Foreword
Ted Marchese, American Association for Higher Education

Introduction

Part I: Resource Materials

Part II: Cases About Classrooms

 Link from the title to an abstract of each case.

Introduction
Carol Rutz, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Case 1. Critical Thinking or Thinking Critically
James H. Smith, Northern State University

Case 2. Group Cases: One Professor's Dilemma
Srinivasan Ragothaman, University of South Dakota

Case 3. Judgment Day
Marie McNeff, Augsburg College

Case 4. The Loafing Letdown
Ronald A. Klocke, Mankato State University

Case 5. The Case of the Harassed Teacher
Tony Filipovitch and Mary McDearmon, Mankato State University

Case 6. Yes, Virginia, You're in a Pickle
Mary R. DeMaine, College of Visual Arts

Case 7. Too Much Thinking
Richard Jewell, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Case 8. Grade Expectations
Jeannine L. Saabye, University of Mary

Case 9. The Jonas Incident
Chris M. Anson, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Part III: Cases about Departments and Institutions

Introduction
Carol Rutz, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Case 10. The Academic Purist
Deborah Petersen-Perlman, University of Minnesota-Duluth

Case 11. Best in the Class
Carol Rutz, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Case 12. The Fly in the Ointment
James Swanson, Dakota State University

Case 13. Risky Business
Lesley K. Cafarelli, The Collaboration for the Advancement of College Teaching & Learning

Case 14. To 'B' or Not to 'B': a Case of Academic Appeal
Benedict J. Arogyawamy, University of South Dakota

Case 15. To Tell or Not To Tell
Shamsul Huda, Argiro L. Morgan, and William Serban, Xavier University of Louisiana

Case 16. Unpopular Senior Professor
Bruce L. Smith, University of South Dakota

Case 17. Wendy Lamb
Tom Mason and Melissa Shepard, University of St. Thomas

Case 18. Assessment at Woebegone State
Lesley K. Cafarelli, The Collaboration for the Advancement of College Teaching & Learning

Case 19. Is Something Rotten in Denmark?
Rebecca Kamm, Northeast Iowa Community College

Case 20. Teaching Semantics: Euphemisms, Taboos, and Obscenities
Richard Betting, Valley City State University

Part IV: Cases About the Changing Culture As It Affects Higher Education

Introduction
Carol Rutz, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Case 21. The Cancer Student
Carol Rutz, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Case 22. Facing the Reality of Students' Preparation and Research Skills
Deborah Petersen-Perlman and Marilyn Russell-Bogle, University of Minnesota- Duluth

Case 23. Faltering Steps Under the Americans With Disabilities Act
Richard W. Metcalf, University of South Dakota

Case 24. Jalen
Eugene Hermitte and Phyllis Worthy Dawkins, Johnson C. Smith University

Case 25. Special Circumstances
Jeannine L. Saabye, University of Mary

Case 26. They're Acting Really Squirrelly
Thomas D. Peacock, University of Minnesota-Duluth

Case 27. Organic Lab is Hell
Maria C. Milletti and Elva Mae Nicholson, Eastern Michigan University

Case 28. Who's Learning
Beverly J. Stratton, Augsburg College

Case 29. Dissin' the Prof
Susan J. Huber, University of St. Thomas

Bibliography

Part II: Cases About Classrooms

Case 1. Critical Thinking or Thinking Critically
James H. Smith, Northern State University

A political science professor tries to demonstrate his views on critical thinking by writing to the student newspaper and through specific requirements on writing assignments. Students resist his approach, both in and out of the classroom.

Case 2. Group Cases: One Professor's Dilemma
Srinivasan Ragothaman, University of South Dakota

This case features a single mother, a basketball player, and a grading policy adopted by an instructor. This case addresses certain risks associated with using the case method in the classroom. Cooperative learning and grading issues are also highlighted.

Case 3. Judgment Day
Marie McNeff, Augsburg College

This case involves a professor and adult learners in a weekend college introductory philosophy class who jointly decide on criteria by which the professor will be evaluated. The students then judge the professor on what seems to be a different set of criteria. The student evaluations result in reprimands by the department chair and academic dean.

Case 4. The Loafing Letdown
Ronald A. Klocke, Mankato State University

A new assistant professor of management finds that student teams are plagued by varying levels of participation and commitment. The issue is complicated by surprising ratings on their peer evaluations of group work.

