Case Studies and the Flipped Classroom

ase study teaching has been extolled for its ability to engage students and devel-op critical-thinking skills, among other benefits. But there is a price to be paid: greater prepara-tion time, student resistance to novel teaching methods, and a concern on the part of many teachers about con-tent coverage. The latter is especially worrisome to STEM (science, tech-nology, engineering, and mathemat-ics) instructors who equate coverage with learning. They rightfully point out that there are state and national standards that must be met, stan-dardized exams that students must take, and prerequisites for advanced courses that must be satisfied. What to do? Must we abandon case studies and leave storytelling to books, films, TV, elementary school teachers, and preachers? Wait! Help is on the way in the form of the “flipped classroom.” The “flipped” approach to teaching has become particularly attractive because of the availability of internet resources including audio and video on virtu-ally any subject, frequently narrated by some of the world’s outstanding authorities. And the approach seems to have singular appeal to students in this electronic age where videos in par -ticular have found a special place in the heart of the “Awesome Generation.” In the flipped classroom model, what is normally done in class and what is normally done as homework is switched or flipped. Instead of students listening to a lecture on, say, genetics in class and then going home to work on a set of assigned problems, they read material and view videos on genetics before coming to class and then engage in class in active learn-ing using case studies, labs, games, simulations, or experiments. A guiding principle of the flipped classroom is that work typically done as homework (e.g., problem solving, essay writing) is better undertaken in class with the guidance of the instructor. Listening to lecture or watching videos is better accomplished at home. Hence the term flipped or inverted classroom.

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