Dublin City University
Faculty of Science and Health
Case Studies for Tutor Training
This webpage contains items relevant to the Faculty of Science and Health's development of case studies for use in tutor/demonstrator training.
Background
Developing Case Studies for Science and Mathematics Tutors in DCU
20 Issues for Science and Mathematics Tutors
Resources for Creative Writing
DCU Case Studies: the Cases and Teaching Guides
Feedback
Other relevant links.
CASTeL seminar on case studies pilot programme in maths (powerpoint presentation)
Boston College Mathematics Case Studies Project
Friedberg, S. Teaching mathematics graduate students how to teach, Notices of the American Mathematical Society 52 (2005), 842--847.
Background
Tutors in the School of Mathematical Sciences at DCU have undergone formal training since 1995. The 2 day training workshop was done partly in-house and up until 2003, other elements were covered by external experts. Since 2004, the School has run the workshop entirely in-house. As Service Teaching Coordinator, I had responsibility for the organisation and (in part) delivery of the different elements of this workshop, which naturally led to a growing interest in how best to deal with the training of tutors. (This interest was motivated principally by what seems to me common sense: on average, a trained tutor is a more effective tutor.) Thus, as with many colleagues in similar positions, I was greatly interested in an article published in the August 2005 issue of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society entitled Teaching mathematics graduate students how to teach. The article, by Prof Solomon Friedberg of Boston College, detailed his development of training materials that borrowed from business and legal education the idea of using the study of fictional but realistic scenarios as a means of accelerating experience and knowledge for tutors. (In fact in business and law, the cases are more frequently taken from real life.) The article refers to the book where these training materials are gathered: Teaching Mathematics in Colleges and Universities: Case Studies for Today's Classroom. This book contains 14 different case studies, along with a teaching guide for each. The teaching guide includes a synopsis of the case, a list of the issues encountered in the scenario, questions for the facilitator to put to the group to initiate and drive the discussion, and a question and/or activity to close the discussion. The case studies comprise Part I of the book, and the teaching guides are part of Part II, which also contains very helpful general guidelines on the use of the cases in tutor training (or TA development program, to use the vernacular of the author), as well as an account of how the cases were developed.
Two things were immediately clear: first, that this could be an excellent resource for tutor training. Second, that there was a suspicion that there are sufficient differences between the US system and the Irish that Friedberg's cases might not be quite as relevant to the issues that arise here as one would like: Teaching Assistants (TA's) in US colleges and universities tend to have wider ranging duties and more autonomy than tutors in Irish universities. Following up on the first of these (and reserving judgement on the second), Friedberg's ideas and materials were used in the DCU School of Mathematical Sciences tutor training workshop in September 2005, on a pilot basis.
The results were breathtaking. Our tutors this year (2005-06) were so effective that no first year student failed maths.
That's not true of course, but it serves as a reminder of what one can expect from a tutor training programme. To my mind, what one hopes to achieve in such a pre-service workshop includes the following. As well as skills-based training (e.g. presentation skills and aids, questioning and listening skills), the prospective tutors should be alerted as to what they can expect to encounter in tutorials. Their interest in and hopefully enthusiasm for the task should be sparked, and their expectations should be addressed. The importance of the job they are to undertake should be emphasised, and their buy-in to this idea sought. They need to be confronted with the importance of empathising with their students. These can all be achieved, to greater or lesser degrees, with the use of case studies.
In the September 2005 workshop, the latter half of an afternoon session (about two hours) was given over to case studies. The group of 10 tutors was split into three groups (3/3/4), and each had responsibility for one of three cases chosen from Friedberg's book. The tutors only had the text of the cases, while I used the 'Part II' material to facilitate the session. The discussion of each case was started off by the responsible sub-group reading their own synopsis of the case, and by my presenting the initial question. This is typically along the lines of "What should the tutor do next?" or "What could the tutor have done differently?".
For each of the three cases, a very lively debate followed. Friedberg's teaching guides include numerous questions to be used to move the discussion along, but these were hardly needed. Everyone in the room had some experience of tutorials - most only as students - and so everyone had (sometimes strong) opinions of how different situations should be handled. As facilitator, two things in particular stood out. First was that the structured discussions about the cases provided an excellent mechanism for getting the trainee tutors to think and talk about what they would encounter in tutorials. Second was how enjoyable the session was: we all have opinions about teaching, and this part of the workshop provided the perfect opportunity to give vent to those opinions! Although it didn't arise with the three cases we discussed, the closing of a discussion can be used to provide some useful practical information for tutors. For example, a case study that involves plagiarism issues can be closed by providing trainees with information of the University's plagiarism rules.
Time didn't allow a fully researched project on the utility of this training course, but I did ask students for their opinions on the whole day. Some of the comments relevant to the case study session were:
very enjoyable, very interesting debate
too late in the day [3-5pm after 10am start]
most relevant [part of the day]
[too broad] I was only interested in the case study allocated to my group
[too narrow] we could have covered a wider range of situations if they had been studied in less detail
did not find the particular case studies relevant
when we were discussing the tutorials amongst ourselves was the most useful
[need to] find a more efficient way to do it.
These reflect the overall favourable opinion of comments on the case study session. Along with my own very positive impression of how the session had worked, this feedback encouraged me to plan for an expanded session for forthcoming years. Having run the session, it was also clear that it would be preferable to have 'home-grown' cases to use, which focus more directly on the issues that arise in tutorials within DCU.
