Esta publicación recoge las ponencias plenarias y las comunicaciones presentadas y leídas en el VII Simposio Internacional de la SEDLL, que con el título Canon, literatura infantil y juvenil y otras literaturas, fue asumido por la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha y se celebró en Ciudad Real, en diciembre de 2001. Aparecen aquí recogidas también las actividades relacionadas con los estudios mencionadas arriba: talleres y seminarios que suscitaron provechosas discusiones, sugerencias y debates. Como dice Alfredo Rodríguez López-Vázquez en la Presentación: La celebración del VII Simposio con su doble concreción en el título, del objeto de estudio, y de su relación con el canon, ha venido a representar un hito importante. Este Simposio pretendía, ya desde su diseño por parte del Comité Científico, un nuevo planteamiento de orientaciones críticas y metodológicas en el ámbito de la educación y de la investigación en torno a la literatura que leen los niños y los jóvenes de hoy en día en el contexto de la sociedad tecnológica moderna. Creemos que esta publicación permite afirmar que se ha cumplido con los objetivos previstos para cada una de las áreas temáticas.

There are a number of marvelous books that address the topic of the case method. If you are interested in facilitating cases, you can look to the classic book Teaching and the Case Method by Louis Barnes, C. Roland Christensen and Abby Hansen (1994). The collection of essays on the subject, Education for Judgment: The Artistry of Discussion Leadership by C. Roland Christensen, David Garvin and Ann Sweet (1991) is a wonderful and inspiring read as well. If your interest is case-based research, it would be nearly impossible to find a more authoritative source than Robert Yin’s (2009, 4th Edition) Case Study Research: Design and Methods, which (at last count) has been cited nearly 29,000 times, according to Google Scholar. There is even a new entry to the field, William Ellet’s (2007) The Case Study Handbook: How to Read, Discuss, and Write Persuasively about Cases that is specifically aimed at the student. At first glance, then, the topic of case studies in education and research seems to be pretty well covered. Do we really need another book on the subject? I write this book believing the answer is yes. While I have great affection for the classics, there are a number of issues facing most business faculty—not to mention faculty members from disciplines outside of business—that these books simply do not address. In writing this book, my intention is to offer some thoughts on some of these. Paradoxically, these omissions arise from the very fact that the authors of the classics are undisputed masters of their craft. Why this is a problem should become clear as I identify the three areas of focus for this book. The first issue that I feel must be considered is using the case method with a novice audience. Consider the following. When I was enrolled in the MBA program at Harvard Business School (HBS) in the early 1980s, the curriculum consisted of nearly 900 case discussion (15 per week) and—perhaps—as many as 20 class periods given over to lecture-style presentations. When I teach a case-method graduate course at my own institution, on the other hand, I am constrained to 11 case discussions (a 12 week semester). As it happens, I am also the only course in the entire program that employs pedagogy reasonably faithful to the case method, as it is normally defined. The math is very simple. By the last day of my semester, my students have as much experience discussing cases as I did on Thursday afternoon of the first week of my two year MBA program at HBS. With the exception of faculty teaching at those rare institutions that have chosen to widely adopt the case method, the situation I face is commonplace. The second concern that existing books raise for me is their tendency to focus on isolated topics. Specifically, case facilitation, case writing and case research are treated as separable activities. I would argue that these three aspects of the case method—which I define quite broadly—are inseparable. For institutions that wish to achieve the full set of benefits provided by the case method, all three activities must be pursued in parallel. Perhaps this is why so few institutions have achieved success through the case method. In this book, I will argue that achieving such integration is precisely why those rare institutions have been so successful. Once you start believing that the case method can be a key to institutional success, how you get there becomes a real challenge. At leading institutions featuring the case method, such as HBS, the philosophy is largely learned through a period of apprenticeship. For example, I did not encounter any of the references mentioned in the first paragraph—excepting Yin—at any time during my 5 year doctorate at HBS. Instead, I went out and wrote cases, facilitated discussions and did research under the guidance of faculty members who were masters of the craft. How can someone without the benefit of such an experience acquire such mastery? While I cannot offer any promises in this regard, I will at least provide some examples and easy-to-follow checklists that may be of service to individuals getting started.

Balanced, concise, and practical, Waugh and Gronlund's Assessment of Student Achievement, Tenth Edition, presents an exceptionally strong set of strategies to help teachers assess all learners in today's schools. Written in a simple and direct manner, and using frequent examples and illustrations to clarify important points, the text is a balanced, concise, and practical guide for testing and performance assessment. The authors' approach emphasizes testing as well as performance evaluation--each used when it is most appropriate--as integral steps that improve student learning and ultimately build student success. This highly-regarded textbook, replete with thorough updates in the new tenth edition, prepares educators use assessment as a tool to help develop all students in their classrooms. A great portion of the textbook is devoted to preparing and using classroom tests and performance assessments, assigning grades, and interpreting standardized test scores to individual students and parents.