The Case for Cases: Teaching with Cases

How to Teach Using the Case Method

Philip Zerrillo

• Publisher: WSPC
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9789813273368
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

This book is intended to support faculty in designing and conducting case teaching. The book is a practical "how to" guide for faculty setting up and delivering a case based class. It can be used by instructors of all levels as it discusses issues such as class culture, teaching pace, grading, board usage etc.

Contents:

• Acknowledgements
• Prologue
• Introduction: The Case for Cases
• Preparing
• Student Preparation
• Faculty Preparation
• Performing/Delivery
• Conclusion
• Exhibit A: A Simple Guide to How to Write Up Your Class Assignments Cases

Readership: Business school teachers and lecturers, education specialists and academics, education policy makers, and business school students.
Key Features:

• Brings to light the insights from a career of case writing and case teaching throughout the world
• Based on experience of the author and his colleagues who have taught roughly 50 seminars on case writing and case teaching for instructors in Singapore, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Vietnam, India, the Philippines, Brunei

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION:
THE CASE FOR CASES

Why Use Cases? The educational value!

There are many ways to teach a class and some are more appropriate than others for different levels of students and different types of material. The pedagogical value of all types of teaching can be debated, but there are a number of clear advantages that case teaching has when compared to other formats.

Real life

First and foremost, case teaching is a way of transporting the student from a classroom to a quasi-real-life situation. By placing students in a real-life scenario (be it an authentic management problem or a fictional case that represents an amalgamation of real firm problems), cases are an opportunity to move out of the classroom and closer to the problems that “would-be practitioners” will confront.

Relevance

Case problems and case teaching can add a degree of relevance and authenticity to your teaching. By providing real-life problems faced by business practitioners, the students are able to envision the career decisions and management challenges they might face. Learning about how managers are given information and the way in which they must analyze data and make decisions provides an opportunity for students to visualize and understand “the real world.” Cases allow for the students to begin understanding the pressures, challenges and trade-offs that managers must make as they attempt to ply their trade.

Active learning

Case teaching transports the educational experience from passive to active learners. In a typical classroom setting, students passively receive the message of the lecturer. While good teachers are able to craft their messages to connect with the student’s internal mental dialogue, the process does not offer a great opportunity for the customized learning that comes with interactive participation. Students are merely recipients of these well-crafted messages. Similarly, when reading books and course materials, there is often an intention on the student’s part to memorize the same rather than actively apply the concepts to the problem at hand. The case setting, whether it is a class discussion or an assignment, demands that the students actively participate in solving a problem.¹

More and more fields are starting to recognize the benefits of specifically case teaching, and more broadly active learning. Indeed, even those instructing in the sciences have been questioning the value of the sage on the stage, or a stand and deliver method of delivering. Often with massive lecture halls and inattentive audiences, the sciences have begun to find that there are tremendous benefits in these pedagogies (see Box Story 1).

Recognition and problem solving skills

As students put forth solutions to case problems, they begin to learn how to break complex issues into solvable problems. In speaking with one of the Harvard case teaching trainers, he was adamant that by the time a student is finished analyzing 100 or so cases in their MBA programme, they should be better at spotting problems, and finding potential levers and supporting arguments to solve them.

Decision making

One of the most sought after skills among employers is finding graduates that can “make decisions.” Indeed, a 2008 Mercer study reports that decision-making ability is “a top three reason why firms hire.” The case study method of teaching represents an ideal opportunity to force the students to make decisions. The presentation and teaching of a case itself demands a reasonable solution from the students. Thus they must make decisions as to what is the appropriate course of action to solve the problem at hand.

Awareness of the ethical perils of decisions

Voicing one’s solutions and the steps that one might take to achieve them provides students with an opportunity to have their decisions and solutions critiqued by their peers. This can reduce the potential of unethical decision-making, or even decisions that extend beyond the norms of society. Faculty teaching controversial topics such as human genetics have extolled the virtues of teaching analytic skills through the case method.² Having 50 or 100 peers comment on your approach in a classroom is greatly preferred to unleashing would-be decision makers into their trade only to find that they have not been trained to consider the ethical challenges or social norms that will be applied.

Informal presentation skills

One of the greatest, but least recognized, benefits of the case method is the ability to learn informal presentation skills. The inquisitive teaching method helps students to answer spontaneous questions in front of an audience. Over time, the student’s inhibition to answer questions in front of others declines. Their confidence to present their thoughts and accompanying reasons improves, and this creates a very different graduate, comfortable in participating and sharing.

A Personal Insight

I began my teaching career in the West and I was accustomed to primarily American students that would gladly contribute their thoughts (sometimes with little preparation) in class discussions. I also noticed that the East Asian and South East Asian students did not readily offer their insights. As I began working in ASEAN, I found that this lack of contribution to the discussion was actually limiting the graduate’s career progression. Despite being capable, talented and well trained, these students were not progressing in the multinational (MNC) workplace. Managers need human talent that can follow directions, make decisions, and most of all, contribute to the management, strategy and direction of the organization when called upon. That is, they want people that can stand up and share their thoughts, and in a group-discussion, add to the insights. This disclosure and contribution to the planning and execution of work is taken by managers to be a sign of employees that are committed and taking responsibility. Conversely, students that are unwilling to share are often suspected of being uncommitted, unprepared or worse yet incapable.

