The most effective way to reduce mental illness stigma is through contact (Corrigan et al., 2012); however, such programs are difficult to implement. Researchers have turned to indirect contact with some success (Mann & Himelein, 2008), yet the exact mechanism behind narrative-based programs remains unknown. The present study seeks to isolate one possible mechanism—perspective-taking. Perspective-taking enjoys wide support in prejudice research (Batson, Early et al., 1997) but is relatively untested with mental illness stigma. One hundred eighty-one college students heard a narrative of a student with bipolar (I) disorder or HIV and were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (perspective-taking, objective-stance, or “no-instruction”). Participants then completed outcome measures tapping stigma toward the individual and group (social distance, global affect, discrimination). Participants reported greater social distance toward the person with bipolar versus HIV, but discrimination and global affect scores did not differ by stigma target. The perspective-taking intervention was successful in reducing stigma across multiple variables for both bipolar and HIV conditions. The intervention failed to change global affect toward persons with mental illness but did improve feelings toward those with HIV. Results are discussed in the broader context of the power of stories, and the differences between reducing mental illness stigma versus other prejudices.

The purpose of this study was to determine professional evaluators’ perceptions of reflective practice (RP) and the extent and manner in which they engage in RP behaviors. Nineteen evaluators with 10 or more years of experience in the evaluation field were interviewed to explore our understanding and practice of RP in evaluation. Findings suggest that RP is a process of self and contextual awareness, involving thinking and questioning, and individual and group meaning-making, focused on facilitating growth in the form of learning and improvement. The roles of individual and collaborative reflection as well as reflection in- and on-action are also discussed. Findings support a call for the further refinement of our understanding of RP in evaluation practice. Evaluators seeking to be better reflective practitioners should be competent in skills such as facilitation and interpersonal skills, as well as budget needed time for RP in evaluation accordingly.

We take this final article to reflect on the “case” made for the use of cases in teaching and learning in evaluation. We provide an overview of what has been learned about teaching and learning with cases through this volume and discuss what counts as good case teaching and learning based on the other articles. This article identifies the critical importance of context in evaluation practice and shares our belief that there is no way we can adequately prepare future evaluation practitioners for their work without using cases in teaching and learning evaluation. We share the future efforts of the Case Collaborative, including the development and dissemination of a case repository for instructors of evaluation. We end by reflecting on how we can get new evaluators to think like professional, seasoned practitioners and providing a call to action to our readers.

This article introduces the volume on Case‐Centered Teaching and Learning in Evaluation by presenting the general rationale for using cases as a part of instruction in evaluation and essential points about how cases can be used as a part of teaching and learning about evaluation. This volume is the product of “The Case Collaborative,” an ongoing partnership among the authors and additional participants. In this introductory article, we tell the story of how this partnership developed, the goals and objectives identified by the group, and the primary concepts and strategies involved in case‐centered evaluation teaching and learning. We introduce our working definition of cases and share the critical connection of this work to purposeful reflection on our practice as evaluation practitioners and teachers. This theme of reflective practice in our work is introduced here and threaded throughout the remainder of the NDE volume.

Rooted in the pedagogical literature, three evaluation educators, guided by a facilitator, engaged in reflective practice regarding case-centered teaching and learning. We engaged in (D)escription, (A)nalysis, (T)heorizing, and (A)cting (DATA model) in relation to case-centered teaching. Based on a cross-case analysis, we identified five common actions in our teaching with cases: (1) Use case-centered teaching in various contexts to support a variety of different learning outcomes for students from different backgrounds;(2) Choose cases intentionally; (3) Integrate student learning activities, supports, and materials; (4) Evaluate students' learning experiences with cases; and (5) Engage in collaborative reflection to facilitate learning and improvement on instructional practices with casecentered teaching.This article offers readers a glimpse into case-centered teaching in action as three instructors and a facilitator collectively reflect on their use of cases in evaluation education. Although we had previously learned from and taught with cases, we approached casecentered teaching and learning with new insights based on the previous articles in this volume (Bourgeois et al., this issue; Ensminger et al., this issue; Kallemeyn et al., this issue; Linfield & Tovey, this issue; Montrosse-Moorhead et al., this issue). Most evaluation educators who teach with cases draw from their own experiences in designing and using cases in their teaching (Bourgeois et al., this issue). Rather than maintaining our teaching as a private, individual practice, we engaged in collaborative reflection on our practice (Smith et al., 2015). This article follows a tradition of various forms of self-study on evaluation (Boyce & McGowan, 2018;Chouinard & Boyce, 2017;He et al., 2021; van Draanen, 2017). The purpose of this article is to share our collective actions regarding how to implement case-centered teaching in evaluation courses and how it shapes learning experiences.