As a unique teaching method, case teaching has a specific application background, applicable objects, operation process and evaluation system. These characteristics enable it to exist as a special method in the teaching method system, and also determine its connection and difference with other teaching methods. Only by comparison can we identify, and only by identification can we highlight the characteristics of things. The following is a comparative analysis of several teaching modes, methods and case teaching closely related to case teaching, in order to better grasp the connotation of case teaching and use it scientifically.
First, the comparative analysis of case teaching
Before the comparison, we should first define the case teaching. Scholar Zheng Jinzhou thinks: In a broad sense, case teaching method can be defined as a teaching method to guide students to discuss a specific educational situation by describing it. Two scholars, Zhang Yongjun and Jin Yule, believe that the so-called case teaching is a concrete teaching method that organizes students to teach students the ability to analyze and solve problems and deepen their understanding of basic principles and concepts through investigation, reading, thinking, analysis, discussion and exchange of cases under the guidance of teachers and according to the requirements of teaching purposes. American scholar Lawrence e. Jr. Len believes that case teaching method is a set of teaching methods and skills for teachers to help learners achieve specific learning goals in class according to teaching cases.
As can be seen from the above definition, "case", "situation" and "discussion" are the main components of case teaching, which are closely related to example teaching, discussion method, example teaching and situation teaching. Comparing case teaching with these teaching modes and methods can better highlight the connotation of case teaching, thus helping us to better grasp it.
1. Case teaching and example teaching
Example teaching is a common teaching method in traditional teaching. Teachers illustrate, explain and prove ideas, principles or laws by citing specific examples, so that students can better understand and comprehend the teaching content. Whether it is case teaching or case teaching, examples are used to serve certain teaching purposes. However, the examples in example teaching are often limited in content, applied casually and controlled by teachers, mainly as a means to prove their views. In case teaching, examples are the main part of teaching content, and teaching is mainly organized around examples, which are carefully selected, compiled and designed. Teachers should give full play to students' subjectivity through examples and fully carry out activities such as discussion.
From this point of view, if the example teaching is a "battle" from the scope of application, then the case teaching is a "war". From the point of view of operation and implementation, according to the classification of teaching methods by Japanese scholar Masao Sato, example teaching belongs to prompt teaching method and has typical characteristics of accepting learning. Case teaching has the characteristics of both problem-solving teaching method and autonomous teaching method, which is helpful to cultivate students' good learning attitude and independent personality.
2. Case teaching and discussion method
In the classification system of teaching methods in China, discussion is a traditional teaching method. Under the guidance of teachers, students express their opinions around the central issues of textbooks in the whole class or group, and acquire and consolidate knowledge through discussion or debate. Judging from the activities of teachers and students, discussion and case teaching have both commonness and particularity. As a "universal" discussion method, its function is to form an understanding of some problems through oral dialogue, exchange of ideas and collision of views between teachers and students, and to put forward specific methods to solve them. In the real and concrete communication process, cultivate students' questioning spirit, bold exploration and cooperative attitude, and form a good learning mentality and independent personality. Specific to different courses and teaching contents, the discussion method can evolve into many specific forms. As a "special case", case teaching is one of them, which is the concrete application and enrichment of discussion method.
The concrete enrichment of case teaching to discussion method is mainly manifested in the following three aspects: First, cases with detailed contents and specific problems provide an open space for discussion. Second, case teaching with the main purpose of analyzing and solving problems makes the discussion more strategic and intelligent. Thirdly, the open and whole-process discussion form of case teaching enables students to have more and wider opportunities for communication and discussion.
