EXAMPLE CASE STUDY: Practice and Learning

The Reasoned Writing / A Framework for Scientific Papers modules have allowed me to structure even my "lecture" courses around specific projects or problems that I term "Case Studies." In my estimation, Case Studies can improve instruction relative to lectures alone for several reasons, including:

1) Students learn some or much of the course content from primary sources. Derivative sources like textbooks support student understanding of scientific problems instead of being definitive, exclusive sources of information.

2) Case Studies encourage active learning. Lectures can be important for providing context, focus, and explanations. However, lectures often must compete with many other distractions, do not always actively engage students in learning. Using Case Studies in addition to lectures can contribute to helping students directly engage with course content and contribute to learning.

3) Written papers involve analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. The process of writing contributes to important critical reasoning skills.

The pdf file below is an example of a Case Study that I have found useful for my "Motor Control and Learning" course.