Getting Started
Clarify Your Teaching Goals
Before you choose cases or plan activities, be clear about what you want students to get out of your course and each class.
Ask yourself:
What should students understand?
Key ideas, concepts, or frameworks you want them to remember and use.
What should students be able to do?
For example:Analyze real-world situations
Make and defend decisions with evidence
Listen to and challenge others respectfully
Apply ideas from one case to another
How should students grow?
The habits and mindsets you want to develop, such as:Comfort with ambiguity
Willingness to speak up and revise their views
Sense of responsibility for their own learning and for others
Once you’ve established these goals, you can:
Select cases that fit your goals (via key word search)
Design questions and activities that move students toward those goals
Come back to them when you reflect after class: Did today’s discussion actually support my objectives?
Role of Instructor
Once you’re clear on what students should learn, the next step is to be clear about your role in the room. In discussion-based teaching, you are less a lecturer and more a guide who structures the conversation, connects perspectives, and helps students apply ideas beyond a single case.
Act as a Guide:
Your role as a case instructor is to guide student learning through framing, questioning, and synthesis. Your role is to combine structure and flexibility in leading case discussions, guiding students to discover key insights and takeaways.
Bridge Perspectives:
Your students will read the same case but interpret it differently based on their unique experiences. Your role is to create space for these interpretations to be expressed in class and use them to guide the class toward a shared learning. Through this process, students learn to appreciate and consider different perspectives.
Broaden Applications:
Help students to develop a set of tools and frameworks that they can apply broadly, beyond the specific cases discussed. Aim to have your students walk away with new perspectives or a deeper understanding of the topic/subject.
You won’t embody this role perfectly on day one and you don’t need to. The key is to treat case teaching as a skill you can build over time.
Case Teaching as a Learnable Craft
Case-based teaching can feel intimidating at first but it’s a skill you can learn and steadily improve. You don’t have to be perfect on day one. What matters is your mindset, your willingness to practice, and your commitment to your students.
Key ideas:
Improvement comes from practice over time, not one big breakthrough.
You get better faster when you invite feedback and observation.
Practice One Skill at a Time
Rather than trying to master everything at once, choose a focus for each class.
Examples of single-class focuses:
Questioning:
“Today I’ll focus on asking open questions and 1–2 follow‑up prompts.”
Listening:
“Today I’ll let several students respond before I jump in.”
Board use:
“Today I’ll practice capturing key points in real time on the board.”
Pacing:
“Today I’ll watch the clock and hit two specific checkpoints.
Long-Term Goal
Your goal over time is to create a room where both you and your students feel safe enough to try, stumble a bit, and grow.
Suggested Reading
Great Beginnings, 1991 by Melissa Mead