Friday, November 19, 2004
My case method process
I think I have the case discussion method largely under control now. I set the tone early in the semester by contributing regularly. I try to make very good comments, but most of them don't work out perfectly, and that's ok. What frequent commenting does is drastically reduce, if not outright eliminate, the risk of a cold call. That both simplifies your preparation and allows you to time your contributions to take advantage of particularly good insights you may have. On the other hand, if you don't have any brilliant insights into a case, or if you haven't read it, you can try to time your comment to get in on a side issue or at least a non-numeric example, as those are the easiest comments and get the least pushback from the professor.
Timing your comments can be a difficult process since you are at the mercy of the professor. If you aren't called on at the right time your comment may be useless, or worse than useless if you insist on giving a stale contribution. What has worked for me is to comment in one class in one subject, and then attempt to not comment in the next class of that subject. Now, sometimes I just can't resist and I get in anyway, but most of the time I stick to it. Having kept my hand down for an entire class, I am then much more likely to be noticed by the professor and called on in the subsequent class. The every other class method helps me time my comments and get in when I am ready, which in turn improves the quality of the class.
Timing your comments can be a difficult process since you are at the mercy of the professor. If you aren't called on at the right time your comment may be useless, or worse than useless if you insist on giving a stale contribution. What has worked for me is to comment in one class in one subject, and then attempt to not comment in the next class of that subject. Now, sometimes I just can't resist and I get in anyway, but most of the time I stick to it. Having kept my hand down for an entire class, I am then much more likely to be noticed by the professor and called on in the subsequent class. The every other class method helps me time my comments and get in when I am ready, which in turn improves the quality of the class.
