A learning environment is created in which teachers coach student thinking and guide student inquiry to facilitate deeper levels of understanding. This instructional strategy is often useful to enable learners to develop a personal stake in a particular problem and to motivate them to have a desire to generate solutions. Case studies generally give students an opportunity to study an individual accounting of real events. The best case studies describe events with realistic details, intriguing decision points, and provocative ideas that make the discussion group want to think and argue about them. Students may choose to reenact the roles of various players in the case so that they may engage in the problem authenitcally.
Case studies provide an exceptional opportunity for students to meet the problem.
Simulations support learners in developing an awareness of what they know and need to know, and what ideas they have about the situation. They are most effective when their structure reflects a real world process that enables the players to become working members of a system by analyzing information and making decisions. Relevant simulations help activate learners' prior knowledge and provide focus for preparing to gather information needed to solve the problem. Critical issues are examined and questions are posed to help steer both the research and the inquiry necessary for the development of testable hypotheses. Investigation task cards provide a guided means to engage critical thinking about understanding the elements of a particular problem.