A Theoretical Perspective on the Case Study Method

Abstract

Ensuring that students reach the determined goals of the courses at the desired level is one of the primary goals of teaching. In order to achieve this purpose, educators use a variety of teaching strategies and methods, and teaching materials appropriate to the content and the subject of the courses in the teaching process. As a matter of fact, it is known that the methods and materials that appeal to different sense organs of the students influence the learning process positively. In addition, the use of various teaching methods, techniques and materials in the teaching process both attract students’ attention and save the lesson from boredom, which affects the learning positively. In the process of teaching students sometimes have problems using their theoretical knowledge in real life situations. In this context, various teaching methods are also used for the practicalization of theoretical knowledge in the teaching processes. The case study method is one of the effective methods to achieve this purpose, because the case study method is a teaching method that enables students to acquire the knowledge and skills to deal with the problem they are working on and to produce information-based solutions in real life situations similar to the situations they are working with. In this study, the literature related to the case study method was examined and the application of the method, its history, application types, points to be considered in the application process, advantages of using the method in the teaching process and its limitations and teaching techniques to be used with the method are explained.