman & Johnson, 2004). Class participation and motivation can increase as students discuss their ideas with their classmates as opposed to passively listening to a lecture (Foran, 2001; Olgun & Adali, 2008). In addition, the instructor may also experience increased satisfaction because it tends to be more interesting than teaching the same lectures repeatedly with limited interaction (Andersen & Schianao, 2014).

The purpose of this presentation is to define the case method as a form of instruction, provide examples of case studies currently being used in an undergraduate and graduate Exceptional Child course to teach about special education and discuss ways that case method can be used to promote critical thinking and analysis in the higher education classroom.

Keywords:

Case-based instruction, exceptional child, higher education, introductory college courses.