2017 TC Cowin Financial Literacy /Comments by Mirta Martes-Rivera

From Week 2: Discussion - Rob's Discussion Group Feb 21, 2017 9:12am From Week 1: Discussion - Rob's Discussion Group Feb 13, 2017 7:01pm Teachers College/Columbia University 2017 Cowin Financial Literacy Online Course Mirta Martes-Rivera comments on Module Week Discussion Indeed the case study approach is an effective teaching technique in any discipline although it is widely used in business schools (Harvard Business School video), medicine schools (Holmes' article), law schools, and the social sciences. The use of examples and data ("I'm Rich!") coming from real-life scenarios in most cases certainly motivates students [mainly inductive ones] to brainstorm and find solutions, make decisions, present different points of view, and therefore solve problems.

In some courses that I teach, critical thinking is a must. So many learning and teaching activities include the well- known questions, why?, what?, who?, and so forth. However, the use of case studies adds up to the course as students are faced with questions such as what if?, how about 35% instead of 25%? This type of questions helps them develop problem-solving and decision making-skills (Video clips 1/friendship, 2/ NASA, 3 /plane landing gear problem), and thus prepare them to better understand the world they live in, financially speaking. As to the study case "I'm Rich!," I would use it in one of my courses of English while discussing themes such as social issues. However, I would ask students to focus mostly on budgeting. Nevertheless, I'm re-reading and re-reading the case study to see how I can modify it to include the financial debt the island of Puerto Rico currently faces.