I gave a presentation on this pilot project at the weekly CASTeL (Centre for the Advancement of Science Teaching and Learning) seminar in DCU in November 2005. Discussions there with colleagues from across the Faculty of Science and Health led us to the view that the use of case studies would be helpful for training of tutors and laboratory demonstrators/tutors (simply 'tutors' from now) across the Faculty. In February 2006, a successful application was made to DCU's Learning Innovation Unit for funding to develop a suite of case studies and teaching materials for science and maths tutors. This development project was undertaken in the Summer of 2006.
Developing Case Studies for Science and Mathematics Tutors in DCU
The project team consisted of Dr Brien Nolan (School of Mathematical Sciences - Project Leader), Dr Odilla Finlayson (School of Chemical Sciences), Dr Eilish McLoughlin (School of Physical Sciences), and Dr Michael Parkinson (School of Biotechnology). It was decided to recruit three experienced tutors from each School to join the project: these would be the authors of the 12 cases (including teaching guides) that would be the principal output of the project. In all, 11 were recruited, and Brien Nolan completed the list of 12 authors. These tutors had typically worked in their respective Schools as tutors for 2-3 years: some were graduate students and others recent PhD graduates. They were
Mr Donal Dowling (Manager, Maths Learning Center DCU)
Mr Niall Fitzgerald (Physical Sciences)
Ms Mairead Glynn (Biotechnology)
Dr Conall Kelly (Mathematical Sciences)
Dr Orla Kelly (Chemical Sciences)
Mr Darragh Lucey (Chemical Sciences)
Ms Lorraine McCormack (Chemical Sciences)
Mr Alan Meaney (Physical Sciences)
Mr Derek Monahan (Physical Sciences)
Ms Jenny Ni Mhurchu (Biotechnology)
Dr Maria Pickett (Mathematical Sciences)
The development of the cases was carried out as follows:
First workshop (May 16th 2006). In the first workshop, we held a pyramid discussion, the aim of which was to identify a list of what the group felt to be the principal issues that arise in tutoring in DCU. The group then spilt into 4 groups of 3, each of which had to come up with the synopsis of a case study which addressed a subset of these issues for which they had been given responsibility. These synopses were then discussed by the full group. Material on creative writing was distributed, some of which we discussed.
Drafting of the cases. Each of the 12 authors had responsibility for drafting a full case + teaching guide, working from the synopses developed in the first workshop. These were edited first by their two subgroup colleagues, and then by the project leader (Brien Nolan).
Second workshop (July 7th 2006). In the second workshop, each case study/teaching guide was given a 'test-run' by groups of three who had not been involved in its preparation. The key questioned asked of each fictional scenario was 'does this case generate a focussed discussion of significant issues?' For each case study amendments were noted and returned to the original principal author.
Final versions. Final versions of each of the 12 case studies/ teaching guides were submitted to the project leader by August 7th 2006. The materials were then ready for use in a tutor training course.
20 Issues for Science and Mathematics Tutors
Resources for Creative Writing
The literary form of the case studies is the short story, familiar to most people who passed through the Irish education system. The excellent resources listed below were made available to the team of authors.
Grammar and Style
William Strunk The Elements of Style (1918, but still true!) Available online at http://www.bartleby.com/141/index.html
Jack Lynch Guide to Grammar and Style This is an online resource maintained by a professor of English at Rutgers University in New Jersey: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/
Lynne Truss Eats, Shoots and Leaves (Gotham Books, 2004) Subtitled “The Zero-Tolerance Approach to Punctuation” this book is either a hilarious and educational guide to the correct use of grammar or an extended irritating whine, depending on how you feel about ads for “video’s” and phrases like “your not going to believe this”. Available in the DCU library.
Writing Short Stories
The Wikipedia entry on the Short Story is useful, and includes a link to this page: “Short Stories: 10 Tips for Novice Creative Writers”
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/creative/shortstory/index.html
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/creative/showing.htm
In a similar vein, there is an excellent learning resource on short story writing available from Canada’s National Adult Literacy Database:
http://library.nald.ca/learning/item/5769
If you get hooked and decide to chuck in science for short story writing, then make sure to read Frank O’Connor’s The Lonely Voice: a Study of the Short Story (Cork City Council, 2003; first published 1962). O'Connor is widely acknowledged as the master of the 20th century short story. He had this to say about the protagonist of that form - the tutor in the present case:
Always in the short story there is this sense of outlawed figures wandering about the fringes of society, superimposed sometimes on symbolic figures whom they caricature and echo - Christ, Socrates, Moses. It is not for nothing that there are famous short stories called "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" and "A Lear of the Steppes" and - in reverse - one called "An Akoulina of the Irish Midlands." As a result there is in the short story at its most characteristic something we do not often find in the novel - an intense awareness of human loneliness.
Frank O'Connor, The Lonely Voice (Cork City Council, 2003. p.5)
While none of the tutors in our cases are reduced to raving like Shakespeare's madmen - and women - this paragraph gives a sense of the places that they find themselves - places that may seem uncomfortably familiar!
DCU Case Studies: The Cases and Teaching Guides
Dave's Desperate Dilemma The Case Teaching Guide
Elephants Never Forget The Case Teaching Guide
Friday's Bloodbath The Case Teaching Guide
He Said, She Said The Case Teaching Guide
Integration Frustration The Case Teaching Guide
It IS Rocket Science The Case Teaching Guide
Leaving the Leaving Behind The Case Teaching Guide
Mark's Sticky Situation The Case Teaching Guide
Muddying the Waters The Case Teaching Guide
Patricia's Practical Problem The Case Teaching Guide
Tim's First Time The Case Teaching Guide
You Just Might Learn Something The Case Teaching Guide
Feedback
If you have any comments or queries on the contents of this page, I would be very grateful to hear them. Please contact me at mailto:brien.nolan@dcu.ie
Last update: 14/12/2006 15:38:45