Cases
Weissman Center Case Method Resources
Case Study: The standard definition of a case study follows. CST case studies will be modified versions of this definition. In addition to playing the roles of those involved in a case, we will also be putting on our critical hats and analyzing the thought process involved in reading, understanding, analyzing, and critiquing a case study. We will also rely on a great deal of imagination.
"A case is a story. Cases recount-as objectively and meticulously as possible-real (or realistic) events or problems so that students experience the complexities, ambiguities, and uncertainties confronted by the original participants in the case (be foreign policy decision-makers, medical doctors, or government officials). As they "inhabit" a case, students must tease out key components from the real messiness of the contradictory and complicated information. Cases compel students to:
-distinguish pertinent
from peripheral information,
-identify the problem(s) at hand and define its context and parameters,
-identify a set of possible solutions,
-formulate strategies and recommendations for action, and
-make decisions and confront obstacles to implementation.
A retrospective or narrative case presents a comprehensive history of a problem-complete with multiple actors, contending interests, and the real outcome; students identify alternative options and analyze why this outcome resulted, when other-possibly "better" resolutions-existed. A decision-forcing case stops short of revealing the outcome, thus forcing students to identify and assess the range of possible options for action. Typically, these cases have an "Epilogue," which tells "the rest of the story"; again, students analyze why this was what happened.
Case formats vary. They can be formal written cases, a lead newspaper article, a movie clip, a radio/TV news story, a picture, a mathematical word problem, a piece of art. Whatever the format, cases:
-illustrate issues and
factors typical of the kind of problem under examination,
-reflect theoretical frameworks,
-underscore prevailing disciplinary assumptions and principals, and
-reveal realistic complexities and tensions.
From: Vicki Golich, Workbook on Case Teaching for Mount Holyoke College Case Method Project Faculty Development Workshop. South Hadley, MA May 30-June 2, 2000