LCaS - news

LCas participants (Graz)

The Central Event of the LCaS Project, the last in a series of three events, took place at the ECML in Graz from 15-17 February 2007. In total 27 participants - mainly teacher educators or teacher trainers for language teaching at secondary and university level - took part in the event. They came from 26 countries, 25 of which were ECML states and one participant came from Russia.

The participants had received extensive pre-reading material on the LCaS Project and on the use of case studies in language teaching, before the workshop. The material made the distinction between case studies and similar task- and problem-based approaches such as project work, global simulations and webquests. The participants were also invited to have a look at the LCaS case studies and to send their comments to the trainers using the form developed by the LCaS team.

During the workshop, the participants had three days of lively discussions on case studies and related approaches. After a general introduction to the LCaS Project the participants worked on:

. how to use language case studies in class,

. how to design a language case study, and

. how to teach this approach in teacher education and teacher training.

The LCaS team took some extra time to explain the methodological background to the case method and the differences between the case study approach and similar approaches, as this had appeared to be problematic at the previous workshops. The second day was totally dedicated to making case studies and the participants developed interesting scenarios, such as the problems related to the construction of a new power plant in Albania, cosmetic surgery, cyber-holism, anorexia bulimia in the fashion industry, and violence in school.

On the third day the group discussed aspects of evaluation and assessment, the co-operation between language teachers and subject-area specialists, and teacher education and teacher training. LCaS team member Ana Margarida Abrantes gave an introduction to the teacher training modules via the internet, from her current base at the Cape Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where she is spending a research year.

The workshop was carried out by Etain Casey (United Kingdom), Marija Lesnik (Slovenia) and Johann Fischer (Germany), with support from Ana Margarida Abrantes (Portugal).

The participants and the trainers enjoyed three fruitful days of work. The feedback from the participants was very positive and stimulating for the LCaS team. It appeared that the participants got a clear picture of what a case study was (and was not), what distinguished a case study from a project, a global simulation or a webquest, how to use case studies in class and how to make one's own case study. However, there were still some open questions regarding evaluating case study activities, i.e. how to evaluate oral group presentations and written group reports. The LCaS team now hopes that the participants will spread the Case Method and the use of the LCaS case studies.

The Central Event was accompanied by an enjoyable Austrian evening on the first day, organised by the Austrian Association in co-operation with students from the Department of German as a Foreign Language at Graz University. The evening was organised around Austrian geography, traditions and the typical food from the various regions. The following evening the German speakers from the LCaS team and the participants organised a "yodel" course based on a text by Loriot and a song by Hubert von Goisern - an activity which caused similar amusement among the participants.

What will happen next in the LCaS project?
The LCaS team will now finalise the LCaS case studies, revise and add to the teacher training modules, and prepare the LCaS handbook to be published later this year. The team will also upload the material on the LCaS website, which will give language teachers the chance to use the case studies, and teacher educators and teacher trainers the means to train students and teachers in the Case Method.



