Case studies are often part of training courses leading to a professional qualification. They bring the knowledge taught closer to the situations in which students may have to apply it. Many of these situations may pose technical or ethical problems, for which all skills and resources must be called upon to find a satisfactory solution.
At a more advanced level, they are aimed at analyzing situations for which there are no standard answers, and which may vary according to a number of considerations: those of the practitioner, the customer, the company, society, the environment, and so on. This gives us the opportunity to discuss possible choices, weigh up the value of points of view and the relevance of arguments. In a training program where interpersonal skills count, the case study brings that extra touch of human complexity rarely considered in theories.
Compared to simple exercises, case studies provide a strong context, a context that then shapes decisions. Urgency, emotions, confusion, unforeseen events, scarcity or excess, contradictions, consequences, feedback... these elements enrich the material to be analyzed and give a good idea of the level of excellence expected of the professional. In the field, we don't often have the luxury of time and calm; the case study offers the opportunity to prepare in advance.
Famous cases exist in almost every discipline, from finance to mathematics, from medicine to philosophy, from law to business, from agriculture to engineering... Here's the context, here are the issues, here are the choices. This is what happened. What would you have done and why? What could have been done, and why not? You may be led to understand the order of priorities in complex and unpredictable situations.
Case studies are a powerful pedagogical tool. Their use in the classroom is a great case to analyze, as some of you have done.
Enjoy your reading.
Denys Lamontagne - [email protected]
