research design stemmed from the
need to document the pedagogical interactions of nurse
educators from a holistic vantage point that facilitated
presentation of specific teaching strategies. Viewing the
educators holistically, in their own environments, allowed
increased insight into their methodologies of case
study implementation. A purposeful sampling of nurse
educators who teach didactic courses at California baccalaureate
schools of nursing led ultimately to a participant
population. Inclusion in the study was based
upon two criteria: (a) the participant had been referred
by an individual who was a current administrator within
a California baccalaureate school of nursing (public and
private institutions) (It was assumed that participant
were utilizing case studies in their didactic courses.) and
(b) an inventory score on the Orientations to Teaching
Questionnaire (OTQ) identified the participant as primarily
learner-centered in his or her approach to teaching
in a didactic educational setting. The OTQ is a tool
that was developed by Kember and Gow and identifies
the instructor’s orientation or approach to didactic education
at the college level [21]. The two approaches
identified by Kember and Gow were (a) learner-centered
teaching or (b) knowledge transmission, which is associated
with a more traditional teacher-centered orientation
to teaching [