Teachers want certainty and we have tended to provide cookbook approaches. But the world is an uncertain and ambiguous place and when teaching is placed in that context the answers are often unclear and vary from context to context. As Selma Wasserman says: “Even experienced teachers who acknowledge ambiguity and operate with a higher tolerance for it often wish for the relief that right answers would bring.”
Case studies, in their best form, enable teaching candidates to practice applying their knowledge to classroom practice. Students can look at complex situations that are in a constant state of flux and begin to acquire tools that will for decision-making in situations where there are no easy, clear-cut answers.
Rand Spiro’s expertise lies in this area of cognitive flexibility in ill-structured domains. As he says, “For learners to develop cognitively flexible processing skills and to acquire contentive knowledge structures which can support flexible cognitive processing, flexible learning environments are required that permit the same items of knowledge to be presented and learned in a variety of different ways and for a variety of different purposes (commensurate with their complex and irregular nature).”