[1]RE>Liberal arts or case-

Geoffrey Williams (geoffrey.williams who-is-at english.su.edu.au)
29 Jul 1996 15:53:45 +1000

[1]RE>Liberal arts or case-based learning 29/7/96

Geoff Williams is on study leave overseas. Your message will be forwarded
automatically to his Compuserve address. However, during September he will
not be able to access email.

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Date: 13/6/96 7:14 AM
To: Geoffrey Williams
From: xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu
Gordon wrote:
>A related contrast, it seems to me, is between "knowledge for show" and
>"knowledge in/for action". Ironically, Tim reports that students who
>experience the traditional form of medical education "have very little to
>show for their first six years", where "show" probably means inability to
>use their knowledge in action, although they doubtless were able to
>"show" they knew it in each year-final examination.

It probably is related, but in a complex way that subsumes the question
about whether case-centered or liberal-arts instruction leads to more
robust learning. I think this is an issue desperately in need of
additional study. What we can say pretty conclusively is that transmissive
models of instruction lead to very disappointing transfer. I think it is
reasonable to expect that case-centered methods might be better, but at
least WRT to PBL this has not been demonstrated yet empirically.

What I find particularly ironic about all of this, however, is that many
students, when given a choice, express a strong preference for
lecture-based instruction, eventhough we have known for decades that it
does not lead to effective learning. There were a lot of unhappy campers
when Harvard introduced their problem-based curriculum.

>In my own teaching, which involves teachers taking master's or doctoral
>degrees, I try to incorporate practice-based inquiry (a form of CBL, I
>think)

A slightly pedantic point---in revising a chapter recently, my co-authors
and I had an extended discussion about the many ways in which the term
"case-based learning" is used. We decided in the end to adopt the more
neutral "case-centered instruction" to stand for any method that is based
primarily on the study/exploration of problems/cases. This would include
case-based learning (as discussed by the case-based reasoning folks), Case
Method Teaching, PBL, etc. So if practice-based inquiry involves learning
through the study of a series of case, it would certainly fit in here as
well.

>In arguing for learning that is rooted in situations and activities that
>are of significance for the learner, I am not rejecting the more
>detached, discipline-structured overview. I think the latter has some
>value, but the value is much greater when the learner has a position
>_within the activity_ from which to take in the overall picture. And if
>it turns out, as it often does in cafeteria-organized education, that
>there is not time for both, I would put my money on the "case-based", as
>opposed to the liberal arts, introduction in terms of its long-term value
>to the learner.

I couldn't agree more strongly. ---Tim

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Date: Wed, 12 Jun 1996 16:10:41 -0500
To: xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu
From: tkoschmann who-is-at siumed.edu (Timothy Koschmann)
Subject: RE: Liberal arts or case-based learning
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