BISC/CHEM 667 (Section 16)  INTRODUCTION TO LABORATORY INSTRUCTION TA Teaching Case Assignment

Final Assignment - Write a Teaching Case
Due via e-mail attachment Monday, 10 November 2003

For next class, each student should submit via e-mail a short teaching case that relates to a difficult or decision-making situation that a teaching assistant might encounter. The case ideally would be based on a situation you have experienced or encountered this semester. The situation can be related to TA-student dilemmas, TA-faculty communication, TA-lab support staff problems, experiments that didn’t work, events outside of school that affect job performance, or anything that has relevance for new teaching assistants.
 

What is a Teaching Case?

A teaching case is a real or possible event written as short, fictionalized story. It typically involves an unresolved, emotionally-charged situation that is intended to trigger discussion. Discussants must analyze and then propose solutions. A good teaching case may involve multiple issues but it should have at least one major point to make. Teaching cases should be short so that they can be read and understood in no more than a few minutes, leaving plenty of time for discussion. Cases based on real situations can be revealed in stages such that proposed solutions can be successively compared to what actually happened.

Please give your case an appropriate and interesting title and don’t forget to include your name as author.

The  handout distributed in class (Tuesday,  18 November) contained all of the teaching cases that were sent to me by Sunday, 16 November. If your case is not included, you will need to complete the assignment on your own at a quality for final acceptance.

I  partially edited many of the cases. In particular, I gave every case that didn’t have a title, a tentative title. In some cases, I added or changed names, provided some dialog, or modified the text for readability.

The ultimate purpose of this exercise is to begin generating a collection of teaching cases that reflect situations teaching assistants might encounter. These will be added to by students in future offerings of Introduction to Laboratory Instruction. They will be used in those courses as the focus of discussions on how best to respond to different situations.

I consider all of the cases submitted as drafts in need of revision. The objective for class is to critique all of the drafts so that you, the authors, can use the feedback to improve the cases for final electronic submission by Tuesday, 25 November 2003.

Within the group you are in, read and discuss each case written by a member of your group. Give substantive feedback. Authors-take notes. As a guide, consider the following questions:

• Does the case involve a fictionalized real situation or a situation a TA might encounter?
• Does the case involve a dilemma or situation where a TA needs to make decisions on the best course of action?
• Does the case have drama? For example, does it end without resolution at a critical moment?
• Is there dialog? Dialog often makes cases more realistic and interesting.
• Do the characters have names?
• Is the case sufficiently fictionalized that the people involved remain anonymous?
• Is the case long enough to provide the needed information but short enough to maintain interest and leave time for discussion?
• Is the title appropriate? Is there a better title?
• Can the case be improved by adding or modifying the story?