For each decision case in this collection, the author(s) provided teaching notes. However, these notes are available only to social work instructors. The notes help instructors select particular cases for classroom use and, subsequently, prepare for leading case discussions. The teaching notes include several components: case summary, suggested educational level and courses, potential learning objectives, discussion questions, teaching suggestions, and additional resources.

 

• The case summary typically gives a one-paragraph overview of the case situation and key issues to help instructors decide whether a case may be relevant for their course.

• Case authors identify the educational level (e.g., BSW or MSW) and particular courses for which the case may be most appropriate. With regard to educational level, a case is usually most appropriate for students preparing to work at the level of the case’s protagonist (i.e., a case having a BSW-level practitioner will work best for BSW students). With regard to particular courses, most cases can be used across multiple courses because they depict problems that involve overlapping content domains (e.g., a single case may involve direct practice with a client, policy issues, and religion/spirituality). Depending on how their curriculum is organized, instructors may select cases by primary practice method, field of practice, or other content area. Furthermore, most decision cases lend themselves to discussion from multiple theoretical perspectives.

• Given the potentially diverse uses of particular cases across and within courses, case authors suggest possible learning objectives. Of course, a single case discussion will not accomplish all or even most of the objectives listed for the case. But the listed objectives help instructors decide which cases may support their course objectives, and begin to suggest areas for class discussion.

• Discussion questions help instructors plan for leading a case discussion. Because case authors attempt to provide one or more discussion questions related to each of the learning objectives, instructors should select discussion questions related to their learning objectives. Further, instructors will seldom use the discussion questions verbatim or in the exact order provided because questions must be selected and formulated to fit the flow of a particular discussion. The suggested discussion questions are organized into three sequential categories: facts, analysis, and intervention.

• Factual questions help to clarify important but potentially overlooked or confusing aspects of the case data for students.

• Analytic questions help students to think more systemically and critically. Specifically, these questions help students identify and gain deeper understanding of key factors in the cases and how these factors are interrelated. Case authors provide brief responses to the questions that highlight the issues and possible relationships. These responses are not so much “right answers” as suggestions for what to consider and explore.

• Intervention questions shift the focus from case assessment and analysis to decision making for action. As in actual practice, case data may be incomplete, ambiguous, and contradictory. Nevertheless, social workers must decide how to proceed. Intervention questions help to explore possible courses of action and their possible consequence.

• In addition to extensive discussion questions, case authors provide teaching suggestions. These include supplementary learning activities that may be: assigned to students in advance of the discussion, implemented within the classroom (often inside the case discussion), or assigned as follow-up. Such activities may enrich and reinforce the learning associated with case discussions.

• Additional resources include print and electronic information that may be used for assigned readings. Such readings may provide essential background knowledge for understanding or applying to a case.

The teaching notes are available only for social work instructors to preserve the full challenge for students of understanding and resolving the case dilemmas, the distinguishing feature of the case method of learning.

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