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Hi, Kevin
I had the good fortune to spend 3 months of my internship period at the Case Method department in Quantico this year and will try to adress your question based on my own experience and observations from this time.
First I must add that I am from Sweden and english is not my native language, this is not an excuse for poor spelling but to give you an idea of my own startingpoint when it came to grasping Decision Forcing Cases.
I spent time observing classes with various topics and listened in on the teachers preparations at the beginning and understood the basic concept whitin a few sessions. The officers who took part in the class seems to have the same experience as I did based on the level of response the teacher got, with progressingely more elaborate answers as the course whent on.
I then went on to construct and teach my own case, and I felt comfortable doing so. My experience tells me that even "seasoned" Case teachers still learn and draw new conclusions after almost every class but it is possible to learn (but not perfect) the Case Method within a few months.
The DFCs do indeed demand a somewhat different skillset then traditional lectures, most importantly (and maybe the hardest) is the skill to not be in the center of attention while gently guiding the conversation but NOT the conclusions! DFCs are open ended which demands alot from the teacher in the form of research. While a "normal" lecture lets the teacher decide what story to be told the DFCs require that the teacher knows enough to guide a story that is being told to him/her.
With this said it is okey not know every detail of every case, one can always ask the student to elaborate on why this information would have been useful, had it been available...
In addition to this; small courses, no more then a few hours, where given to junior officers. They got a short introduction to the Case Method and where then asked to construct and teach a short DFC, something most of them did very well!
I hope that you can find this information useful, or at least not a complete wast of your time!
Well met and Semper Fidelis.
/Viktor Ahlborg, Swedish Defence University
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