Here are some general suggestions for discussing the case studies (Hammer and Van Zee, 2006). We encourage everyone to read this page and refer to it periodically as you engage with this website. These suggestions are based on several years of discussing case studies with educators and can be summarized as follows:

As you watch and read the case studies,
focus on interpreting and appreciating the substance
of what the children are thinking.

Avoid the impulse to evaluate the teacher. Quick criticism is often naïve and discourages teachers from letting anyone examine their own practices. And evaluating the teacher draws attention away from the students.

Focus on understanding the children's thinking as inquiry. For example, focus on the children's sense of mechanism, their attention to consistency, and how they are reasoning from what they know. Think beyond whether an idea is right or not, and consider how it makes sense to the student.

Don't fall into the trap! Avoid attending to how the students are behaving, how many are speaking, or how many are paying attention. These are important, but they are generally easy to observe, and attending to them may prevent you from attending to the less familiar task of examining students' thinking. This would be similar to examining an essay for spelling errors rather than content.

Support interpretations with specific evidence from the case. Identify specifically the statements or student behavior that supports your interpretation.

Recognize but tolerate incompleteness and uncertainty. There is only so much information available in a case study, but proceed regardless. It is often surprising how far you can get in making sense of a student's thinking from the evidence that's available. And mulling over a student's comment just to consider the possibilities is a productive practice for future experiences.

Specific support for using the case studies for professional development is accessible from within the case studies. The support includes opportunities to practice understanding student thinking, and to practice making decisions about what to do next.