Word: b-school
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Styles of class leading vary considerably. In the "classical" case method technique (though few if any B-School professors could be placed easily in this category), the professor sits back and lets the students discuss the various facets of the case on their own. He offers no guidance or insight, trusting the students to learn from one another...
...MOST POPULAR teaching style at the B-School, however, is a middle-of-the-road one. The professor guides and gives focus to his class through careful questioning and directing student discussion toward major issues. He might summarize key points or areas of conflict, but is reluctant to burst forth with "right" answers...
Without any uniformly agreed upon vision of the case method, the whole controversy over how widely the B-School should use it shrinks in importance. If one man's "case analysis" is another's academic discussion, then arguing for or against emphasis on the case method is an exercise in imprecision...
...B-SCHOOL's case method, then, has its advantages. It is flexible--students report differences in the use of cases from area to area, with cut-and-dried course materials like elementary accounting being treated largely in lectures, while interactive discussions deal with more nebulous questions. Teaching styles, case complexity and support materials vary widely from professor to professor and even from class to class...
...case method has its disadvantages, as well. Discussion courses do move through material more slowly than do traditional lecture courses--Harvard B-School courses are among the longest, in hours, in the nation. Further, the constant researching of cases from companies and public sources to provide new, realistic cases for student examination is tremendous investment in time for each faculty member, and investment in money for the school, which spends nearly $6 million annually for case research alone...