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The case method of teaching, developed originally for use in business
and professional schools, has become an increasingly popular teaching strategy in courses from all disciplines. Creating
case-based courses or units involves identifying situations or creating realistic scenarios in which students will have to
use the relevant intellectual skills and the appropriate facts from the discipline to analyze successfully the scenario and
recommend some course of action. Problem-based learning (PBL) emerged primarily in medical schools to confront a disturbing
reality: Students could memorize extensively without any sufficient change in their ability to use the information to diagnose
diseases. The basic approach is to use authentic problems to engage students in the subject matter, and to help develop
effective critical thinking, communication, and social skills. The skills and information that form the learning
objectives are embedded in authentic and intrinsically interesting problems that will arouse curiosity and challenge students
to rethink their assumptions and examine their mental models of reality. In the best of cases or problem based courses,
students face challenging problems but in a safe environment in which they can grapple with those problems collaboratively,
come up short, receive feedback, and try again. Students learn to analyze complex problems and how to perform the necessary
research to confront the problems or test their proposed solutions.
Other examples of Natural Critical Learning Environments
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