This chapter contribution has three major aims: First, to present a benchmark of current practices of teaching with case studies in order to inform fellow scholars, who are generally interested in this particular pedagogical approach and to help those readers, who already apply case studies in their academic teaching or vocational trainings within business and management sciences. Second, to provide some help to fellow case teachers by describing concrete examples, to offer a benchmark, and to formulate advices relevant to case-based teaching. Certain sections make explicit reference to particularities or interesting trends of case-based teaching practices which are different in the CEE region and in other emerging markets. Third, to outline a new, emerging trend of participant-centered learning methods, that of serious games as a tool for leadership and management development.
TopIntroduction
All styles of teaching are legitimate, except the boring one. (Zoltan Buzady)
“I wanted nothing else than to make the object as perfect as possible”, once said Erno Rubik, a Hungarian professor of architecture and inventor of the Rubik’s Cube (see Figure 1), better known as the Magic Cube in some countries. In the toy industry this cube, a puzzle, is known as the world's best-selling toy, owing to its magic, its simplicity and its complexity:
It has been calculated that there are 43,252,003,270,489,856,000 - approximately 43 quintillion permutations - that can be performed simply by turning the sides of the cube. Thus, solving the cube is a complex challenge and has become a competition. Solving the puzzle seems simple. One only needs to align six colored surfaces on merely three dimensions. But the system’s interaction makes this a particularly difficult.
These characteristics - three dimensions and their interactions, a challenge in itself to resolve, the patience to practice and an ability to manage complexity - make the cube a suitable object of analogy in teaching case studies. The elements conducive to successful case teaching can also be clustered into three major dimensions or levels (see Figure 2):
Figure 2. The 3 dimension of the ‘Rubik’s cube of case teaching’ analogy
- 1.
The dimension closely related to students/participants;
- 2.
The issues related to the case teacher and the subject course, and
- 3.
The level of the broader organization together with its extensive socio-economic-technological eco-system of education.
Just as the cube was a work of a pioneer in a field of its own and has since evolved into many new forms and shapes, including online versions, so has the case-based teaching method undergone considerable evolution.
This chapter contribution has three major aims:
First, to present a benchmark of current practices of teaching using case studies to inform fellow scholars who are generally interested in this particular pedagogical approach and to help those readers who already apply case studies in their academic teaching or vocational trainings within business and management sciences.
Second, to provide help to fellow case teachers by describing concrete examples, to offer a benchmark, and to formulate advice relevant to case-based teaching. We will make explicit references to particularities or interesting trends of case-based teaching practices which are different in the CEE region and in other emerging markets only in certain sections. A collection of materials and tools related to case study teaching can be requested from the chapter author (buzadyz@business.ceu.edu)
Third, to outline a new, emerging trend of participant-centered learning methods, namely that of serious games as a tool for leadership and management development.
The bases for this contribution are the professional achievements of the author as much as the internationally renowned status, the formal accreditation and good reputation of his current home institution, the Central European University Business School, located in Budapest, Hungary, a leader of innovative management and business education in CEE and beyond.