Manajemen | Fakultas Ekonomi Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji joeb.83.5.251-258
Journal of Education for Business
ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
Content Relevance in Case-Study Teaching: The
Alumni Connection and Its Effect on Student
Motivation
Sherry Finney & Joanne Pyke
To cite this article: Sherry Finney & Joanne Pyke (2008) Content Relevance in Case-Study
Teaching: The Alumni Connection and Its Effect on Student Motivation, Journal of Education for
Business, 83:5, 251-258, DOI: 10.3200/JOEB.83.5.251-258
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JOEB.83.5.251-258
Published online: 07 Aug 2010.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 56
View related articles
Citing articles: 1 View citing articles
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=vjeb20
Download by: [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji]
Date: 11 January 2016, At: 23:12
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 23:12 11 January 2016
ContentRelevanceinCase-Study
Teaching:TheAlumniConnection
andItsEffectonStudentMotivation
SHERRYFINNEY
JOANNEPYKE
CAPEBRETONUNIVERSITY
NOVASCOTIA,CANADA
ABSTRACT.Researcherssuggestthat
businesscasesshouldprofilebusinessesor
productsfamiliartostudentstoenhancethe
learningexperience.However,noempirical
evidencehasvalidatedtheseclaims.Inthis
article,theauthorsdiscusstheimplication
ofcontentrelevanceinteachingandprovideanaccountofaCanadianuniversity’s
effortstointroducealumnicasesinits
undergraduateprogram.Thefindingsreveal
apositivecorrelationbetweenstudent
perceptionsofcaserelevanceandstudent
motivation.
Keywords:casemethod,caseteaching,
contentrelevance,studentmotivation
Copyright©2008HeldrefPublications
T
hetruebenefitsofactivelearning
through case-study methodology
were instituted as early as the 1920s
by Harvard Business School. Today,
the case method of teaching continues to gain recognition in the realms
of business education. The reality is
thatstudentslearnbydoing.Usingcase
studies, according to Cinneide (1997),
“changes the locus of control within
the classroom from being centered on
the teacher’s knowledge to a fully participative group discussion on issues
involvedinthecase”(p.3).Thistypeof
interactionencouragesthedevelopment
ofcreativeproblem-solvingskills.Further,studentsbecomeconfidentintheir
abilities to work through the issues of
thecaseandtodeveloprealalternatives
to real problems. However, although
the common belief has been that cases
should simulate real-life problems and
focus on current business issues, there
has been no recorded evidence to support the perceived influence of case
content familiarity on student motivation. In this article, we explore that
relation.
ReviewoftheLiterature
EducatorsatHarvardBusinessSchool
havebeenusingcase-studyteachingfor
almostacentury,andintheirview,the
case-studymethodologyisthebestway
oftrainingdecisionmakers(Frymier&
Shulman, 1995; Theroux & Kilbane,
2004). According to Kimball (1995),
Harvard business instructors used the
experiencesofprominentbusinessmen
inclassdiscussion.Earlyintheirdevelopment,businessschoolswereviewed
ascommercialcolleges,sotheiradopting the case-teaching approach of law
and medicine was seen as a means of
establishingthelegitimacyofbusiness
curricula.
Aside from the ability to address
pedagogical elements of management
education, a case-based approach also
affordsthebenefitsofappliedlearning.
According to Rippin, Booth, Bowie,
and Jordan (2002), case teaching provides educational objectives that are
vocationalandskillbased,emphasizing
problem solving and decision making;
theyalsostressconceptualdevelopment
andtheenhancementofcritical-thinking
skills.Roselle(1996)suggestedfurther
benefits, believing that the process of
teachingthroughcasesaddsvarietyand
interest and helps to bring disparate
groups together by providing a focus
for student-centered learning. Rippen
etal.suggestedthatstudentswantcase
sessions to be realistic because they
can practice problem-solving skills in
arelativelyrisk-freesetting.Whatmay
appear to students as an unnecessarily unstructured exercise is actually a
nearapproximationofthecomplexreality they are likely to face outside the
May/June2008
251
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 23:12 11 January 2016
classroom. The case itself can develop
skills, capitalize on group diversity,
and reveal and explore the complexity of organizational life. For many of
thesereasons,thecasemethodremains
a dominant and influential approach in
businesseducation(Kesner,2001).