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	April 2007 \| February 2007 \| October 2006 \| May 2006 \| August 2005 \| March 2005 \| October 2004 \| April 2004 \| Action Plan \| ECML Calendar \|	April 2007: Last step: the booklet and CD Rom! This is the last project year. Is it all over? Not quite! We still haven't finished our job: we still have to finalise the case studies, write the handbook and put together the material for our CD-Rom. So the team got together on April 13/14th and discussed the outcomes of the Central event in Graz and the work that has to be done. Although examinations, social obligations, illness and bad weather conditions tried to prevent us from getting together, we managed to meet - even if one of us could only join us via Skype: while we enjoyed summer temperatures and wonderful sunshine in Graz, Ana Margarida was just recovering from a 25 degree temperature drop and snowstorm in Ohio, USA. By the end of the meeting the picture of our outcomes was much clearer: we evaluated our video recordings, sorted out website issues and decided on the structure and content of the final publications. Some of us will have to meet again over the next two months - in order to make interviews and video recordings, hopefully with fewer obstacles this time. What will happen next in the LCaS project? Now we have to decide where to put all the texts, video recordings, presentations, feedback information etc. What shall we put in the booklet and what shall we put in the CD-Rom? We have to check the final versions of all our example case studies and make sure that they are ready for use by visitors to the project web page. We have to edit the booklet and the CD-Rom and produce a video file on the LCaS process as it was used in our piloting. February 2007: Central event, Graz (Austria) LCas participants (Graz) The Central Event of the LCaS Project, the last in a series of three events, took place at the ECML in Graz from 15-17 February 2007. In total 27 participants - mainly teacher educators or teacher trainers for language teaching at secondary and university level - took part in the event. They came from 26 countries, 25 of which were ECML states and one participant came from Russia. The participants had received extensive pre-reading material on the LCaS Project and on the use of case studies in language teaching, before the workshop. The material made the distinction between case studies and similar task- and problem-based approaches such as project work, global simulations and webquests. The participants were also invited to have a look at the LCaS case studies and to send their comments to the trainers using the form developed by the LCaS team. During the workshop, the participants had three days of lively discussions on case studies and related approaches. After a general introduction to the LCaS Project the participants worked on: . how to use language case studies in class, . how to design a language case study, and . how to teach this approach in teacher education and teacher training. The LCaS team took some extra time to explain the methodological background to the case method and the differences between the case study approach and similar approaches, as this had appeared to be problematic at the previous workshops. The second day was totally dedicated to making case studies and the participants developed interesting scenarios, such as the problems related to the construction of a new power plant in Albania, cosmetic surgery, cyber-holism, anorexia bulimia in the fashion industry, and violence in school. On the third day the group discussed aspects of evaluation and assessment, the co-operation between language teachers and subject-area specialists, and teacher education and teacher training. LCaS team member Ana Margarida Abrantes gave an introduction to the teacher training modules via the internet, from her current base at the Cape Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where she is spending a research year. The workshop was carried out by Etain Casey (United Kingdom), Marija Lesnik (Slovenia) and Johann Fischer (Germany), with support from Ana Margarida Abrantes (Portugal). The participants and the trainers enjoyed three fruitful days of work. The feedback from the participants was very positive and stimulating for the LCaS team. It appeared that the participants got a clear picture of what a case study was (and was not), what distinguished a case study from a project, a global simulation or a webquest, how to use case studies in class and how to make one's own case study. However, there were still some open questions regarding evaluating case study activities, i.e. how to evaluate oral group presentations and written group reports. The LCaS team now hopes that the participants will spread the Case Method and the use of the LCaS case studies. The Central Event was accompanied by an enjoyable Austrian evening on the first day, organised by the Austrian Association in co-operation with students from the Department of German as a Foreign Language at Graz University. The evening was organised around Austrian geography, traditions and the typical food from the various regions. The following evening the German speakers from the LCaS team and the participants organised a "yodel" course based on a text by Loriot and a song by Hubert von Goisern - an activity which caused similar amusement among the participants. What will happen next in the LCaS project? The LCaS team will now finalise the LCaS case studies, revise and add to the teacher training modules, and prepare the LCaS handbook to be published later this year. The team will also upload the