Teaching cases are based on empirical research. Most of the “remembered” organizational stories are relevant. For the teacher, the starting point is usually the identification of educational goals and the choice of a topic within their discipline program. The teaching case is usually made up of three central blocks plus teaching notes. The first part presents a historical context by introducing the characters, the location and the overall situation of the problem. The second block develops the narrative of the history of the organisation and the description of the context and the situation. The third part introduces the problem, which establishes a cutoff for the beginning of an argumentation and discussion activities. The teaching notes serve to guide and direct alternative case analysis, discussion questions and recommended literature for the reasoning.
The reading and discussion of a teaching case brings the reader to remind similar events that happened to him in the past (cognitive domain), which are normally accompanied by personal memory feelings (affective domain). Such context allows the opportunity to use endogenous educational situations, through data written in a Brazilian perspective, to specifically cognitive abilities, such as: i) problem analysis; ii) reasoning organizational aspects, and; iii) analyzing and reviewing the literature on the basis of the evidence presented in the case of education. From an emotional standpoint, it enhances the student’s ability to: i) question the decisions; ii) communicate ideas to the group; iii) argue and persuade about the position of the different characters, and; iv) accept the point of view of the other participants during the discussion.
The traditional teaching methods, mainly based on lectures, are not infrequently criticized for neglecting the pragmatic training and development of the experimental spirit among students 1. A teaching case facilitates the development of student skills since it uses situations that require analysis or management decision, within a specific context, without risk in a classroom. It is expected to lead to the development of analytical reasoning skills, examination and evaluation of data, problem solving and decision making, among other objectives 2. Therefore the skills reached by the student by learning through case study is to present alternative solutions to the initial questions, by building and adapting descriptions, elements, and situations encountered in macro and micro environment, and by taking into consideration the local conditions.
In Brazil, truly national and endogenous teaching cases are still at an incipient stage of development, and are done by very few research groups. But it is growing and the key to this growth factor was the implementation of Workshop Case for Teaching Administration who was created in 2007 from the idea of preparing students in Masters of Science programs, such as COPPEAD, from Rio de Janeiro, and the Graduate Program of Administration of the University of Caxias do Sul, Brazil.
This course came from a regional necessity, aligning theory and practice, and is embedded within the Department of Business and Operations Management (Master and Doctorate Degrees in Administration). Moreover, was initiated in 2006 under coordination of Prof. Dr. Eric Charles Henri Dorion and the responsibility of Prof. Dr. Pelayo Munhoz Olea and the collaboration of Professor Dr. Sylvia Maria Azevedo Roesch.
The proposed method has formed more than 150 students in the MSc program and 40 PhD students; producing more than 90 Brazilian cases for teaching in management that currently make up the cases data bank of the Program. More than 10% of them have been published in Indexed Journals, International Journals, the Brazilian WebQualis system or some scientific Conferences abroad. As a result, one of the most important Brazilian Scientific Journal - Revista de Administração Contemporânea – which covers the area of business administration, presented a paper from the research group on a bibliometric analysis for the period 2007-2011, where it evaluated the number of articles published in the National Association of Graduate Studies and Research in Administration (EnANPAD) 3.
In 2007, the National Association for Research in Administration (ANPAD) accepted its first teaching cases on the conference program (EnANPAD proceedings). At that time, the cases represented 2.5% of all accepted papers for presentation and subsequent publication in the proceedings of the event. At the EnANPAD Conference of 2008, the volume fell to 1.8% of the total number of presented articles and worsened in 2009, with a decrease to 1.5%. Since then, the number of cases still is incipient, compared to the total number of article, with only 1% in 2011.
With regard to the authors of the published cases, more than 230 academics signed the 107 cases produced, and 35 have authors have produced and published more than one case. The main two group of research that lead such activity in Brazil are the COPPEAD Institute of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the Graduate Program of Administration of the University of Caxias do Sul, which incentivizes the development and publication of cases for teaching.
See 4, 5 also corroborate the importance of developing teaching cases with focus on Brazilian companies for Brazilian teachers; to have at their disposal cases that portray the reality of their students, since one of the main criticisms directed to the case teaching method is precisely that the scenario depicted in the cases does not correspond to a Brazilian reality.
The importance of teaching about the national situation through case teaching transcends elements of relevant teaching and learning. Since the concept of teaching - learning is taking importance in Brazilian schools, the act of teaching through “teaching cases” promotes “science put into practice” by a method of rediscovery, which enhances questioning for alternative responses, experiments that allow a real transformation of the student that goes beyond formation 6, 7. With these assumptions, the courses that bring a practical-local concept serve different functions for different conceptions of the role of education and the way of learning.
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