# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Chapter Big Ideas Four General Strategies (Keelan) When doing data analysis for case study you will be "searching for patterns, insights, or concepts that seem promising" (Yin, 2018, p. 167). When searching the data is helpful to keep four general analytic strategies in mind: Relying on theore...

# data[].attributes.body
We will interview Brea Cohen for the second round go data collection. We plan to use a semistructured interview protocol.

# data[].attributes.headline
Outline for chapter 4: Collecting Case Study Evidence 

# data[].attributes.subject
Outline for chapter 4: Collecting Case Study Evidence 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Outline for chapter 4: Collecting Case Study Evidence

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Outline for chapter 4: Collecting Case Study Evidence The purpose of this chapter is to learn about six sources of evidence that can be used for data collection and use four essential data collection principles to establish validity and reliability of the evidence A. Data collection procedures...

# data[].attributes.body
Preparing to Collect Case Study Evidence
I. The Case Study Researcher: Desired Skills and Values
a. Asking good questions
The researcher must have an inquiring mind so as to ask critical questions throughout the study, not just before and after. "As you collect case study evidence, you must quickly review the evidence and continually ask yourself why events or perceptions appear as they do" (p. 83).  Be prepared for mental and physical exhaustion from the constant critical analysis. If you are not physically and mentally exhausted, it is possible that you are not asking the right kind of questions, that your questions aren't good enough for your study.
* If one answer leads to an onslaught of new questions which propel you into further investigation and inquiry, then you are a good question asker.
b. Staying adaptive
Your study probably will not go exactly as you planned. The researcher needs to adapt to the situation by changing the procedure or plan to fit the new situation.  Keep in mind- you must remain UNBIASED.  If the adaption leads you to a new study, you must go back and repeat steps and re-document.  Make sure your design actually fits the case study to eliminate gaps and biases.
* Be careful that if when interviewing, and a participant takes longer to answer a question than had been planned for, not to extend the time allotted for the interview, even if not all of your questions were answered. Set up other interview sessions instead. Keep rigor, but not rigidity.
"Maintaining an adaptive posture can lead to an invaluable result: discovering an unexpectedly revealing line of thinking that ultimately helps your case study to make a major contribution to the literature" (p. 85).
c.  Having a firm grasp of the issues being studied
Keep the purpose of your case study in the forefront of your mind at all times so as to keep you on track and seeking relevant data. Data isn't just to be collected, it also has to be interpreted...helps to know if more information needs to be collected.
d. Conducting research ethically
Test against bias- to what degree are you open to contrary evidence? Work with "critical friends": have 2-3 colleagues off alternative explanations for your data. "If the quest for contrary findings can produce documentable rebuttals, the likelihood of bias will have been reduced" (p. 87). Maintain scholarship; do not be deceptive or plagiarize; be credible, be transparent; maintain professionalism.
II. Preparation and Training for a Specific Case Study
a. Protecting human subjects
*Gain informed consent
*Protect participants from any kind of harm (including deception)
*Protect privacy and confidentiality
*Take special care to protect the vulnerable (i.e. children)
*Select participants equitably
Approval of your plan must go through an IRB.
--> Case study interview data collection can be harder to get passed through IRB...look at the guidelines for specifics (p. 89)
b. Training to do the case study
Training is a necessary step--doesn't always happen before IRB submission
i. "Senior" researcher: you become an independent researcher, however, "it often happens that a case study needs to be conducted by a case study team" (p. 90). If there's a team, all must participate in the plan and IRB process.
--> see agenda on p. 91 for case study training example
ii. Problems to be addressed: Trainings are a great place to address potential problems.
-->If problems with the design or study questions emerge, do the work to revise the study.
-->Problems with team members may arise. "One way of dealing with the differing orientations is to suggest to the team that contrary evidence will be respected if it is collected and verifiable" (p. 93). Any team member can choose to leave the study.
-->Timeline deadlines/resources may be impractical
III. The Case Study Protocol
Contains questions used as a part of the case study evidences, along with the procedures and basic rules to be followed during the study.  See pp.94-95 for sections of the protocol and example table of contents for each of the four protocol sections.
a. Section A: Covers background information, "it's substantive issues, and the relevant reading about the issues" (p. 96). Site relevant resources
b. Section B: Participants must follow the rules of the study. They may feel free to drop out the study at any time. The researcher needs to be flexible to the time interviewee' timeline or availability, and recognize that the line of questioning may not be followed perfectly.
--> see 5 major tasks of Section B on pp. 98-99
c. Section C: Questions are posed to the researcher, not to the interviewee. There are 5 levels of questions (p. 100).
d. Section D: Tentative outline of the case study can help with direction and a timeline (while maintaining adaptability) and anticipating possible journals that would be interested in the study.
IV. Screening the Candidate Cases for Your Case Study
"The goal for the screening procedure is to be sure that you identify the final cases properly, prior to formal data collection" (p. 105).
* Set a defined set of criteria for the candidate participant, asking people about the candidates, perhaps collecting (limited) information about the candidates.  Keep it streamlined--this is not your case study.
* If there is a large number of eligible candidates, there may be a need for a two-phased approach to selection.
V. The Pilot Case Study: Not a pretest, it helps you to "develop relevant lines of questioning" (p. 106). It might be preferable to take place before the IRB process.
a. Selection of pilot cases: Pilot case can inform the protocol, the questioning technique, observing of specific phenomena, etc on a dry run of the actual case. Informants for the pilot case will probably ask for feedback, be ready to give feedback.
b Scope of the pilot inquiry: The scope can be broader that the actual data collection plan. The pilot study can bring to light issues to be studied. Used in conjunction with an ongoing literature review, the pilot study can better inform and detail the actual study.
c. Reports from the pilot cases: Reports are mainly for the research team, but need to be written clearly, even if the reports are just memos. One important difference between pilot reports and actual reports is that "pilot reports should be explicit about the lessons learned from each pilot case about both the research design and the field procedures" (p. 108). A good final pilot case can become the final protocol for the case study.

