Education for Judgment: The Artistry of Discussion Leadership

Little has been written about case-based instruction and there is little relevant research. That makes this a useful book. Having attended the Harvard Business School when Christensen, the acknowledged master of case-based instruction, was active (although I was not lucky enough to be in one of his classes), I can say that the view of case-based instruction at HBS that one gets is very idealized, especially what is claimed about attention to individual students. Class sizes at HBS are about 90, so do the math. Not many students can be getting the attention that the anecdotes suggest. Nothing is said about the special issues that women and ethnic minority students may present for the instructor. Readers should remember that there really isn't any research evidence supporting the effectiveness of this instructional approach.