Teaching by Case Studies

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Teaching by Case Studies

• Nguyen Huu Lam
• Fulbright Economics Teaching Program
• October 1, 2003

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What is a case?

• A case is a real situation in which a specific
  decision must be made by a public or private
  offical or manager The cases summarize the
  various presures and considerations that official
  or manager must weight in making the decision and
  the often incomplete or contradictory information
  availlable at the time (Comez-Ibanez, 1986).

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What is a case?

• A case is a narrative, featuring plot and
  character, that relates situational context,
  individual or group perspective, and typically,
  incomplete action. It is a concrete and detailed
  story, one that brings the vividness and
  complexity of the real world into the classroom.
  (Boehrer, 1995)

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What is a case method?

• Case method is an instructional technique whereby
  the major ingredients of a case study are
  presented to students for illustrative purposes
  or problem solving experiences.
• Case method is the method of instruction that
  base on real-life examples (Marsick, 1990) is
  used to promote action, growth and development
  (Galbraith Zelenak, 1991).

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What is a case method?

• The case includes three interrelated components
• case report,
• case analysis, and
• case discussion.

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Approaches to using cases

• Lecturing
• Theorizing
• Illustrating
• Choreographing

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Advantages of a case method

• Is personal.
• Is real.
• Is specific.
• Places the members in a group situation.
• Establishes a strong give-and-take.
• Brings about a recognition by the members that
• other people look at situations in different
  ways,
• other people have problems similar to their own,
  and
• other people have difficulty in solving problem.

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Advantages of a case method

• Produces a realization that the types of problems
  discussed do not have a single subject or a
  single answer.
• Develops judgment and ability to think
  independently and more maturely.
• Provides experience for performing essential
  parts of the supervisory or administrative task.
• Brings about a better understanding of human
  behavior and increased sensitivity to causes
  behind behavior, and an awareness of the
  neccessity for seeking these real causes.
• Increases skill in communication.
• Reduce fixed attitude

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Disadvantages of a case method

• Does not actually provide real experience.
• Is incomplete.
• Sometimes overemphasizes the making of decisions.
• Takes more skilled discussion leader than do
  other methods.
• Is different.
• Is slow.
• Is not addaptable to all instructors or students.
• Presents greater opportunities for the eager
  beavers to monopolize the discussion.
• Is more difficult to integrate the results of
  this method with specific operating practices.
• Is not useful when the primary purpose is the
  transmission of facts.
• Can be a waste of time and effort, if not used
  properly.

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Goals of the case method

• Sensitivity, empathy, and interpersonal skills
• Common sense
• The habit of questioning
• Intellectual capacity
• Action oriented

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Case study knowledge

• More concrete
• More contextual
• More developed by reader interpretation
• Based on reference populations determined by the
  reader

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Choosing a case

• Pedagogic utility
• Conflict provoking
• Decision forcing
• Generality
• Brevity
• (Robyn, D. 1986)

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A good case

• "A good case is the vehicle by which a chunk of
  reality is brought into the classroom to be
  worked over by the class and the instructor."
  (Donham Lawrence)
• Most cases require students to assume the role of
  the protagonist and to make one or more critical
  decisions. The information is often deliberately
  incomplete, allowing for many possible options.

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A good case

• brief, well-written
• provocative,
• full of conflicts, ambiguous and open to a number
  of conflicting responses
• exciting to students
• susceptible to analysis from more than one
  theoretical direction
• well-focused, and sufficiently complete in
  themselves as to require little extra factual
  elaboration

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A bad case

• over- determined its outcome is determined and
  evident from the outset
• rambling, wordily written, containing too much
  detail
• open to only one interpretation,
• telling the whole story or containing all the
  terms for its own analysis,
• boring to students,
• missing fundamental data,
• badly laid out with indecipherable tables,
• focusing too much on an individual policy maker,
• displaying a bias,
• lacking in ambiguity, tension or suspense,
• so self-contained as to be hard to relate to the
  rest of the course

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Teaching cases Teachers preparations

• Understanding the arguments and issues of the
  case
• Understanding the needs of and characteristics of
  the learners, the objectives of the class,
  delivery methods, and methods of assessing the
  learning
• Mapping out the themes, the flows, the sequence,
  and the structure
• Assign study questions to students.

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Teaching cases The students

• The students' role as preparation and
  participation.
• The basic steps
• read the case and determine the key problems
  faced by the decision maker,
• determine the data required to analyze the
  problems and for a synthesis into solutions,
• develop, analyze, and compare alternative
  solutions, and
• recommend a course of action.

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Teaching cases

• Ideally, the student should work in a group to
  prepare a written report and/or a formal
  presentation of the case. Students should then
  follow up with a self-evaluation of the case and
  the learning that it has fostered.

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Teaching cases

• A good case class should have four sections
• Decision orientation
• Analyses
• Structure
• Closing
• (Rangan, 1995)

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Teaching cases

• Instructor should know how to control following
  issues
• arranging the room,
• assigning people to groups,
• clarifying roles,
• managing the case.

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Teaching cases

• Roles that the instructor may play
• The Facilitator
• creates an atmosphere where students may arrive
  at their own answers
• analysis, synthesis, and evaluation
• The Coach
• assumes responsibility for the conduct of the
  class but allows students to play their own game
• application, analysis, and synthesis
• The Quarterback
• takes charge and provides direction, but it is
  the students' responsibility to provide the right
  answers
• comprehension, application, and analysis
• The Demonstrator
• works through the analysis and clarifies points
  for the students, who primarily listen and take
  notes
• knowledge and comprehension
• (Gitman et al.)