# data[].attributes.body
I. Study question:

How does the "current" mentorship model impact the development of the teacher candidate and cooperating teacher agency and efficacy?
2. Prepositions:

Theoretical Lens: The concepts of efficacy and agency through Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura) will guide the exploration of this research question.

An effective mentorship model could support the development of efficacy and agency for both teacher candidate and cooperating teacher.
3. Case:
Single-study case and case we are investigating is the co-teaching model

Next Steps:
4. Data Collection
We will be conducting a 30-minute semi-structured interview protocol.Please take a look at the first round of data collection tab for more information
5. Linking data to propositions:

Once the first round of data collection is completed we will link data to our prepositions
6. Criteria for interpreting the strength of a case study’s findings

# data[].attributes.body
We will interview Brea's teacher candidate this Thursday. We plan to use a semi-structured interview protocol and ask the following questions:

Interview Questions:

Can you tell us about your experience in education so far?

How has the co-teaching model (the way that we have done co-teaching) impacted your confidence or motivation as an emerging teacher?

How has your confidence in being able to handle challenges evolved or change in the last six months?

How has your identity as a teacher evolved during the mentorship process?

What does your self-reflection practice looks like? How has that evolved over the mentorship process?

How do you think your experience so far has equipped you to translate what you are learning in a Math classroom to a Science classroom?

# data[].attributes.body
Case Study Text Chapter 2 Outline:

The formatting is a bit wonky converting from word into padlet but hopefully it is easy enough to follow. I look forward to discussing this chapter with you two in person next weekend!

