Philosophical underpinnings first, both stake 1995 and yin 2003 base their approach to case study on a constructivist paradigm. A case study is a story about something unique, special, or interestingstories can be about individuals, organizations, processes, programs, neighborhoods, institutions, and even events. In that respect the case study could be said to be a metamethod. The first one is a study case and the second one is the case. The case study method often involves simply observing what happens to, or reconstructing the case history of a single participant or group of individuals such as a school class or a specific social group, i.
Case method is also effective at developing real world, professional skills. A case study helps in bringing the understanding of a complex issue or object. A case study is a particular method of qualitative research. Working on case studies requires good organizational and time management skills. The main mission of school as institution is to help students to develop capabilities in order to be become a responsible and independent member of a society, a member that works and earns money for a decent life. The case study is a form of empirical inquiry that enables the indepth examination of a. On average, youll attend three to four different classes a day, for a total of about six hours of class time schedules vary. Pdf the case study as a type of qualitative research.
The case study method is a very popular form of qualitative analysis and involves a careful and complete observation of a social unit, be that unit a person, a family, an institution, a cultural group or even the entire community. These tasks include designing a case study, collecting the study s data, ana lyzing the data, and presenting and reporting the results. May 01, 2015 although case studies were considered a novel method of science education just 20 years ago, the case study teaching method has gained popularity in recent years among an array of scientific disciplines such as biology, chemistry, nursing, and psychology 57, 9, 11, 1517, 21, 22, 24. These include the design and categories of case studies and how their robustness can be achieved. Recommendations for using the case study method in. The case study has been especially used in social science, psychology, anthropology and ecology. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the current research program by. Although case study methods remain a controversial approach to data collection, they are widely recognised in many social science studies especially when. Generalizing from case study to theory the appropriately developed theory is also at the level at which generalization of the case study results will occur theory for case studies is characterized as analytic generalization and is contrasted with another way of generalizing results known as statistical generalization. A definition of the case study is presented in section 1.
Findings there are different types of case studies and their impact on teaching and learning is significant. Though they are used extensively, there appears to be no accepted systematic case study method used by design researchers. Teaching by the case method christensen center for teaching. Case studies involve analysis of small data sets, such as one or two. It means there is no sampling in case study method. It is the investigation and exploration of an event thoroughly and deeply. The case method in legal education was invented by christopher columbus langdell, dean of harvard law school from 1870 to 1895. Case studies also allow one to present data collected from multiple methods i. Stake asserts that the cases are grouped and viewed as one entity, called the quintain. A case study is a research approach that is used to gen.
Case studies and their impact on teaching and learning. Case study research, through reports of past studies, allows the exploration and understanding of complex issues. Case study method has the strengths and weaknesses of both forms of inquiry. Case study method enables a researcher to closely examine the data within a specific context. Pdf the case study approach allows indepth, multifaceted explorations of complex issues in their reallife settings. To prepare, youll work through problems with your peers. It is easy to get confused between the case study method and the case method, particularly as it applies to legal education. Case study research forum qualitative sozialforschung forum. Unlike lectures, case method classes unfold without a detailed script.
This study mainly focuses on ib and case study research literature, but some ideas from management, logistics, and marketing are also included. Case study method is responsible for intensive study of a unit. Some scientists disregard the study completely and argue that its nothing more than storytelling, while others claim that the case study is the most relevant research method there is. It also explores on the advantages and disadvantages of case study as a research method. Pdf the case study as a type of qualitative research researchgate. Case study teaching method improves student performance and. The case study method embraces the full set of procedures needed to do case study research. This incorrectly confuses the case study method with a specific method of data collection, such as ethnography or participant observation. The case study research method originated in clinical medicine the case history, i. Aug 24, 2018 the case study method requires a small sample size for it to yield an effective amount of data to be analyzed.