material on the LCaS website, which will give language teachers the chance to use the case studies, and teacher educators and teacher trainers the means to train students and teachers in the Case Method. October 2006: LCaS Preparatory meeting Workshop 2007 On October 6th and 7th, 2006, the LCaS team met in Graz in order to prepare the central event to take place in Graz on 15-17 February 2007. The team also discussed the results of the 2nd regional event, which took place in Dublin (Ireland) on 11-13 May 2006, and started working on the final LCaS publication. The team spent some time analysing the results of the second regional event in Dublin and comparing these to the results of the first regional event in Oulu in 2005, which had involved participants with a slightly different profile. The results of both workshops were then used in planning for Graz in 2007. The team members drafted the programme of the 3-day central event, which will again be preceded by pre-workshop activities. During the workshop, the participants will discuss how to use language case studies in language teaching at upper secondary and university level, how to make a language case study, and how to train teacher trainees in using and making language case studies. The LCaS team also planned the structure of the LCaS handbook including the CD Rom and worked on the existing teacher training modules. What will happen next in the LCaS project? The team will finalise the LCaS case studies, work on the LCaS final publication and present the results and products of the LCaS project at the Central Event in Graz in February 2007. LCaS team (Graz) May 2006: LCaS - 2nd regional event, Dublin (Ireland) The 2nd Regional Event of the LCaS Project took place at University College Dublin, Ireland, from 11th to 13th May 2006. After a general introduction to the LCaS Project the 20 participants worked on: how to design a language case study how to use it in a language class, and how to teach this approach in teacher education and teacher training. The 14 Irish participants came from all parts of the country, and the six international participants financed by the ECML from Andorra, Austria, the Czech Republic, the "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", Slovenia and Switzerland. The workshop was carried out by Etain Casey (UK) and Johann Fischer (Germany) with the assistance of Marija Lešnik (Slovenia). It was co-ordinated by Mary Ruane (Ireland) under guidance of the ECML, represented by the Executive Director, Adrian Butler, and the Irish Department of Education and Science, represented by Paul Caffrey, Modern Languages Inspector. The participants were mainly teacher educators or teacher trainers for language teaching at secondary level, but in some cases also language teachers. They had received pre-reading material prior to the event, in order to get the necessary background information on the use of case studies in language teaching, and had been able to familiarise themselves with the LCaS case studies. Nevertheless, in the practical training sessions, questions on the distinction between case studies, project work and simulations re-appeared at regular intervals. By the end of the workshop, the participants were familiar with the characteristics of good language case studies and with the distinction and links to other task-based and problem-based teaching approaches and tools; they had drafted their own case study and worked on useful tools to train language teachers and teacher trainees in using language case studies in their teaching. Amongst other aspects, participants expressed the positive aspect of using authentic material and authentic situations when introducing case studies into teaching. They had some concerns concerning time and organisational aspects, the usability of case studies with lower levels and with large groups, and the life cycle of case studies (a certain amount of development work vs. the limited usability of a case study in time). Nevertheless, participants all said that they had received an insight into a new or different way of teaching and that they would integrate the case study approach into their language teaching and into their teacher education and teacher training programmes. What will happen next in the LCaS project? The LCaS team will now revise and add to the teacher training modules, finalise the LCaS case studies and prepare the handbook to be published next year. The team will also prepare the final LCaS event to take place in 2007 at the ECML in Graz, where it will present the LCaS results and the teacher training modules to teacher trainers and teacher educators from all 33 ECML member states. See also LCaS Workshop report. August 2005: LCaS team meeting The LCaS team met in Graz on August 19 th and 20 th, 2005 in order to analyse the results of the first LCaS regional event, which took place in Oulu (Finland) in March 2005, to plan the second regional event, to take place in Dublin (Ireland) in 2006 and to plan the next steps in the project activities. The team members were pleased to hear that the first regional event was very successful. The evaluation forms showed that the workshop had a real impact on the participants’ teaching as it will in one way or another lead to changes in their curriculum due to the integration of case studies in their teaching. The workshop participants gave useful recommendations on how the case studies could be changed or improved. These suggestions led to deep discussion among the LCaS team members. The LCaS team also planned the second regional event, which will be preceded by a pre-conference online tutoring session and which will