Out-of-the-box thinking is by far the most important development mechanism for every person. In this regard, the main task is to ensure conditions for the formation of students' individuality.
The search for fundamentally new paths is laborious; it requires both time and creativity from the teacher. However, the level of development achieved by the student is the main reward for the teacher. This may be instilling interest in a particular subject, an adequate assessment by students of the limit of their capabilities, reducing the psychological stress experienced in the classroom, improving the quality of the knowledge provided, establishing special trust relationships between the student and teacher. All of the above is achieved through case technology.
Case Technology in Education: General Description
The name of the method under consideration is based on the Latin term "casus". It translates as an unusual, confusing case. According to another version, this name is derived from the English case - a briefcase, a briefcase. Case technology in education is a series of specific training situations that are specially developed on the basis of factual material for further analysis in the framework of training sessions. In the process of considering these situations, students learn teamwork, learn to analyze, make operational management decisions.
The main feature of the method is the process of studying precedents, in other words, practical situations that have occurred in the past.
Existing designations of the technology in question
So, in foreign publications the following method names are found:
- business stories;
- studying the situation;
- case method.
Our publications call this method as follows:
- AKC (analysis of specific situations);
- case method;
- business situations;
- situational tasks (the concept was first introduced by American researchers J. Wilson, J. Atkinson in 2001).
Case technology in education: what is it?
Its essence is to organize the learning process through the application of descriptions of specific situations. Case technology in education involves students understanding the real life situation, the description of which reflects a specific practical problem, and updates the corresponding set of knowledge necessary for assimilation during the resolution of the problem. The problem itself does not have unambiguous solutions. In the case, actions are either presented in the description, which subsequently need to be interpreted (effectiveness, consequences), or they are proposed as a way to resolve problems. However, for any outcome, the development of a model of concrete practical action always seems to be an effective means of educating students' professional qualities .
Case technology in education is a tool that allows you to apply existing theoretical knowledge to solve practical problems. This method makes it possible to develop students' independence of thinking, the ability to listen, and then take into account an alternative point of view and sound their argument reasonably. Through case technology, students have the opportunity to both demonstrate and improve their assessment, analytical skills, as well as learn teamwork and the search for rational solutions to existing problems.
What gives such a method?
As an interactive method, case technology in education causes mainly positive emotions on the part of students, providing them with the opportunity to master theoretical knowledge and master practical skills. It influences the professionalization of students, contributing to their maturation, the formation of interest, positive motivation for learning. At the same time, case technology in education (the definition was presented earlier) also acts as a teacher’s way of thinking. We can say that this is his specific paradigm, which allows you to think, act differently, and update your existing creative potential.
Requirements for a Good Case
Case technology in education - an example borrowed from real business, is an information process that makes it possible to comprehend the current situation. It is generally accepted that a case must satisfy a number of requirements:
- meet the clearly stated purpose of creation;
- illustrate a number of aspects of economic life;
- be relevant;
- contribute to the development of analytical thinking;
- have different variations of the solution;
- have an appropriate level of difficulty;
- Do not become obsolete at a fast pace;
- display typical situations;
- lead to discussion.
The essence of training through the method in question is to offer each student his own options based on his knowledge base and practical experience, intuition. For example, someone will consider the change in the marital status of the head of the company an insignificant detail, while the other, guided by his experience, will consider this fact decisive.
Distinctive features of the method under consideration
It is known that there are six of them:
- Collective development of rational decisions.
- Having a common goal.
- The presence of students' controlled emotional stress.
- The presence of a model of a socio-economic system, whose condition is considered in a certain discrete time period.
- Multivariance of solutions (a single solution is fundamentally absent).
- The presence of a collective performance assessment system.
Technological features of the method under consideration
There are also six of them:
- Case technology in higher education is a specific type of research technology (analytical).
- The method under consideration acts as a technology for collective learning, its most important components are group work and mutual information exchange.
- It can be seen as a synergistic technology whose essence is the preparation of procedures for immersing the entire group in a specific situation, the formation of the effects of enhancing knowledge, sharing discoveries, insightful insight, and so on.
- Case technology in education (the English version of the method name was mentioned earlier) integrates a number of developmental learning technologies , including group, collective, individual development procedures and the formation of comprehensive personal qualities of students.
- It acts as a specific kind of design technology. Unlike its simple form, within the framework of the method under consideration, a problem is formed along with ways to solve it on the basis of a case, which serves both as a technical task and an information source in order to realize alternative options for the most effective actions.
- This method concentrates the significant achievements of such technology as “creating success”. It provides activities aimed at activating students, emphasizing their achievements, stimulating the success of students. Achieving success directly is one of the dominant forces of the method, as well as the formation of sustainable positive motivation, the buildup of cognitive activity.
Technology under consideration in elementary school
Case technology in education (in elementary school, for example) is the generalized name for teaching technologies, which are methods for analyzing situations. It involves a significant individualization of the entire educational process based on an active position on the part of students in the framework of training.
So, the principle of technology is to draw up an individual plan at the very beginning of training, provide each student with a case that contains a package of rules, training cards, recommendations for familiarizing with the training material, as well as control questions, tests for self-testing, creative, practical tasks. In the course of studying the material, the student may seek the advice of a teacher.
The so-called quests (game form of the task) are being developed in order to maximize the integration of the Internet in various educational subjects. They cover a single problem, topic, academic subject. The result of their work is the preparation of presentations by primary school students.
Quests for quests
They can be in the form of:
- retelling - demonstrations of awareness of the topic studied on the basis of presenting materials collected from various sources in a different form: a story, presentation, poster;
- planning, designing - developing a project or plan based on specified conditions;
- creative assignment - creative work of a particular genre: video clip, poem;
- assessment - justification of a specific point of view;
- different studies - the study of various kinds of phenomena, facts, discoveries based on unique online sources.
Mastering of speech etiquette by preschool children through the method in question
It is worth recalling that speech etiquette is a series of rules of speech behavior that are determined by the relationship of speakers based on the communication environment. It includes: appeal, greeting, acquaintance, drawing attention, request, invitation, refusal, consent, complaint, apology, sympathy, congratulation, disapproval, gratitude, forgiveness, etc.
The formation of his skills is an integral part of the overall work regarding the development of children's speech. The main activity is the enrichment of speech with words, constructions that are necessary in everyday communication. The introduction of a number of etiquette words into the speech of preschoolers enriches the active vocabulary, and fosters attention in the use of these forms, expressions, helps to select the appropriate language tools in a particular situation.
Case technologies in preschool education allow you to form all 3 main components of speech etiquette:
- Mastering the various formulas.
- More detailed their "deployment."
- Accompanying formulas with friendly intonation, friendly facial expressions.
A case study is a case within which a specific situation is described, a problem is formulated, and it is proposed to find a way to solve it. Preschoolers, after familiarizing themselves with the problem, independently analyze the situation, then diagnose the problem, voice ideas, solutions during communication with peers.
Case Technology Methods
There are six of them:
- incident method (independent search for information, its collection, systematization, analysis);
- game design (the process of creating or improving projects: research, search, creative, analytical, prognostic);
- method for parsing business correspondence (work with documents, papers that relate to a specific organization, problem, situation);
- situational role-playing game (creating in the form of a staging of a true historical, legal, socio-psychological situation, followed by an assessment of the actions, behavior of the participants);
- case studies (group analysis of the presented situation, development of different variants of problems, search for their practical solutions, evaluation of the proposed algorithms, selection of the best);
- discussion method (exchange of views in accordance with the rules).