Other research has contrasted a case
approach to more traditional methods
ofteaching.Particularly,Bocker(1987)
theorized that problem case teaching
is more effective than lecture teaching
in its ability to reproduce and apply
knowledge and learned skills and to
increasestudentmotivation.Inhisfindings, positive student test scores indicatedthatcaseteachingproducesmore
effectivelearningthanlectureteaching.
There may have been methodological
limitations(e.g.,smallsamplesize),but
Bocker concluded that problem case
teachingstimulateslearningmoreeffectively than does the traditional lecturebasedapproach.
Morerecently,researchershavetried
toexperimentwiththetraditionalmethod
ofdeliveryforcaseteaching.According
to Theroux and Kilbane (2004), “The
commonmethodofpresentingcaseshas
remained virtually unchanged, despite
substantial advancements in technologyandbusinesspractices”(p.163).In
theirresearch,thereal-timecasemethod(RTCM),whichisanapproachthat
builds on the traditional case method
and provides extended coverage on a
single company over the entire semester,wasused.WiththeRTCM,students
use technology to interact in real time
on a continuous basis with a company
while being exposed to and deciding
on daily business issues. According to
Theroux and Kilbane, students were
engagedandeagertolearnmoreabout
the case company. Findings indicated
the RTCM offers a new learning tool
either in place of or as a complement
tothetraditionalcasemethodusedina
varietyofbusinesscourses.
Theliteraturerevealshowcaseteaching is no longer restricted to the discipline of management and strategic
business and has experienced increasing interest in other fields, particularly accounting. Power (1991) noted a
resurgence in demand for accounting
studentstohaveanenhancedawareness
ofthebusinessenvironment.Therefore,
252
JournalofEducationforBusiness
there was perceived benefit to introducing accounting students to a more
human or social aspect of the accounting function, and it was believed this
could be achieved through case teaching.Further,accordingtoCullen,Richardson, and O’Brien (2004), teaching
abstract theories, concepts, and techniques is not enough, and researchers
thinkthatproblem-basedcasescanplay
asignificantroleindevelopingbroader
socialscience-basedskills.Thisisparticularlyimportantgiventheescalating
revelations of accounting malpractices
occurringtoday(Cullenetal.).
There has been much discussion in
thecase-teachingliteraturethathascovered a wide variety of topics, including but not limited to teaching styles,
innovations in case delivery, and the
value and applicability of cases in certain fields.Yet, there has been nothing
published to date that has considered
theimpactofthecasecontent,particularly the background and origin of the
decision maker or business, on student
motivation.Theimportanceoffamiliarity in case teaching has been implied,
however, in several occurrences.
Prostano and Prostano (1982) and
Roselle (1996) have stated that relevance, currency, and familiarity have a
positive influence on student involvement, and because of this higher level
of involvement, students become more
engagedwiththecasestudy.Similarly,
Cullenetal.(2004)stated,“Casestudies should be chosen that students find
interestingandmotivating,usinghouseholdnames,becausetheyarefamiliar”
(p. 254). Despite these references to
a need for familiarity in case content,
therehasbeennoresearchthathasjustifieditsinfluence.
Looking beyond the case-teaching
literature,however,andconsideringthe
relevanceorcontent-familiarityfactorof
teachingmaterial,thereisalimitedbody
ofresearch.EarlyworkbySchonwetter,
Clifton, and Perry (2002) revealed that
contentfamiliaritywaspositivelycorrelatedwithlowertestanxietyandhigher
achievement. Further, research by
Markovits (1986) found that increased
contentfamiliarityresultedinhigherperformance levels of conditional reasoning.Oneofthemorewidelycitedpieces
ofwork,however,hasbeenresearchby
Frymier and Shulman (1995), which
has specifically considered the impact
ofrelevanceonmotivation.Theirstudy
has revealed that relevance of material
is positively correlated with students’
state motivation. In their research, 470
undergraduate students participated in
a survey that assessed not only their
perceptions of course relevance but
also verbal and nonverbal instructor
immediacy (i.e., the instructor’s use of
behaviorintheclassroomthatincludes
smiles, head nods, inclusive language,
eye contact, use of first names, and a
willingnessandinterestintalkingwith
students) and trait or state motivation.
