Resources

Developed by 2020-2021 Harvard Chan Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Fellow Sana Farooqui (MPH 2021), this guide provides suggestions for case writers and course instructors on writing and selecting cases featuring diverse protagonists and DEI topics, as well as leading inclusive case discussions in the classroom. 

This resource, compiled by the Berkeley Haas Center for Equity, Gender & Leadership, is "a case compendium that includes: (a) case studies with diverse protagonists, and (b) case studies that build “equity fluency” by focusing on DEI-related issues and opportunities. The goal of the compendium is to support professors at Haas, and business schools globally, to identify cases they can use in their own classrooms, and ultimately contribute to advancing DEI in education and business."

This Harvard Business Publishing web article provides "practical advice for leading discussions in class on diversity, equity, and inclusion topics."

Slides from an active learning workshop session on low course ratings by Prof. Nancy Kane. Most instructors receive some negative comments from students on their course evaluations. One option is to dismiss them as outliers or in conflict with positive comments, and sometimes that is appropriate. Often, however, negative evaluations represent good opportunities for reconsidering how a course is positioned, what it is trying to achieve, and/or how it is taught. Dr. Kane describes common themes found in negative course evaluations at Harvard Chan and discusses ways of addressing them.

Slides from a workshop on writing cases for public health education.

An outline of steps for faculty in overseeing case development.

An overview of the case planning and writing process, by experienced case-writer and CBTL workshop leader Kirsten Lundberg.

Guidance on designing a course to facilitate student learning, from Professor Nancy Kane, covering topics including:

• Is your course description clear and engaging?
• Does your syllabus provide a framework for the course that is logical and supported by theory?
• Does your course build appropriate skills and competencies geared to the cohort you are teaching?

What is different about discussion-based teaching and what are the challenges? Prof. Jim Austin leads a discussion. 34 minutes.

Watch Professor C. Roland "Chris" Christensen lead a discussion as the group analyzes a teaching case centering on how much help and instructor should provide a student. Christensen's own mastery of discussion leading provides a powerful model for anyone involved in this difficult mode of teaching.

Harvard Business School Professor Frances Frei explains her approach to evaluating a student's class participation. See a transcript of the video.

Nationally-recognized theatre educator Nancy Houfek leads teachers through 15 minutes of exercises specifically designed to prepare them for the physical challenges of the classroom, beginning with "Waking Up the Body," and moving to vocal warm-ups that treat the voice as an instrument requiring care. (15 minutes)

Nationally-recognized theatre educator Nancy Houfek focuses on overcoming stage fright, knowing your objective, and "landing your message." (42 minutes)

Into Practice, a biweekly communication, highlights the pedagogical practices of individual faculty members from across schools and delivers timely, evidence-based teaching advice.

Faculty Focus publishes articles on effective teaching strategies for the college classroom.

Watch a demonstration of Prof. Nancy Kane teaching public health with the case method. (Part 3 of 3, 3 minutes)

Watch a demonstration of Prof. Nancy Kane teaching public health with the case method. (Part 2 of 3, 17 minutes)

Watch a demonstration of Prof. Nancy Kane teaching public health with the case method. (Part 1 of 3, 10 minutes)

An analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and inquiry-based teaching. 

"Expansion of our societies' capacity to prevent eating disorders will require strategic integration of the topic into the curricula of professional training programs. An ideal way to integrate new content into educational programs is through the case-method approach, a teaching method that is more effective than traditional teaching techniques." Access full article with HarvardKey. 

Guidelines for writing a teaching note, from our own CBTL team.

An overview of 10 easy steps of writing a case, by experienced case-writer and CBTL workshop leader Kirsten Lundberg.

Identify possible reasons a student might monopolize class and learn about possible solutions. This resource is from Carnegie Mellon's "Solve a teaching problem" series. 

"At the heart of responding strategies is this: all students want to know that they have been heard. You don't have to agree always with what a student has said, but it's a good idea to acknowledge in some way that you have heard and understood them. The three building blocks of good discussion are: questioning, listening, and responding."

Different types of questioning one might use to encourage student participation in class.

"Leading discussion sections effectively requires a lot more listening than speaking, and the speaking done by the instructor comes, in large part, through questions."

"If you're like many people, you may find interpreting and writing about cases mystifying and time-consuming. In The Case Study Handbook, Revised Edition, William Ellet presents a potent new approach for efficiently analyzing, discussing, and writing about cases."

"The class discussion inherent in case teaching is well known for stimulating the development of students' critical thinking skills, yet instructors often need guidance on managing that class discussion to maximize learning. Teaching with Cases focuses on practical advice for instructors that can be easily implemented. It covers how to plan a course, how to teach it, and how to evaluate it." 

"To outsiders, medical school may conjure up images of a cavernous amphitheater with a white-coated, white-haired professor holding forth. But in a small classroom at the University of Vermont’s medical school, the professor has little to say." 

"Provides guidance for the preparation of teaching notes. Sets forth the rationale for teaching notes, what they should contain and why, and how they can be prepared. Based on the experiences of Harvard Business School faculty."

"A new study finds that undergraduate students in classes with traditional stand-and-deliver lectures are 1.5 times more likely to fail than students in classes that use more stimulating, so-called active learning methods."

"Leading discussions effectively is not an easy task for any of us. Even those who make it look easy have actually worked very hard to hone this important skill." Subscription required to view full article.

"The use of online discussion in both blended and fully online courses has made clear that those exchanges are more productive if they are structured, if there’s a protocol that guides the interaction... more structure might benefit our in-class discussions as well." Subscription required to view full article.

Scholarly research on discussion as an active learning activity, from ABLConnect, an online repository for active learning in higher education.

"As the name implies, problems are absolutely essential for problem-based learning... if there are no problems, there will be no problem-based learning."

"'When I listen really carefully it allows me to push students hard and help them see what they have within themselves.”

"Case writing is both art and science. There are few, if any, specific prescriptions or recipes, but there are key ingredients that appear to distinguish excellent cases from the run-of-the-mill. This technical note lists ten ingredients to look for if you are teaching somebody else''s case - and to look out for if you are writing it yourself."

A straightforward and comprehensive overview of how to write a teaching case, including sections on what makes a good case; sources for and types of cases; and steps in writing a case.

"The 225 studies analyzed document that active learning leads to increases in examination performance that would raise average grades by a half a letter, and that failure rates under traditional lecturing increase by 55% over the rates observed under active learning." 

Evaluating student participation in discussion can be difficult. “Many instructors will argue that student participation in class is important. But what’s the difference between participation and engagement? What does good participation or engagement look like? How can you recognize it? And how can you tell if a student is not engaged?”

A history and overview of the case-method in professional schools, which all “face the same difficult challenge: how to prepare students for the world of practice. Time in the classroom must somehow translate directly into real-world activity: how to diagnose, decide, and act."