3. Case teaching and example teaching
Example teaching, also known as "demonstration teaching", is a teaching genre that originated in Germany. It means that students can master the regular knowledge and ability from individual to general with the help of the demonstration materials in the selected materials. Example teaching advocates "the unity of problem-solving learning and systematic learning", "the unity of mastering knowledge and cultivating ability" and "the unity of subject and object"
From the perspective of teaching philosophy, both example teaching and case teaching emphasize the realization of students' active learning through example teaching, and the importance of students' good learning attitude and ability to understand, criticize and solve problems. Both of them embody the idea of "Socratic teaching", but there are concrete differences in the operational level of examples. First, the differences in the content of examples. Examples used in example teaching have the characteristics of "fundamentality" and "fundamentality", that is, they teach students the most basic knowledge, basic concepts, knowledge structure and basic discipline laws, and the teaching content is the most basic thing for the educated. The examples in case teaching are mainly problem-oriented, which are essentially about explaining the experience of real life. In other words, case teaching emphasizes guiding students to master category knowledge and its internal logical structure, while case teaching advocates students to seek more uncertain and diverse answers through critical thinking. Second, the differences in the operation methods of examples. Because example teaching pays attention to gradually showing the logical relationship of teaching materials, its example presentation has strict steps and procedures, emphasizing the combination of teachers' inspiration and guidance with students' subjectivity, while case teaching advocates developing cases with vivid examples and real stories, and emphasizes students' self-expression of questioning authority.
4. Case teaching and situational teaching
Judging from the time of appearance, case teaching came into being earlier. Harvard Law School in the United States first used case teaching to carry out pre-service training in the 1970s from 65438 to 2009. Later, other professional fields, such as business, medicine and public administration, gradually applied case teaching to their own teaching and training. Therefore, the emergence of case teaching directly stems from the needs of service professional practice, emphasizing the thinking strategies and skills that students need to solve practical problems. Situational teaching is a teaching mode in the sense of constructivism teaching view. The emergence and development of constructivism teaching concept is a matter of nearly 20 years. Constructivist teaching view attaches great importance to "unstructured knowledge and experience", which refers to non-standard and informal knowledge and experience formed in a specific situation and directly related to a specific situation. Situational teaching, as a mode of constructivist teaching, refers to the creation of situations containing real events or real problems, and students can independently understand knowledge and construct meaning in the process of exploring events or solving problems. The emergence of situational teaching mode has a profound philosophical foundation and scientific psychological foundation, which is helpful to promote the formation of students' good cognitive structure and the construction of ways to understand the world.
From this perspective, case teaching and situational teaching have different backgrounds, but this does not affect the internal relationship between them. The effective application of case teaching with concrete and real cases as the core is a powerful explanation and proof of the scientific principle of situational teaching, and the situational teaching with the characteristics of "learner-centered", "situation-centered" and "problem-centered" provides a powerful theoretical reference and support for the application and development of case teaching.
Second, the re-understanding of the characteristics of case teaching
On the basis of comparison, we need to further understand case teaching and avoid understanding it as a patchwork of several teaching methods or just a simple means. From a technical point of view, the application of any teaching method may be simple, but if cultural traditions, values, educational purposes and other factors are taken into account, any good teaching method may be difficult. Therefore, when implementing case teaching, we must examine it from a more comprehensive and realistic perspective, so as to use and develop it scientifically and reasonably.
1. Case teaching based on democratic discussion
Discussion is the "skeleton" of case teaching, which runs through the whole teaching process. In a sense, discussion will always enliven the classroom atmosphere and arouse students' enthusiasm compared with teaching method, but this is not the case, especially when the whole teaching process is entirely undertaken by discussion. Just like teaching methods, poor use is full of water, and good use is enlightenment teaching. In case teaching, the discussion effect is also a two-sided problem. On the one hand, it may be a negative, passive and controlled discussion, on the other hand, it may be a passionate and democratic discussion.
