Case Study for Reading

CASE STUDY FOR READING

A.    What is Case Study?

A teacher who wants to involve students’ problem solving, can choose case study to be applied in the classroom. While the curricula at business, law, and medical schools have for many years been based on the analysis of real world cases, professors in a variety of disciplines have been finding that an occasional case study can help them assess students’ ability to synthesize, evaluate, and apply information and concepts learned in lectures and texts. Cases can help us organize and bring to life abstract and disparate concepts by forcing students to make difficult decisions about complex human dilemmas.

The term ‘case study’ covers a wide range of problems posed for analysis, but most types include several key elements. Most cases are either based on real events, or are a construction of events which could reasonably take place. They tell a story, one involving issues or conflicts which need to be resolved, though most case studies do not have one obvious or clear solution. The information contained in a case study might be complex (including charts, graphs, and relevant historical background materials) or simple, a human story that illustrates a difficult situation requiring a decision. Traditional case studies in fields such as economics, public policy, or international affairs can contain detailed historical information, including statistical data, relevant, legal or governmental policy, and the arguments by various agencies for actions to be taken. But case studies are increasingly being written from a more personal perspective, involving real characters in actual situations.

As with other teaching methods, the effective use of case studies requires instructors to determine the specific goals they hope to accomplish. In general terms, cases can assess the application of concepts to complex real world situations, including building analytic skills that distinguish high priority from low priority elements. Working in groups on cases also helps students develop interpersonal skills and the capacity to work in a team, goals that some instructors rate highly and evaluate. Cases also help students make connections between what they might otherwise consider to be separate disciplines, for example, they see the need to draw upon principles in economics, environmental studies, and ethics to solve a problem in urban planning, or the need to use historical, philosophical, etc.

B.     Steps in Solving the Case Study in Reading

Case study as a learning technique can be applied in reading. The crucial thing is the text must have a case to be solved. For those, using case study must be suitable with the kind of the text will be studied.

Analysis should include these sequential steps:

1.      Reading of the facts surrounding the case on the text.

2.      Identification of the key issues.

3.      Deciding of alternative courses of action that could be taken.

4.      Evaluation of alternative courses of action.

5.      Recommendation of the best course of action.

C.    Advantages and Disadvantages of Case Study for Reading

Each learning technique has the weakness and strengthens in applying. Both of them must be considered before the technique will be applied in the classroom. Here are some advantages and disadvantages of Case Study for reading.

Advantages:

1. Develop problem solving skills.
2. Enhance the listening/cooperative learning skills.
3. Raise the level of critical thinking skills (application/synthesis/evaluation, not recall.)
4. Build partnership/collegiality among learners and teacher.
5. Facilitate the social learning process of learning judgment.

Disadvantages:

1.      It is impossible to know all ideas in the class.

2.      Sometimes, students think that their idea is the best alternative.

3.      The students who do not have more knowledge cannot say anything to give the alternatives.

4.      Only active students can express their idea.

5.      The students are taught to solve the problem only, not to identify the kind of the text further. 

REFERENCES

Walker, Grayson H., 2002. Teaching Resource Centre. The University of Tennessee: Chattanooga.

Winter. 1994. Speaking for Teaching. Stanford University: Stanford University Newsletter for Teaching.