In Germany, there is a long tradition of using case studies in teacher formation at university (first phase). The use of case studies plays a significant role in courses of educational sciences. Two different traditions can be described: Some colleagues prefer settings of action research: Students work on material or with experiences which they achieved, for example, in their own practical training phases at school. In this setting, individual experience is combined with professional pedagogical knowledge. The second method, widespread in Germany, consists in analyzing “paper cases”, i.e. transcripts or video protocols of lessons which were not personally experienced by the students (Schelle et al. 2010, Ohlhaver 2009, Pflugmacher et al. 2009). This latter tradition is frequently based on Ulrich Oevermanns “Objektive Hermeneutik”, a method of sequential analysis which can be used to explore the inherent normative structure of specific social settings like classroom teaching: Norms of putting knowledge transmission in scene, of comportment, of attitudes towards the content etc.

Whereas case studies are helpful tools in creating professional insights and attitudes in the field of general didactics and school pedagogic, their use in subject didactics is relatively new – but recently discussed (for example at the “What is the case?”-Conference in Hildesheim, January 2011). The implementation of case studies in subject didactics is a question of designing new areas of empirical research, because subject didactics, which are traditionally concerned with developing models of good teaching practise, still know little about the logic/the processes of ordinary lessons. This is a desideratum, since the implementation of new teaching models needs to respect the routines of everyday teaching strategies, which are based on the teacher’s experience.

In doing their own research using case studies, teacher students should be trained in reconstructing didactical processes of teaching-specific-contents in order to gain experience or competencies in hermeneutic understanding, regarding both the routines and the crises of decision-making in knowledge transmission through the teacher.

Empirical research on case studies in subject didactics is still a desideratum (Baumert & Kunter 2006), only first steps have been done. Even without empirical research, different designs of using case studies in subject-didactics-courses are thinkable. Case studies in first-year-courses to initiate questions and attitudes towards the subject-specific-contents and their intermediation; case studies before or after practical phases; case studies as nucleus of final papers for the master degree; oral discussions of cases versus written analysis, etc.

In my paper, first I want to discuss arguments for and against the implementation of case studies at university courses of subject didactics, using the example of teaching mother-tongue literature.

Second I want to give empirical insights in specific experiences the students either made or avoided when being confronted with case studies.

Third, I discuss several possibilities of doing empirical research on the use of case studies in subject didactics. This will be done from the point of view of the theory of professions (Oevermann 1996), which was discussed broadly in Germany during the last decade.  

Baumert, Jürgen; Mareille Kunter (2006). Stichwort: Professionelle Kompetenz von Lehrkräften. In: Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft 4, S. 469-520. Oevermann, Ulrich (1996). Skizze einer revidierten Theorie professionalisierten Handelns. In A. Combe, Werner Helsper (Hrsg.), Pädagogische Professionalität. Untersuchungen zum Typus professionalisierten Handelns (S. 70-182). Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. Ohlhaver, Frank (2009). „Der Lehrer riskiert, die Zügel aus der Hand zu geben.“ Typische Praxen von Lehramtsstudierenden in fallrekonstruktiver pädagogischer Kasuistik. Pädagogische Korrespondenz, 39, 21-45. Pflugmacher, Torsten (2007): Try Pattern and Drill Error – Zwei Fallanalysen zur Fast-Food-Diodaktik mit didaktischen Fertigmaterialien. In: Pädagogische Korrespondenz. Zeitschrift für kritische Zeitdiagnostik in Pädagogik und Gesellschaft. Heft 37. S. 81-106 Pflugmacher, Torsten; Andreas Gruschka, Johannes Twardella, Jens Rosch (2009): Vom Nutzen einer pädagogischen Unterrichtsforschung. in: Beiträge zur Lehrerbildung, Zeitschrift zu Theorie und Praxis der Aus- und Weiterbildung von Lehrerinnen und Lehrern 3. S. 372-284. Schelle, Carla; Rabenstein, Kerstin; Reh, Sabine (2010). Unterricht als Interaktion. Ein Fallbuch für die Lehrerbildung. Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt.