Case Study Teaching in Science: A Nationwide Program of Faculty Development and Dissemination

This PI team has been practicing and studying the use of case study teaching in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines for the past 12 years and has shared the method through local workshops and an annual conference to train faculty. As a result, case study teaching has been tested in hundreds of classrooms and has been found to be superior to the traditional lecture method. In addition, the PI team has created a national website to disseminate cases and teaching notes. This project is disseminating the case study teaching method at the national level through the proven method of teaching via satellite workshops at college campuses, presentations at STEM conferences, distance learning courses, and science education journals. Each of the three years of the project the PI team runs four workshops, two in Buffalo and two at satellite sites, accommodating 40 faculty members at each workshop. In addition, pre-conference seminars are also being presented at a variety of professional society meetings. Three special issues of the Journal of College Science Teaching are being devoted solely to the case study method. Complete courses and individual lessons are being disseminated through the project website. Evaluation of the method is ongoing as a result of training STEM faculty to use classroom action research.