As part of this research, Frymier and
Shulmandevelopeda12-itemrelevance
scale. As hypothesized, when students
perceived course material as relevant,
they were more motivated to study
for the course. Other researchers have
posited the same belief of the influenceofcontentrelevanceonmotivation
(Keller,1979,1983;Sass,1989;Visser
& Keller, 1990; Weaver & Cottrell,
1988);however,ascitedbyFrymierand
Shulman, only work by Newby (1991)
haspresentedempiricalevidenceofthe
association. This leads us to the question of why content relevance in case
teaching is so important. What could
educators hope to achieve if content
relevant cases were linked to higher
levelsofstudentmotivation?Asearlier
researchershavediscovered,intrinsically motivated students process information more deeply (Lepper, 1988); they
usemorelogicalinformationgathering
and decision-making strategies (Condry&Chambers,1978);andtheyhave
greater appreciation and tolerance for
challenging work (Lepper). Therefore,
if it could be shown that case content
relevance is positively correlated with
higherlevelsofmotivation,caseteaching for business educators would take
onanentirelynewapproach.
Hypothesis
There is a limited body of research
thathasconsideredtheimpactofcourse
content relevance on student motivation. Further, there has been no identified research that has specifically consideredtherelevanceofcasecontenton
interestandmotivationlevelsexpressed
bystudents.Therefore,weproposethe
following hypothesis: A positive relationship exists between student reports
of case content relevance and student
motivation.
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 23:12 11 January 2016
METHOD
Wechoseacase-studyapproachand
selected Cape Breton University, Nova
Scotia, Canada, as the organization.
In May 2005, Cape Breton University
engaged its faculty and senior students
in a case-writing project that centered
on the creation of cases that profiled
local alumni entrepreneurs. It was the
intent of the project to build on the
perceivedassociationbetweenrealbusinesses or entrepreneurs and increased
student interest and motivation. It was
anticipated that this elevated level of
studentinterestwouldholdorbegreater
ifthecaseprofiledlocalbusinessesthat
wereoperatedorownedbyindividuals
who were university alumni. During
the2005–2006academicyear,sixcases
were taught in six courses, covering
disciplines such as introductory business, introductory marketing, marketing management, financial accounting,
small business management, and businesspolicy.
Sample
The student population was defined
as undergraduate business students
enrolled in a 4-year degree program.
All students were exposed to the cases
throughcoreorrequiredcourses;therefore, students representing all majors
were included. In addition, the courses
using the cases ranged from introductory,1st-yearlevelcoursestofinal-year,
capstone courses. In total, the student
populationofinterestwascomposedof
176individuals.
Instrumentation
The faculty’s perceived belief of an
increase in motivation on the part of
students initiated the research. Therefore,theprimaryobjectiveofthisstudy
was to provide empirical evidence of
whether the perception was true. As a
result,itwasnecessarytomeasureboth
perceived relevance of local cases and
motivation.
Relevance
Frymier and Shulman (1995) presenteda12-itemLikert-typescaleusing
anchorsthatrangedfrom0(never)to4
(very often). This scale was developed
on the basis of previous works of Sass
(1989),WeaverandCottrell(1988),and
Keller (1983, 1987a, 1987b). Frymier
and Shulman’s scale measures the relevance of explicit teacher behavior.
However,forthecurrentresearch,scale
items were slightly adjusted to assess
the relevance of local cases. In addition to minor changes in wording, two
constructswerecombined,andanother
wasremovedbecauseitdidnotapplyto
relevance in this context. This resulted
inafinalscalecontaining10measures.
Last, instead of the anchors never and
very often, it was decided to have the
respondents indicate their degree of
agreement on a 5-point scale ranging
from1(stronglydisagree)to5(strongly
agree).Wethoughttheseanchorswere
more appropriate given the interest in
attitudes.Thereliabilityofthemeasures
of relevance were methodically tested
and refined by Frymier and Shulman
intheirresearch.ThescalehadaCronbach’salphareliabilityof.88.Reliabilityanalysiswasalsoconductedforthe
subjectstudy,andCronbach’salphawas
calculatedtobe.84.
Motivation
Using similar methodology to that
proposed by Frymier and Shulman
(1995),wealsomeasuredstatemotivation by means of Richmond’s (1990)
motivation scale. That scale consists
of five 7-step bipolar adjectives. State
motivation refers to a student’s motivation at a certain point in time and
is influenced by the situation and can
vary over time (Brophy, 1986, 1987;
Keller, 1983). Richmond’s scale items
were motivated–unmotivated, excited–bored, uninterested–interested,
involved–uninvolved,anddreadit–look
forwardtoit.Forthecurrentresearch,
these measures were applied to the
statement, “A class using local cases
tohelpteachcoursecontentmakesme
feel...”Toavoidthehaloeffect,two
setsofbipolaradjectiveswerereversed
on the scale. Richmond reported reliability levels of .94 for this measure.
