Jonassen and Case Based Reasoning

When Jonassen explains how telling stories can help novice learners gain "experience," what instantly comes to mind is football. My favorite course in college was a coaching football class and case based reasoning was oftentimes used to explain which offensive and defensive sets will prove most effective against a particular opponent's setup.

While CBR has limited use in my math classroom, I am looking forward to using it when I'm done with graduate school and begin coaching. There is quite a bit of time spent in both baseball and football (my two sports of choice) practice going over scenarios, seeing how they play out, and what to do when the situation arises. Baseball in particular uses CBR many times a day during practice. Quite a bit of time is spent in a baseball practice presenting a scenario, looking for the best way to solve it, and then mentally indexing it with other scenarios that are practiced.

What separates good coaches from poor coaches is how they approach CBR cases on the practice field. I was always taught growing up that "you practice like you play and you play like you practice," meaning that in order to play effective baseball you have to practice each scenario at full speed and full effort. Even with this in mind, effective presentation of the case at hand is important, as practices can't replicate the pressure and stress of games.

What is important when teaching these scenarios is to explore the possibilities, how different reactions cause other reactions to occur. This is where the story-telling part comes into play. The scenarios carry a greater relevance when a situation can be pinpointed back to a previous game. From here, the coach can talk about what went right, what went wrong, and can replay the situation and explore what happens if the ball is thrown to a different base, if players are in different spots, etc.

Because stories are easier to recall than basic knowledge, they present a great way of teaching baseball and football strategy. If a game and play is attached to a lesson, it's easier for players to pick the best option presented to them, both during film sessions and on the field in the heat of battle.

References: Jonassen, D. H., & Hernandez-Serrano, J. (2002). Case-based reasoning and instructional design: Using stories to support problem solving. Educational Technology Research and Development, 50(2), 65-77.