Narrative construction of cases and the pedagogical purpose of their use in Health Sciences education

Abstract

The use of cases in higher education is a widespread, varied and significant practice. However, a lack of knowledge on the actual uses in teaching beyond the recommendations of teaching guides persists. This paper shares advances of a research in progress, which analyzes the narrative construction and the pedagogical purpose of the use of cases in lesson plans designed by teachers in the health field. A qualitative thematic analysis of writings produced by teachers during their postgraduate pedagogical training was carried out. In 97 written productions, two broad categories were identified in the construction of cases: data-centered (73,6%) and context-rich (18,9%). Also, teachers expressed three pedagogical purposes when using them: presentation of a topic (19.4%), preparation for professional practice (57.1%), and review of professional exercise (23.5%). Preliminary results underline the importance of recognising the diversity of actual practices that distance from existing literature guidelines. The analysis will be continued to develop a guide for comprehensive planning of case-based teaching strategies.