Discussion essentially embodies a kind of democracy, and discussion and democracy are inseparable because they have the same purpose, that is, to cultivate and promote human development. In this sense, case teaching, which aims at cultivating students' ability to analyze and solve problems, includes the cultivation of democratic consciousness. Democratic discussion means that students can actively express themselves, dare to express their ideas, criticize different viewpoints enthusiastically and rationally, and get along with people with different opinions in a friendly and cooperative way, all of which depend on a free, relaxed and innovative cultural background. It is not enough to realize democratic discussion only through careful preparation in the organization. It is important to remove the obstacles to democratic discussion. These obstacles mainly exist in ideas, concepts and culture, including introverted and implicit cultural character, moderate and conservative national tradition, autocratic institutional norms and so on.
The emergence of teaching methods is based on a certain cultural background. If we introduce a new teaching method without considering cultural differences and blindly copy it, we will certainly fail. The correct attitude should be to use the methods introduced by our own cultural transformation to promote our own cultural transformation. However, we often only pay attention to the former. This is a very important reason why many good teaching methods have changed their taste after introduction and are no longer so effective. Therefore, creating a cultural atmosphere to promote democratic discussion is an important part of effectively implementing case teaching.
2. Case teaching based on real situations.
The most obvious feature of case teaching is that there are concrete, real and vivid cases, and the situations displayed in the cases are the "flesh and blood" of case teaching. Because of this, case teaching is not simple, otherwise case teaching may be simplified to example teaching, and it is not purely intellectual, otherwise case teaching may degenerate into traditional controlled full-house irrigation teaching. Most importantly, the situation presented in the case must be true. Truth means that the case materials must come from social life, which is the actual reflection of real existence and events. A case is to show people an inner story containing typical behaviors, thoughts and feelings in a vivid and concrete narrative way. Only real cases can arouse students' feelings and experiences of real life, stimulate their passion for analyzing and discussing cases, and enable them to develop and enrich their personal cognitive structure and strategy system through active construction activities, so as to finally reach a consensus between their own experience and real life. This is also the proposition of modern teaching philosophy characterized by life, experience and individuality.
If the case is based on pure fiction, no matter how rich the content is, how mysterious the plot is, and how diverse the discussion angles are, once it is put into the specific discussion process, it will show its nothingness and shallowness, which will only make students feel estranged, suspicious and even disgusted. Therefore, it is difficult to hope to use fictional materials to realize the fit between the case and the students' mind, and to promote students to develop sincere and realistic ways to deal with problems and attitudes towards life.
In the specific process of case writing and design, there are still some differences on how to grasp the authenticity of the case, but it is certain that authenticity is the core attribute of the case.
3. Case teaching based on strict procedures.
In terms of teaching philosophy, case teaching is open, which is open to real life and students' minds and hearts, but this does not mean that case teaching is random and loose, and does not need organizational design. On the contrary, in order to ensure the authenticity of the case and win the success of the discussion, case teaching has established a set of specific teaching procedures, including the setting of curriculum objectives, the selection and compilation of cases, the preparation before the discussion between teachers and students, the organization of classroom discussion, the evaluation and feedback of teaching, and so on. Each link has specific requirements and activities, which makes case teaching have its own scope and limits. As far as the course content design of case teaching is concerned, the teaching content in case teaching is not just to embellish a few individual cases, but to fundamentally establish a systematic and comprehensive case course system. In this way, some subjects are suitable for case teaching, while others are not. In other words, case teaching has its applicability. Although it is a good method, it can't be used casually.
refer to
Zheng Jinzhou. Guide to case teaching. Shanghai: East China Normal University Press, July 2000.
[2] Zhang Yongjun, Jin Yule. On the essence and characteristics of case teaching. China Education News, 2004 (1).
[3][ America] Lawrence E, Jr? Lien. Public management case teaching guide. Beijing: Renmin University of China Press, 200 1.3.
[4] Li Jiangang. Modern teaching theory and practice. Jinan: Shandong Education Press, 1993.260.
[5] Zhang Hua. Curriculum and teaching theory. Shanghai Shanghai Education Press 2000.477.
[6][ America] brookfield, Preskill. Discussion teaching method. Beijing: China Light Industry Press, April 2002.
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