This lack of career progression and skills gap was a primary driver in the establishment of Singapore Management University, and promoting the use of the case methodology in the classroom.

Tan Chin Tiong, Ph.D., founding Provost, and Professor of Marketing at Singapore Management University explained,

We sought to create a different student. We wanted to produce graduates that were comfortable contributing in meetings and offering their experience, wisdom and insights. The case methodology was a key ingredient in creating this personality among our graduates. Sharing their views in the classroom for several years prepares them for the management meetings that they will encounter as they leave this university. We find that employers constantly come back to the university staff and say, “your students are different! We like them, they have a can-do spirit that is hard for us to find.” Frankly, the case method is a big part of what helps our students to feel confident in sharing and stepping up.

In my own teaching career, I have noticed the dramatic evolution in soft-skills among students at case-based universities. Knowing how to add to class discussion, while often having to go beyond or be critical of their peers, is an important management skill. Being able to contribute, add to, or disagree with others in a public setting is a talent that helps graduates learn, improvise and contribute in the workplace. In direct comparison, students that sit in the back of a lecture hall watching the back of another student’s head generally struggle with how to challenge other’s thoughts, or add to the discussion without appearing rude. Having to exhibit logic, in a polite, spontaneous and diplomatic manner is in large part a key to a successful career.

Additionally, as students participate in class discussion and listen to their peers make contributions, they become better thinkers and better communicators. When other students get a better answer and get it quicker, their classmates are forced to ask the internal questions of: “How did they get that answer? And what did they do or know that I don’t?” As the instructor drills down on the student’s logic, assumptions and instincts, the others learn new and different arguments and problem solving skills. This open and free discussion is essential in breaking down the students’ preconceived notions of how to solve problems and teaches them more, different, and potentially better problem solving skills. This point cannot be understated, as many of the jobs our students will work at in 10 years have not yet been created. We need to prepare problemsolvers for all seasons.

But, not all students offer good answers. As a matter of fact, students can often provide very poor solutions with weak arguments that often seem disconnected from the problem at hand. Students watching and listening to this discussion and the way that the instructor deals with these answers can help students to be better communicators. That is, they often observe that their high achieving peers can easily misunderstand seemingly obvious content and fall into logic traps that were not obvious to others. This helps students that experience the case method to understand where questions and logic can go astray or “off the rails.” Witnessing such classroom tragedies helps make students better communicators as they begin to understand how simple concepts can be misunderstood by even the brightest of colleagues.

From the previous discussion, it would appear that the merits of case teaching seem to be strong and apparent. Indeed, in a study conducted in 2006 by the US-based National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science, a sample of 101 faculty were asked why instructors for the case method should use the case method for their students, and they replied in much the same manner as what we see above.³

In classes using the case study method, students:

a)Demonstrate stronger critical thinking skills (88.8%)

b)Make connections across multiple content areas (82.6%)

c)Develop a deeper understanding of concepts (90.1%)

d)Are better able to view an issue from multiple perspectives (91.3%)

e)Take a more active part in class (95.1%)

f)Are more engaged (93.8%)

g)Develop positive peer-to-peer relationships (80.1)

The Perils of Teaching with Cases?

While these first seven questions paint quite a rosy picture thus far, it should be noted that faculty also reported:

h)Students evaluate my teaching more positively: 45%

Despite all of the potential benefits, it seems that there is no strong student evaluation-based reason for adopting the case method. Indeed, slightly more than half of the instructors believe that their course is not evaluated more favorably.

Why is this? Do students not see the benefits of case teaching? Several answers come to mind. In my 25 years of teaching, I have noted that students most often make the following five complaints.

1)“I don’t know how to prepare for class”.
Being prepared for a class discussion takes time and effort. Unlike browsing through a chapter or handout and then waiting for the professor to lecture, case participants must be ready to answer questions — often in a lightning fast manner. In a casebased class, students spend a great deal of time outside of their comfort zone. They can no longer sit in the classroom, watching their faculty bring their greatest thoughts, energy and passion to the stage. Instead, they have to now supply their logic, insights and theoretical understanding of the facts and environment. It is quite obvious what would be easier for all students.

2)“Others monopolize the discussion.” Or equally likely, “I am shy and don’t want to talk.”
The case teacher must be aware that there is a democracy in the classroom and all of the students need to participate. One of the skills we will work on in this book is how to get the shy and the reticent to contribute. Another skill to be addressed is how to limit the over-zealous. That is, those that often hijack a good discussion and turn it into a dialogue that freezes others out.

3)“Some people just say anything. It is often stupid and irrelevant.”
Your job and skill as an instructor will not only be to get students to talk, but to ensure there are standards set for the quality of content and level of contribution which will be allowed into your discussion.

4)“I find it hard to follow along. I can’t always hear what others are saying in the front the class.”
Indeed student have to pay attention to what their peers are saying. It is important that the professor finds a way to make the class clear and understandable to...