For the current research, reliability
analysis revealed a Cronbach’s alpha
scoreof.88.
The survey instrument was divided
intothreesections.Thefirstsectionasked
students to assess the relevance of the
local-case approach. The second section
presented Richmond’s (1990) motivation
scale. The third section asked students
about the overall effectiveness of the
learning experience, the realism of the
experience, its effectiveness in teaching
entrepreneurship, and preference for this
typeofcaseoverthosefeaturingunfamiliar people or businesses. Last, students
wereaskedtoprovideclosingcomments.
DataCollection
We collected data through developmentofanquestionnaireandinvitation
sampling by e-mail (Burns & Bush,
2006). To protect the integrity of the
data, all potential respondents were
suppliedaloginpasswordthatenabled
them to answer the questionnaire only
once. An online survey administration
was deemed to be acceptable because
the population of interest was consideredcomputerliterateandhadaccessto
theInternet.Discussionswithapretest
sample also revealed this was the preferred method and the one believed to
elicitthegreatestresponserate,depending on the timing of the delivery. The
data were collected during the 2-week
period at the commencement of the
academic term 2006–2007.The survey
was made available to 176 students,
and 84 (47.7%) individuals responded.
This allowed for a margin of error of
±7.75%.
Limitations
Although it might be argued that
there are limitations to the current
study, primarily because of the casestudyapproachandsmallsample,other
research on the benefits of case-study
methodologies deserves attention.
Specifically, it has been argued that
researchthatiscontextdependent,like
case-study research, is valuable in that
it creates a type of learning that generates expert activity (Eysenck, 1976;
Flyvbjerg, 2006). Flyvbjerg explained,
“If people were exclusively trained in
context-independent knowledge and
May/June2008
253
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rules, that is, the kind of knowledge
that forms the basis of textbooks and
computers, they would remain at the
beginner’slevelinthelearningprocess”
(p.222).Therefore,thecurrentresearch
may not be developed enough to supporttheoreticalknowledge.However,it
isvaluableasacontributortoconcrete,
practicalknowledge.
A second criticism of case-study
methodology centers on a common
beliefthatcasescannotbegeneralized.
Flyvbjerg (2006) and others (Eckstein,
1975;Ragin,1992;Rosch,1978),however, have argued that a researcher’s
ability to generalize findings from a
case study is based on the selection of
the case. For instance, if a researcher
wants to get the greatest amount of
information possible about a phenomenon, a representative case or sample
may not be the best approach. “The
typical or average case is often not
the richest in information” (Flyvbjerg,
p. 229). A critical case, however, can
have strategic importance (Flyvbjerg).
In the instance of the current research,
study of the impact of content-relevant
cases on student motivation is a relatively unexplored topic. Therefore, to
choose Cape Breton University as a
critical case-study organization made
sense given the history of the school
with respect to case teaching. There
was significant use of local content
cases,andthesampleofstudentsusing
thecaseswaswideranging,enablinga
diverserangeofpossiblefindings.Stake
(1995) supported the ability of casestudyresearchtobegeneralized,buthe
referredtothegeneralizationasintuitive
andempiricallygrounded.Specifically,
hetermeditnaturalisticgeneralization.
Stake believed the data collected from
a case study would resonate experientially with a broad section of readers
andwouldcreateabetterunderstanding
ofthephenomenonbeingstudied.
RESULTS
RelevanceandMotivation
Ratings
Table 1 is a summary of respondent mean scores for individual construct items selected from Frymier and
Shulman’s (1995) relevance scale.
254
JournalofEducationforBusiness
TABLE1.MeanResponseRatingsforRelevanceScaleCategories(N=84)
Relevancescaleitem
Rating
Allowsfordiscussionthathelpswithunderstandingoftopic
Providesexplanationofbusinessmanagementpractices
Demonstratesrelevancythroughcurrency
Providesexamplesthathelpwiththestudyofbusiness
managementpractices
Demonstratestheimportanceofcoursematerial
Demonstrateshowthecasecontentmightapplytointerests
orcareergoals
Demonstrateshowbusinessconceptsfromdifferentareas
linktooneanother
Revealsexperiencesofentrepreneursandaidsinunderstanding
ofconcepts
Demonstratestheimportanceofbusinessconcepts
Demonstrateshowcoursematerialrelatestofuturecareergoals
4.35
4.35
4.24
4.21
4.19
4.19
4.18
4.10
4.08
4.06
Note.EachitemwasmeasuredusingaLikertscalefrom1(stronglydisagree)to5(stronglyagree)
adaptedfromA.B.Frymier&G.M.Shulman(1995).
