Contexts for the Use of Classroom Cases

Abstract

One can use classroom cases in at least three different ways: as instructional materials; as raw data in research on teacher cognition; and as catalysts that can promote change, particularly among experienced teachers. Each of these uses is based on a different epistemological tradition. Case-based instruction is an old concept in teacher education, the first casebook having been published in 1927. Classroom cases continued to be used to educate teachers over the next 50 years: as critical incidents, vignettes, protocols, and simulations. In contrast, the other two uses of classroom cases appear to be novel concepts in the field of teacher education, suggesting significant changes in the way we perceive classroom teaching and educational research. They appear to mark a growing acceptance of the ‘‘qualitative” in teaching and in research. I use this term as Eisner (1991) does, to include that which is naturalistic, interpretive, expressive, and attentive to the particular.