Case 5. The Case of the Harassed Teacher
Tony Filipovitch and Mary McDearmon, Mankato State University

A woman teacher finds offensive graffiti in her classroom and tries to enlist her male co- teacher in a confrontation strategy. Issues of gender, power, and responsibility for a safe teaching environment come bubbling up as they consider the options.

Case 6. Yes, Virginia, You're in a Pickle
Mary R. DeMaine, College of Visual Arts

A junior faculty member re-applying for promotion tries to put student complaints and a colleague's sabotage into perspective. The faculty member's strong teaching and service to the department were misread by a previous review panel. Consequently, she must undo the damage of the unsuccessful review to make a successful case this time.

Case 7. Too Much Thinking
Richard Jewell, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

This composite of several real-life students and teachers examines Janice, a single mother who has done well in practical courses, and Dr. Terrence, her professor in a critical writing and thinking course. Janice wants to withdraw because she finds the course too difficult. Dr. Terrence is concerned about whether Janice is capable of abstract thought and, if she is, what role he should play in helping her.

Case 8. Grade Expectations
Jeannine L. Saabye, University of Mary

A professor with rigorous standards feels lonely and threatened when a dissatisfied student marshals other students to complain about the professor's grading system. Issues of standards, student preparation, teacher-student expectations, and faculty accountability all mix together in this case.

Case 9. The Jonas Incident
Chris M. Anson, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Writing teachers are used to seeing papers develop rhetorically and stylistically as students become more practiced in the writing process. In this case, a student submits a paper that is well written according to objective criteria, even though the writer did not revise between drafts. However, the content wars with the instructor's values and makes assessment an ideological rather than a rhetorical act.
  

Part III: Cases about Departments and Institutions

Case 10. The Academic Purist
Deborah Petersen-Perlman, University of Minnesota-Duluth

This case features the struggle of a classically trained scholar-professor who has come to desire change in her lecture-driven classes. The professor connects with a peer observer to facilitate new directions in her teaching. She finds herself resistant to change, and most particularly to relinquishing control so as to encourage more active student participation.

Case 11. Best in the Class
Carol Rutz, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

What happens when an outstanding student participates fully in a writing class, writes exceptionally well, and claims to be dissatisfied? In this case the teacher and the student have radically different views of the course: The teacher is thrilled with the student's work; the student's course-evaluation comments may doom the teacher's future teaching assignment.

Case 12. The Fly in the Ointment
James Swanson, Dakota State University

This is a case of a faculty member who invokes the protection of academic freedom to resist the changes and teaching innovations required by his institution's accreditation plan. It raises the question of how other faculty and faculty development coordinators can encourage their colleagues to be open to strengthening their teaching on the basis of new pedagogical research and theory.

Case 13. Risky Business
Lesley K. Cafarelli, The Collaboration for the Advancement of College Teaching & Learning

This case is about a department chair faced with decisions about a tenure-track professor in a department rife with political tensions about the evaluation of teaching. While the junior faculty member has received positive evaluations in the past and has been involved in faculty development activities, the chair is accosted by concerns from a complaining student and an entrenched senior professor, as well as a mandate on evaluation from the university's new vice-president.

Case 14. To 'B' or Not to 'B': A Case of Academic Appeal
Benedict J. Arogyaswamy, University of South Dakota

This case involves a student who feels that the professor wasted class time, leading to a poor grade for the student. Several issues crop up -- cultural biases, academic freedom, and the fairness of academic appeal procedures. Sample focus questions are included.

15. To Tell or Not to Tell
Shamsul Huda, Argiro L. Morgan and William Serban, Xavier University of Louisiana

While working on a collaborative project with a male colleague, a young female faculty member inadvertently learns from a student that her colleague harbors prejudice against a minority group. Confronting her colleague would violate the confidentiality of the student's disclosure as well as endanger the collaborative endeavor. Seniority, diversity, gender, and tenure criteria are some issues addressed in this case.

Case 16. Unpopular Senior Professor
Bruce L. Smith, University of South Dakota

A department chair struggles to manage a department high in faculty turnover that also has a senior professor who is unpopular with students and very resistant to change. The professor says his high standards are resisted by students who prefer easier instructors. The students say the professor is rigid and more interested in preserving his image of being tough than with helping them to learn.

