Case Studies

It's always great to see groups of students fully immersed in an interesting case, gradually finding the necessary tools to come to the right solution. It's even greater to see them successfully carry over what they learn from that one particular case into other related situations.

Quote from Adamo Petosa, Dawson College

What is it?

A case study is an instructional approach wherein the instructor uses a story or scenario to introduce relevant content. Students use the case to carry out a defined task (e.g., solve a problem, test a theory, identify a pattern, resolve a conflict, etc.). Case studies can be conducted by individuals, groups or the entire class. To be effectives, the case(s) must be of interest to students and relevant to the discipline or field of study. Otherwise, they may fail to make a connection with the material. Furthermore, it is imperative that students learn to apply what they experience in completing the case study to future problems and cases (e.g., they must recognize what can be generalized and applied to other scenarios/cases).

Purpose: Case studies enable instructors to provide their students with realistic and stimulating situations that involve them in real-world analyses and procedures.

Skills Promoted

Inductive reasoning
Analytical reasoning
Problem solving
Knowledge integration

Who's using it?

SALTISE community members who use this strategy and are willing to share advice and/or resources.

Institution	Discipline	Instructor	Classroom settings
McGill University Level: University	Engineering	Lawrence R. Chen	Lecture room Classroom size: 200 View resources used
Dawson College Level: College	Interior Design	Leigh Barnett Shapiro	Active Learning Classroom Classroom size: 15-20 View resources used
Dawson College Level: College	Applied Arts – National Building Code	Leigh Barnett Shapiro	Active Learning Classroom Classroom size: 30-40 View resources used
Dawson College Level: College	Chemistry	Yann Brouillette	Lecture room/Active Learning Classroom Classroom size: 30-40 View resources used
Dawson College Level: College	Chemistry	Adamo R. Petosa	Lecture room/Active Learning Classroom Classroom size: 25-40 View resources used

Institution	McGill University Level: University	Dawson College Level: College	Dawson College Level: College	Dawson College Level: College	Dawson College Level: College
Discipline	Engineering	Interior Design	Applied Arts – National Building Code	Chemistry	Chemistry
Instructor	Lawrence R. Chen	Leigh Barnett Shapiro	Leigh Barnett Shapiro	Yann Brouillette	Adamo R. Petosa
Classroom settings	Lecture room Classroom size: 200 View resources used	Active Learning Classroom Classroom size: 15-20 View resources used	Active Learning Classroom Classroom size: 30-40 View resources used	Lecture room/Active Learning Classroom Classroom size: 30-40 View resources used	Lecture room/Active Learning Classroom Classroom size: 25-40 View resources used

Why use it?

Benefits

An interesting case study truly gets the students speaking/discussing. Throughout the process, students can be seen working together enthousiastically. If the underlying story interests them, they will solve the problem! Furthermore, if peer-review and peer-feedback is built into the case study, students are always interested to see how their group’s findings compare with their peers. Overall, case studies allow the instructor to make things “real” for the students. He/she has an opportunity to be creative and to think up interesting ways to get their students attention. I personally enjoy providing my students with a mystery or rescue scenario to work in.

(Adamo Petosa, Dawson College)

Challenges

The real challenge is ensuring students will be able to apply what they learn in completing the case study to future problems and cases. They must recognize what can be generalized and applied to other scenarios/cases. To facilitate this, the teacher can follow up the case study with strategies that result in the generation of flow charts, heuristics or other tools that help students to solve future problems.

(Adamo Petosa, Dawson College)

Ready to try it out?

A case study generally requires four distinct steps.

STEP 1: The instructor selects and distributes a case study to the students.

STEP 2: Students read the case and identify key components.

STEP 3: In groups, students discuss the case’s key components and lessons learned.

STEP 4: The instructor distributes a new case.

STEP 5: In groups, students try to solve the new case using general principles and lessons learned from the previous problem.

STEP 6 / Additional step(s):

As a class, students discuss their solution(s) to the new problem and similarities/differences from the original case.

Alone, students reflect on their learning and apply lessons learned to a new problem.

Download Flowchart

Helpful resources

Tech Tools

SMART amp: online collaborative platform

References

Herreid, C. F. and Schiller, N. A. (2013). Case studies and the flipped classroom. Journal of College Science Teaching.

Herreid, C. F. (2005). Using case studies to teach Science education: Classroom methodology. American Institute of Biological Sciences, ERIC.

Weinberg, S. L. and Abramowitz, S. K. (2000). Making general principles come alive in the classroom using an active case studies approach. Journal of Statistics Education.

Anderson, E., Schiano, B. and (2014). Teaching with cases: A practical guide.. Harvard Business Review Press.

George A. L. and Bennett, A. (2005). Case studies and theory development in the Social Sciences. MIT Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Video

Teaching by the Case Method -Center for Teaching and Learning, Stanford University

The Case Study Method for Advanced Teacher Education – NAATE Teachers

To Learn More

For more reading resources check out Articles and Books