Respondentsagreedverystrongly(4.35)
thatalocalcasehelpedthemtounderstandconceptsbeingtaughtandprovided an explanation of business managementpractices.Infact,forallrelevance
items, respondents, on average, rated
theirlevelofagreementaseitheragree
or strongly agree. The two items with
the lowest mean scores were (a) the
ability of local cases to help students
understand the importance of business
concepts (4.08) and (b) the ability of
a local case to demonstrate how the
course material relates to a student’s
futurecareer(4.06).
In addition, students were asked to
rate their feelings on certain descriptors as they applied to the use of local
alumnicasesinteaching.Table2demonstrates that of the five items composing the motivation scale, students
indicated highest scores for the ability
ofalocalcasetomakethemfeelinterested(6.1).Itshouldbenoted,however,
that relatively high ratings were also
providedfortheremainingscaleitems.
The lowest score was reported for the
ability of the local case to make them
feelexcited(5.1).
To determine if a correlation existed
between the relevance and motivation
ratings, it was necessary to calculate a
summated score for each construct. It
is acceptable to calculate a summated
scale when using attitude scales, like
Likert and semantic-differential scales,
as in this study. To calculate a summatedscale,thescoresoftheitemsfor
each of the relevance and motivation
scales were summed and averaged to
yield each individual’s attitude score.
This allowed the placement of each
respondent somewhere on a continuum of the attitude in question.Table 3
TABLE2.MeanResponseRatingsforMotivationScaleCategories(N=84)
Motivationscaleitem
Uninterested–Interested
Uninvolved–Involved
Dreadit–Lookforwardtoit
Unmotivated–Motivated
Unexcited–Excited
Rating
6.1
5.7
5.6
5.6
5.1
Note.Eachitemwasmeasuredona7-pointsemanticdifferentialscalefrom1(uninterested)to7
(interested)adaptedfromV.P.Richmond(1990).
when we were assessing the viability of
thebusiness.
TABLE3.AverageSummatedScaleScoresandCorrelation(N=84)
Statistic
Value
Motivationscalescore
Range
M
SD
Relevancescalescore
Range
M
SD
Correlationcoefficient(r)a
2.4–7.0
5.63
0.96
2.9–5.0
4.19
0.48
.516*
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 23:12 11 January 2016
Note.Maximumpossiblevaluesonmotivationandrelevancescalesare7and5,respectively.
a
Averagesummatedscoresforbothscaleswerecorrelated.
*
p
ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
Content Relevance in Case-Study Teaching: The
Alumni Connection and Its Effect on Student
Motivation
Sherry Finney & Joanne Pyke
To cite this article: Sherry Finney & Joanne Pyke (2008) Content Relevance in Case-Study
Teaching: The Alumni Connection and Its Effect on Student Motivation, Journal of Education for
Business, 83:5, 251-258, DOI: 10.3200/JOEB.83.5.251-258
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JOEB.83.5.251-258
Published online: 07 Aug 2010.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 56
View related articles
Citing articles: 1 View citing articles
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=vjeb20
Download by: [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji]
Date: 11 January 2016, At: 23:12
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 23:12 11 January 2016
ContentRelevanceinCase-Study
Teaching:TheAlumniConnection
andItsEffectonStudentMotivation
SHERRYFINNEY
JOANNEPYKE
CAPEBRETONUNIVERSITY
NOVASCOTIA,CANADA
ABSTRACT.Researcherssuggestthat
businesscasesshouldprofilebusinessesor
productsfamiliartostudentstoenhancethe
learningexperience.However,noempirical
evidencehasvalidatedtheseclaims.Inthis
article,theauthorsdiscusstheimplication
ofcontentrelevanceinteachingandprovideanaccountofaCanadianuniversity’s
effortstointroducealumnicasesinits
undergraduateprogram.Thefindingsreveal
apositivecorrelationbetweenstudent
perceptionsofcaserelevanceandstudent
motivation.