Case 17. Wendy Lamb
Tom Mason and Melissa Shepard, University of St. Thomas

A capable junior faculty member participates in a faculty development program designed to focus on one of her physics courses. To her dismay, the students show little enthusiasm for the course, and several drop. As a result, the professor is too upset to take advantage of the mentoring opportunity offered by her faculty development partner.

Case 18. Assessment at Woebegone State
Lesley K. Cafarelli, The Collaboration for the Advancement of College Teaching and Learning

A hard-working psychology professor chairs an assessment task force that attempts to please everyone: the accrediting body, the university administration, the faculty, and the members of the task force itself. The proposed assessment plan meets resistance at a number of levels, and the chair despairs of bringing people together on a solid plan.

Case 19. Is Something Rotten in Denmark?
Rebecca Kamm, Northeast Iowa Community College

Two professors, one from an American college and the other one from Europe, compare notes on their experiences as exchange professors. They discover that expectations, preparation, and the collegial environment can all be improved to make such exchanges successful for the participants, their student, and their academic institution.

Case 20. Teaching Semantics: Euphemisms, Taboos, and Obscenities
Richard Betting, Valley State University

This case studies the power of language -- even when teachers and students study language itself in an attempt to understand how it influences us. Students who object to any encounter with taboo language enact a distressing dilemma for linguists: Naming the taboo invokes an emotional response that prevents the scholarly examination of that kind of language.
  

Part IV: Cases About the Changing Culture As It Affects Higher Education

Case 21. The Cancer Student
Carol Rutz, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

A college senior asks her writing teacher for an incomplete. Risky cancer treatment is scheduled for the last three weeks of the student's final spring term. The teacher has to consider the student's needs, the institution's rules, and her own (the teacher's) sense of what is proper under the circumstances.

Case 22. Facing the Reality of Students' Preparation and Research Skills
Deborah Petersen-Perlman and Marilyn Russell-Bogle, University of Minnesota- Duluth

A communications professor and a university librarian join forces to develop a challenging assignment for a first-year mass communications course. Both are disappointed by students' perception of the assignment as too demanding; they worry that students are unprepared for college-level research -- and unwilling to make up the deficit by working hard.

Case 23. Faltering Steps under the American's with Disabilities Act
Richard W. Metcalf, University of South Dakota

This case uses a generic college course setting to highlight a series of decisions confronting an instructor with ADA requirements. The case focuses on the issues of the course syllabus, make-up examinations, and incomplete grading.

Case 24. Jalen
Eugene Hermitte and Phyllis Worthy Dawkins, Johnson C. Smith University

In this case, a white professor encounters difficulties teaching African subject matter to African-American students. An African-American professor observes the class, interviews students, and presents her reflections to the professor.

Case 25. Special Circumstances
Jeannine L. Saabye, University of Mary

Despite a professor's careful course planning and ample notification, a student has an unavoidable conflict on two important class days. The teacher and student must work together on what seems an insoluble problem.

Case 26. They're Acting Really Squirrelly
Thomas D. Peacock, University of Minnesota-Duluth

In this case (designed for use in secondary education teacher-training programs), Dale, a school principal in northern Wisconsin, must decide how to handle a pair of disruptive students. The school is a mix of Ojibwa and white students, but both of the disruptive students are Ojibwa. This case raises issues for new teachers about dealing with student diversity and behavior.

Case 27. Organic Lab Is Hell
Marie C. Milletti and Elva Mae Nicholson, Eastern Michigan University

A dedicated chemistry professor devotes a great deal of time to a disabled student, only to have the student grieve his grade. At issue are the student's abilities, the professor's investment of time, energy, and emotion, and the institution's experimentation with disability accommodations. How are accommodation and disability related?

Case 28. Who's Learning?
Beverly J. Stratton, Augsburg College

Well-crafted assignments with worthy goals can sometimes evoke surprising reactions from students. In this case, an assignment that connects the Bible's influence on American culture upsets a Native American student and leaves the professor questioning her motives.

Case 29. Dissin' the Prof
Susan J. Huber, University of St. Thomas

Diversity as a value in higher education brings with it some tricky problems. In this case, a model professor is confronted by a powerful, ambitious African-American woman who expects university standards to accommodate her life circumstances. Communication is complicated by the student's open disrespect for the professor and the professor's alleged racist attitude.