focus on how to train language teachers to use case studies in language teaching. Finally, the group planned the structure of the teacher training modules and handbook and started writing scenarios on teaching situations where teachers introduced case studies into their teaching or familiarised colleagues with the case study approach and where they encountered various obstacles and problems. What will happen next in the LCaS project? The LCaS team will revise the existing case studies, develop further case studies, continue the piloting process and develop the teacher training modules. These will be piloted in the second regional event to take place in Dublin in 2006. March 2005: LCaS - 1st regional event, Oulu (Finland) From 3rd to 5th March the LCaS Project had its first regional event in snowy Oulu, Finland. The aim of this workshop was to familiarise language teachers in secondary education and in university language teaching and teacher trainers with the LCaS Project to familiarise the participants with the use of case studies in language teaching and to introduce the participants to the LCaS case studies to introduce the methodology needed for teacher trainers to train the participants in making their own language case studies A total of 19 participants attended this workshop. Participants came mainly from Finnish universities, and the seven international participants came from Estonia, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania and Norway. The workshop was carried out by Etain Casey (UK) and Johann Fischer (Germany) and co-ordinated by Lisa Lena Opas-Hänninen (Finland) under the guidance of the ECML and the Finnish Board of Education. All the participants had some idea of case studies in language teaching but it soon became very clear that the distinction between case studies, project work and (global) simulations was not an easy one. Participants often developed project activities when planning to make case studies but in the end everyone felt more comfortable about the definition and structure of a case study and promised to continue the activities started during the workshop. During the three-day workshop the structures of four new case studies were developed. The group will now set up a workshop website in Oulu and continue the development of case studies on this platform. On the suggestion of the Finnish Board of Education, this platform shall function as a resource centre where language teachers can upload their own case study and use material developed by colleagues in other countries or at other institutions. In the evaluations participants referred to shortage of time for using case studies in class or for making them. Their existing syllabi was a major obstacle for introducing case studies (or any other changes) in their teaching. Nevertheless, all participants promised to try the LCaS case studies, to pass the information about the project on to their colleagues or students or to adapt and develop the new case study ideas developed during this workshop and make a case study that suits their own needs (e.g. case study for teaching Danish). What will happen next in the LCaS project? The LCaS team will now develop teacher training modules to accompany the case-studies and plan the second regional event which will take place in 2006. This second event will focus on the teacher training side of the project: Workshop participants will receive theoretical information on the use of case studies, and completed LCaS case studies for analysis before the workshop as preparatory reading; the workshop itself will then concentrate on how to train language teachers to use and possibly to make their own language case studies which will be of great interest to teacher trainers. October 2004: team meeting report The group met in Graz on October the 8th to plan our first regional event, which will take place in Oulu, Finland. It will be a busy schedule for the participants, but one that will have an added cultural theme. There will be some surprises! We are currently finalising our case studies on the following topics: English French / Français German / Deutsch Italian / Italiano Piloting of these case studies will start soon at secondary schools and universities. We now have a framework for teacher training modules, which will accompany the cases. We will be presenting a fuller draft of these modules at the regional event. April 2004: team meeting report The LCaS team had its first project meeting in Graz on April 23rd and 24th, 2004, and spent two days working intensively on the next steps of the project. LCaS is: "Language Case Studies - Developing teacher training modules for the use of case studies in language teaching at secondary and university level" a project within the 2nd Medium-Term Programme of the ECML, aiming at the integration of (paper-based and Internet-based) authentic case studies in language teaching by developing language case studies in English, French, German and Italian, professional development modules for language teachers and teacher trainers, and a handbook with CD Rom for language teachers and teacher trainers. LCaS is also: a team of five language teachers from Austria (Elke Gigl), Germany (Johann Fischer, co-ordinator), Portugal (Ana Margarida Abrantes), Slovenia (Marija Lešnik) and the United Kingdom (Etain Casey), assisted by a web designer (René Krätschel from Germany) Over the next few months the team will develop twelve case studies for the use in language teaching, pilot the case studies and develop training modules for the first regional workshop to take place in March 2004. The team will meet again in Graz on October 8th and 9th, 2004.