Abstract
Management, a basic course, calls for improvement in its teaching methods. Case teaching is being extensively employed since real management practice is simulated in it. In spite of some existing researches on “how to divide cases in difficulty” and “the objectives of case teaching”, only a few of them are on the relations between the difficulty of case teaching and the reception of teaching objects. We are lacking in studies on class scale, class time allocation and the number of participants in this field, not to mention those on undergraduates. Based on the three-dimensional cubic model of case difficulty, this paper conducts an empirical research on undergraduates in questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews. It is shown in this research that complex cases with multi perspectives involving low difficulty in information collection and analysis are more suitable for students at this stage. In addition, the time allocated for case teaching should be nearly 50% and major and minor cases can be mixed in each chapter. It is also better to have case teaching with a two-class scale.
Highlights
Based on some theories including the three-dimensional cubic model of case difficulty and applying them to some aspects such as class time, case quantity and class scale, this paper conducts an empirical research on undergraduates in questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews
More students tend to choose the pattern in which major and minor cases can be combined in each chapter and about half class time is arranged for case teaching with two classes learning the course together
The following conclusions can be reached based on the above research: In undergraduates’ management teaching, complex cases with multi perspectives and lower difficulty in information collection and analysis are more suitable for students at this stage
Summary
Cases are generally some issues recorded during business operation as well as some relevant facts, advice and suggestions for executives to rely on to make their decisions, which provide some practical circumstances on which students are expected to analyze, discuss and make their decisions. Case teaching, forming cases for students to think, analyze and make decisions by typifying some real situations, helps to improve students’ abilities in analyzing and solving problems by encouraging them to have profound analysis on enterprises’ operation and find out the source of their problems and figure out solutions to them Such participation-oriented method helps to deepen former theoretical teaching, to enhance students’ understanding of knowledge, to exert their thinking capacity, to cultivate students’ creativity and to improve their practical management ability, being widely adopted by many business schools all over the world. Practice seems significant to test students’ grasp of basic knowledge, to detect and make up their shortcomings, to improve their flexible use of knowledge and to prepare them for future management innovation Since these selected cases involve some relatively complete events (especially comprehensive ones) in business operation, great convenience is provided for students to have overall management practice and have their innovative abilities cultivated. From the perspective of students’ cognition of case teaching, we conducted a questionnaire survey with the method of random sampling on the undergraduates learning management in a Beijing university, in which 100 questionnaires were distributed, 92 were returned (the recorery rate of 92%) and 87 were valid (the validity rate of 87%)
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