Good Practice

Case-Based Learning

What Is Case-Based Learning?

Using a case-based approach engages students in discussion of specific situations, typically real-world examples. This method is learner-centered, and involves intense interaction between the participants. Case-based learning focuses on the building of knowledge and the group works together to examine the case. The instructor's role is that of a facilitator and the students collaboratively address problems from a perspective that requires analysis. Much of case-based learning involves learners striving to resolve questions that have no single right answer.

Clyde Freeman Herreid provides eleven basic rules for case-based learning.

1. Tells a story.
2. Focuses on an interest-arousing issue.
3. Set in the past five years
4. Creates empathy with the central characters.
5. Includes quotations. There is no better way to understand a situation and to gain empathy for the characters
6. Relevant to the reader.
7. Must have pedagogic utility.
8. Conflict provoking.
9. Decision forcing.
10. Has generality.
11. Is short.