This method of study is especially useful for trying to test theoretical models by. Case studies are used in design research to analyze a phenomenon, to generate hypotheses, and to validate a method. Thats why college students who take classes in those sciences are often assigned to write case studies. Robertson a, cresswell k, takian a, petrakaki d, crowe s, cornford t, et al. The case study method is a popular research method that is particularly appealing for applied disciplines since processes, problems, andor programs can be studied to engender understanding that can improve practice.
Rather than using large samples and following a rigid protocol to examine a limited number of variables, case study methods involve an indepth, longitudinal examination of a single instance or event. I provide a clearer sense of what is meant by a case. Simply put, the case method is a discussion of reallife situations that business executives have faced. Case method increases student proficiency with written and oral communication, as well as collaboration and teamwork. The case study as a scientific method is, and has been for a long time, a subject of heavy discussion in the scientific community. Case studies are indepth investigations of a single person, group, event or community. When to use a crosscase study instead of a case study. It studies a social unit in its entire perspectives. Case study research design how to conduct a case study. Chris christensen described case method teaching as the art of managing uncertaintya process in which the instructor serves as planner, host, moderator, devils advocate, fellowstudent, and judge, all in search of solutions to realworld problems and challenges. Teaching methods for case studies ryerson university. As brooks holifield has pointed out, harvard law school began substituting case studies for classroom lectures as earl i871. The case study approach allows indepth, multifaceted explorations of complex. The idea of representative sampling and statistical generalizations to a.
You could even do a high level case study without leaving the telephone or the internet. The case study research design have evolved over the past few years as a useful tool for investigating trends and specific situations in many scientific disciplines. I do so by dealing with four topics that i think are fundamental to appreciating it. A preliminary benchmark study suggests that case study method is a suitable method for conducting design research. The primary advantage of a case study is that it provides much more detailed information than what is available through other methods, such as surveys. In most cases, a case study method selects a small geographical.
It is valuable in analyzing continuously the life of a social unit to dig out the. If there are different demographics involved with the entity, or there are different needs which must be examined, then the case study method becomes very inefficient. Case study methodology is very popular as a research method in different fields of science. It is a method of study in depth rather than breadth. Besides discussing case study design, data collection, and analysis, the refresher addresses several key features of case study research.
Finally, several opportunities for increasing the contribution of case studies are brought out. Aug 01, 2018 a case study is research method that involves an upclose, indepth and detailed investigation of a subject of study and its related contextual position. Using interpretive qualitative case studies for exploratory. Case study is a research methodology, typically seen in social and life sciences. Students learn more from a living case study, but the scientific results are not always the entire truth. According to flyvbjerg 2006 a case study is a contextdependent, in. Whether its results can be generalised in other contexts remains an open question. Case study research allows the researcher to look at the phenomenon in context. Law, business, medicine, engineering, and public policy yin, 1976, 1993, 1994. How to write a methodology section for case study your. The case study approach bmc medical research methodology. The popular point of view that a case study is characterised by a holistic approach is explained and discussed in section 1. The case study method did not begin with anton boisen.
Typically, data are gathered from a variety of sources and by using several different methods e. A case study is usually a study of a single case or a small number of cases. Case studies are a form of inquiry that does not depend solely on ethnographic or participant observer data. My purpose here is to help develop such an understanding of the case method. Describing the case study approach and how it is used as a research method. Furthermore, when describing the steps undertaken while using a case study approach, this method of research allows the researcher to take a complex and broad topic, or phenom enon, and narrow it down into a manageable research questions. Three approaches to case study methods in education. The case study is not itself a research method, but researchers select methods of data collection and analysis that will generate material suitable for case studies. Donnelly and wiechula 2012 also ascertains that data collection in a case study can be performed in a number of ways. The traditional case study is out dated, but the new more enhanced one, based on a real company is not as reliable. Case study method in research methodology in research. The case study method and a definition the case study method has long been utilized in various professions and fields as an established method of education and research1.