JoinThe Case Study: Can Case Studies Be Used to Teach Critical Thinking?
In this month’s column, case studies are touted as an effective means of promoting critical thinking skills. Most of them are discipline specific, certainly. But they all grapple with the essence of critical thinking—asking for evidence—developing a habit of mind that should permeate everyday life. Specifically, the virtues of the “Interrupted Case Method” technique is extolled because through this method, students struggle with a real research problem and challenge each other and the data. Most importantly, they see different groups offering alternative approaches to the problem, and they see model behavior from the experts.