I.               General Approach to Designing Case Studies

a.     There are five components of case study design:

i.     Study questions- Case study is a robust approach when asking how or why questions that are context bound.

ii.     Study propositions- Statements about what you theoretically think may be going on related to your how and why questions.  These statements can focus your attention on what you may want to explore or examine and where to begin looking for evidence.

iii.     The “case”- “The desired case should be a real-world phenomena that has some concrete manifestation” (p. 31).  The case can be anywhere from a single person to multiple organizations or governments, and you can conduct single-case or multiple-case studies.  No matter what the case it must be bound in some way that distinguishes who falls within the case and who is outside of the case.  The case should also be time bound geographically and within a time-period.

iv.     Linking data to propositions- “The actual analyses will require that you combine or assemble your case study data as a direct reflection of your study propositions” (p. 33).  During this part of the design, you try to anticipate and plan for collecting just the right amount of data that will allow you to connect the data to those initial theoretical ideas you may have had about your how and why questions.  It is important even when linking the data to propositions to be open to considering the data outside of some of those propositions, which helps build the strength of the findings as discussed in the next section.

v.     Criteria for interpreting the strength of a case study’s findings- Rather than relying on p values for statistical analysis, case study considers the identification and addressing of explanations that offer alternative views or “rival explanations” to your findings as essential to demonstrating the strength of your findings.  You do not want to wait until you are analyzing the data to address these rival explanations.  Instead, when designing the case study, you want to anticipate as many rival explanations as possible and plan for how to address these because “The more rivals that have been addressed and rejected, the stronger will be your findings” (p. 34).

II.             The Role of Theory in Research Designs

a.     When developing the theoretical framework to guide a case study you should first consider your initial theoretical notions, your propositions, what are you already thinking about who or where you might want to research and how you will go about doing that research.  It is also helpful at first to review completed case studies related to your topic and consider the theoretical frameworks that have guided those scholars.

b.     Multiple types of theories can inform the theoretical framework of your case study research such as individual theories, group theories, organizational theories, and social justice theories.  It is important to consider your desired outcome and audience for your research to try to avoid a significant mismatch in theoretical grounding and outcome.

c.     Unlike quantitative methods that rely on statistical generalization, case study relies on analytic generalization.  When generalizing analytically, you are looking at the case study as a whole and how it might generalize to other concrete situations, not generalizing about the individual cases.  You can do analytic generalization whether doing a single-case study or a multiple-case study but either way the “challenge with making analytic generalizations involves understanding that the generalization is not statistical (or numeric) and that you will be making an argumentative claim” (p. 41).  The initial theoretical propositions that you plan to tie to the data will be the guiding framework for analytic generalization from your findings.

III.           Criteria for Judging the Quality of Research Designs

a.     Construct validity- This is a challenge and a common critique of case study due to the subjectivity of researchers and the possibility of using data to confirm your initial propositions rather than present rival explanations.  Providing solid definitions of the specific concepts within the case and providing operational measures that match those concepts support you to establish construct validity.  Additionally, like with other forms of qualitative research multiple sources of evidence help with construct validity.

b.     Internal validity- This can be a concern if you are trying to prove or show a direct causal relationship in an explanatory case study.  There is concern about case study researchers making inferences rather than drawing theoretical framed conclusions.  Yin suggests anticipating answers to the following questions in your design; is the inference correct?  Have all the rival explanations and possibilities been considered?  Is the evidence convergent?  Does it appear to be airtight?  Using specific tactics for analytic generalization can be helpful with internal validity, and those tactics are discussed in later chapters of the book.

c.     External validity- This deals with whether the findings of any particular case study are generalizable to other contexts and situations.  The specific research question and the form of research it warrants can be used to plan for external validity.  For example, descriptive case studies are a good match for finding out about your how questions whereas explanatory case studies are a better fit for exploring your why questions.  Thus, matching the questions and providing justification for the specific method that matches the questions can be helpful in establishing external validity.

d.     Reliability- While the ability to repeat a study entirely does not necessarily apply to case study there is still a need to document the procedures you plan to use and then do eventually follow in as much detail as possible to address reliability.  According to Yin, “the general way to approach the reliability problem is to make as many procedures as explicit as possible and to conduct research as if someone were looking over your shoulder” (p. 46).

