The Perceptions of Students Outside the United States on Cases versus Lectures

• Main Authors: KESTER, G.W., DEAN, R.A., DING, David K., HOOVER, S.A., SKULLY, M.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2005
• Subjects: Business; Education
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/3603; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/4602/viewcontent/kester.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This paper reports the results of a survey of postgraduate students at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, the University of Melbourne in Australia, Monash University in Australia, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and the National University of Ireland, Galway regarding their perceptions of cases versus lectures. The respondents to our survey to prefer lectures in introductory courses and cases when used to supplement lectures or used in advanced upper level courses. They agree that cases are an effective way to provide them with an organizational context that enhances their understanding of the subject matter and how it relates to and is applied in the “real world.” They were neutral regarding several issues related to grading classroom participation. The results of the surveys are generally consistent among the five universities surveyed and quite similar to the results of Kester, Hoover and McGoun’s (2004) survey of undergraduate students in the United States. Our hypothesis that students whose native language is not English have a stronger preference for lectures over cases is not supported by the results of our surveys.