The importance and future of CASE as seen by experienced educators
What you see as the potential in CASE at this time?
I see an argument that as a strategy that was tested under a large RCT and its sound base in cognitive science that it would fit in well at this time. Alastair Gittner
That component of CASE that was the use of group work, joint construction and co-development is still under developed in Scotland. It cannot be found in other models that can be understood by teachers.
CASE always had a powerful impact on teachers’ questioning and how that was unpicked in CPD and how the model demanded that the teacher’s questioning changed to prompt reasoning. Carolyn Yates
CASE always had a powerful impact on teachers’ questioning and how that was unpicked in CPD and how the model demanded that the teacher’s questioning changed to prompt reasoning. Carolyn Yates
What remains and sustains your interest in CASE?
Experience of the style of teaching was enjoyable and challenging. Alastair Gittner
I sustain my interest, because of 6 children in my own life providing a window into Piagetian development stages. There are clearly a range of children who would benefit from the intervention. Although the age stage debate is a distraction there are stages in the way we think that fixes our ability to reason. Piagetian stages remain of interest, definitely.
My interest in CASE is so embedded it has changed the way I think fundamentally, its currently not sustained by peer group or practice at the moment given my other interests as a writer but I remain intrigued by the way people talk about learning. Carolyn Yates
My interest in CASE is so embedded it has changed the way I think fundamentally, its currently not sustained by peer group or practice at the moment given my other interests as a writer but I remain intrigued by the way people talk about learning. Carolyn Yates
What views you have on the CASE effect?
CASE was great but seemed at the time when I was using it most to require a significant amount of CPD. It had its greatest effect when teachers made links to the CASE lessons in other lessons (transfer.) It was also great as it made teachers really aware of the language they used when questioning and getting students to think. Alastair Gittner
I’m not sure whether children have got more stupid as is suggested by Michael’s Anti Flynn effect paper but they are certainly processing differently.
I was always a bit wary of how the measures of reasoning were used. Did the tools measure what they were intended to? I love the earlier effects but I’m less able to accept this data over time – how would it stand up now? The SRT method of assessment, which assumes that children are still hands on as much as minds on might itself be providing an anti Flynn effect, I wonder whether we would have different results if the SRT were incorporated into software? The most powerful effect of CASE is the transformative effect it has and still has on teachers. Even now I am on the Dumfries and Galloway STEM learning Group and there are three teachers on that group, all were CASE trained and it still affects them profoundly. There is to my mind a difference between teachers of science and a CASE teacher, the former focussing on the content and the other with a special identity and permission to participate in the science process. Carolyn Yates
I was always a bit wary of how the measures of reasoning were used. Did the tools measure what they were intended to? I love the earlier effects but I’m less able to accept this data over time – how would it stand up now? The SRT method of assessment, which assumes that children are still hands on as much as minds on might itself be providing an anti Flynn effect, I wonder whether we would have different results if the SRT were incorporated into software? The most powerful effect of CASE is the transformative effect it has and still has on teachers. Even now I am on the Dumfries and Galloway STEM learning Group and there are three teachers on that group, all were CASE trained and it still affects them profoundly. There is to my mind a difference between teachers of science and a CASE teacher, the former focussing on the content and the other with a special identity and permission to participate in the science process. Carolyn Yates
How you would like to work with others around CASE?
In finding ways of helping departments use CASE thinking in a self sustainable manner. How they can mutually support each other in delivering the lesson with a high degree of fidelity and also how they can ensure transfer. Alastair Gittner
I still like to know what people are doing with CASE and to see its development. I favour the collaborative approach to developing a theatrical piece of work, to see the group construct and and co-own a product. Although I am working creatively as an individual this is part of the tension between director, artists and playwright (which incidentally lends itself to some of the CASE strategies we used such as Pair share, Questions, Shock tactics). How we work in a CASE group should be a mirror of the CASE process, the product and the approach should coincide. Carolyn Yates
What ways forward there may be for CASE that realises its potential and maintains an interest in it?
By reminding more people of its findings and linking it to the current zeitgeist for research informed practice. Alastair Gittner
What was done originally should not be taken as sacrosanct and yet it would be foolish to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Whatever developments take place they should be rigorous and have embedded in them the principles of CASE and not just be activities that are engaging. The episodic nature, the pillars and the reasoning pattern are essential but still provide an open framework within which new can be developed. What are the reasoning patterns? Some flexibility here and this could be in line with what students have to do now for example their use of evidence. Carolyn Yates
What people should work on in the future?
How to implement CASE in a more cost effective way. Admittedly it was a decade or so ago when I implemented it in a previous department but it was £1000s of CPD at the time which is not sustainable. Alastair Gittner
Anything CASE related but gain evidence and not just data, to do this gather qualitative information, anecdotes, videos, model lessons. This type of evidence more readily fits with the virtual world and the debate on pedagogy. Demonstrate the impact using the right evidence for the right people. It may be useful to work on the applications of CASE as much as the research. Carolyn Yates