IV.           Case Study Research Designs

a.     The selection of your case will depend on your questions and your theoretical framework.

b.     Single-case

i.     There are five rationales for using single-case study.  These rationales are based on what type of case you feel is represented; a critical, unusual, common, revelatory, or longitudinal case.

1.     A critical case is critical to the theory or theoretical propositions you have outlined and can be used to find out if there are in fact specific circumstances in which your propositions are true.

2.     An unusual case would be one that deviates from the theoretical norms or everyday circumstances.

3.     A common case would capture the circumstances and conditions that are typical for your theoretical stance.

4.     A revelatory case is a case that has not had much chance to be studied before so you can provide completely new insight into the theoretical propositions.

5.     A longitudinal case would be one you could follow to examine theoretical propositions over time.

ii.     Holistic vs. Embedded

1.     Each of these methods has their benefits and drawbacks.  With holistic it is easier to keep your focus on the big picture of the case itself but problems can arise if your focus shifts too much or in ways you do not give proper attention.  Embedded single-cases are where some subunits within the overall case are explored and this can help you to maintain the focus of your research as they look at potential smaller pieces but focusing on smaller pieces within the overall case can cause problems if those smaller pieces are not then brought back into the frame of the case overall.

c.     Multiple-case

i.     A multiple-case study can allow for a richer analysis of data and is generally seen as providing more robust findings but also takes significantly more resources and time to complete compared to a single-case study.

ii.     Rather than relying on sampling logic like survey studies do, multiple-case study relies on replication logic where each individual case is meant to replicate in some way the findings from the other cases (whether to confirm or contradict).

iii.     It is important to be conscious of the feedback that you are receiving throughout a multiple-case research design to note whether or not some redesign may be necessary.  Otherwise, you are jeopardizing the validity of your study.  Remember that an important way to strengthen the findings in case study is to address rival explanations so in multiple-case design you want to consider those individual cases within your overall design that may provide rival explanations that you can then address.

iv.     Holistic vs. Embedded.  As in single-case design, a holistic approach would deal with each of the cases in the multiple-case design as a whole unit whereas embedded would require you to examine the subunits within each case of the multiple-cases and then tie that back to the bigger picture of the overall case.  In an embedded multiple-case design you may want to conduct a survey or some other quantitative analysis of each case within the multiple-cases to reveal and explore subunits within those cases.

V.             Modest Advice in Selecting Case Study Designs

a.     Multiple case studies are preferred over single case studies whenever possible.  While multiple-case studies require more time and resources, the analytic conclusions “will be more powerful than those coming from a single-case” (p. 61).  Even if you can only do a “two-case” case study that is preferable to a single case study so that should be your minimum goal.

b.     While too much modification can take you off track from your research focus decreasing the quality of your case study some modification is OK and even sometimes unavoidable when presented with the information from data collection process.  “The point is that the needed adaptiveness should not lessen the rigor with which case study procedures are followed” (p. 63).

c.     There are times when case study may take on the form of mixed methods, but the two do not rely on each other—mixed methods do not have to include case study and case study does not need to occur in a mixed method format.  The two examples of given of these intersecting are case study within a survey and a survey within a case study.

# data[].attributes.body
Brea's classroom is an option for observing
Research question:
*How does the "current" mentorship model impact the development of the teacher candidate and cooperating teacher agency and efficacy?
Theoretical Lens:
The concepts of efficacy and agency through Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura) will guide the exploration of this research question

# data[].attributes.body
Feb 7, Keelan: Outline Ch 2
Feb 14, Brea: Outline Ch 3
Feb 21, Mariela: Outline Ch 4
Feb 28 All: Outline Ch5

# data[].attributes.body
You can use this space to discuss and process your Book Club book, post your chapter outlines, and plan your Book Club field work and presentation! To add a post, click the pink PLUS sign. You can include images, photos, and CAPTIONED videos/audio if you like. This Padlet will be publicly viewable so that your classmates can learn from your Book Club work.