Keywords:casemethod,caseteaching,
contentrelevance,studentmotivation
Copyright©2008HeldrefPublications
T
hetruebenefitsofactivelearning
through case-study methodology
were instituted as early as the 1920s
by Harvard Business School. Today,
the case method of teaching continues to gain recognition in the realms
of business education. The reality is
thatstudentslearnbydoing.Usingcase
studies, according to Cinneide (1997),
“changes the locus of control within
the classroom from being centered on
the teacher’s knowledge to a fully participative group discussion on issues
involvedinthecase”(p.3).Thistypeof
interactionencouragesthedevelopment
ofcreativeproblem-solvingskills.Further,studentsbecomeconfidentintheir
abilities to work through the issues of
thecaseandtodeveloprealalternatives
to real problems. However, although
the common belief has been that cases
should simulate real-life problems and
focus on current business issues, there
has been no recorded evidence to support the perceived influence of case
content familiarity on student motivation. In this article, we explore that
relation.
ReviewoftheLiterature
EducatorsatHarvardBusinessSchool
havebeenusingcase-studyteachingfor
almostacentury,andintheirview,the
case-studymethodologyisthebestway
oftrainingdecisionmakers(Frymier&
Shulman, 1995; Theroux & Kilbane,
2004). According to Kimball (1995),
Harvard business instructors used the
experiencesofprominentbusinessmen
inclassdiscussion.Earlyintheirdevelopment,businessschoolswereviewed
ascommercialcolleges,sotheiradopting the case-teaching approach of law
and medicine was seen as a means of
establishingthelegitimacyofbusiness
curricula.
Aside from the ability to address
pedagogical elements of management
education, a case-based approach also
affordsthebenefitsofappliedlearning.
According to Rippin, Booth, Bowie,
and Jordan (2002), case teaching provides educational objectives that are
vocationalandskillbased,emphasizing
problem solving and decision making;
theyalsostressconceptualdevelopment
andtheenhancementofcritical-thinking
skills.Roselle(1996)suggestedfurther
benefits, believing that the process of
teachingthroughcasesaddsvarietyand
interest and helps to bring disparate
groups together by providing a focus
for student-centered learning. Rippen
etal.suggestedthatstudentswantcase
sessions to be realistic because they
can practice problem-solving skills in
arelativelyrisk-freesetting.Whatmay
appear to students as an unnecessarily unstructured exercise is actually a
nearapproximationofthecomplexreality they are likely to face outside the
May/June2008
251
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 23:12 11 January 2016
classroom. The case itself can develop
skills, capitalize on group diversity,
and reveal and explore the complexity of organizational life. For many of
thesereasons,thecasemethodremains
a dominant and influential approach in
businesseducation(Kesner,2001).
Other research has contrasted a case
approach to more traditional methods
ofteaching.Particularly,Bocker(1987)
theorized that problem case teaching
is more effective than lecture teaching
in its ability to reproduce and apply
knowledge and learned skills and to
increasestudentmotivation.Inhisfindings, positive student test scores indicatedthatcaseteachingproducesmore
effectivelearningthanlectureteaching.
There may have been methodological
limitations(e.g.,smallsamplesize),but
Bocker concluded that problem case
teachingstimulateslearningmoreeffectively than does the traditional lecturebasedapproach.
Morerecently,researchershavetried
toexperimentwiththetraditionalmethod
ofdeliveryforcaseteaching.According
to Theroux and Kilbane (2004), “The
commonmethodofpresentingcaseshas
remained virtually unchanged, despite
substantial advancements in technologyandbusinesspractices”(p.163).In
theirresearch,thereal-timecasemethod(RTCM),whichisanapproachthat
builds on the traditional case method
and provides extended coverage on a
single company over the entire semester,wasused.WiththeRTCM,students
use technology to interact in real time
on a continuous basis with a company
while being exposed to and deciding
on daily business issues. According to
Theroux and Kilbane, students were
engagedandeagertolearnmoreabout
the case company. Findings indicated
the RTCM offers a new learning tool
either in place of or as a complement
tothetraditionalcasemethodusedina
varietyofbusinesscourses.
Theliteraturerevealshowcaseteaching is no longer restricted to the discipline of management and strategic
business and has experienced increasing interest in other fields, particularly accounting. Power (1991) noted a
resurgence in demand for accounting
studentstohaveanenhancedawareness
ofthebusinessenvironment.Therefore,
252
JournalofEducationforBusiness
there was perceived benefit to introducing accounting students to a more
human or social aspect of the accounting function, and it was believed this
could be achieved through case teaching.Further,accordingtoCullen,Richardson, and O’Brien (2004), teaching
abstract theories, concepts, and techniques is not enough, and researchers
thinkthatproblem-basedcasescanplay
asignificantroleindevelopingbroader
socialscience-basedskills.Thisisparticularlyimportantgiventheescalating
revelations of accounting malpractices
occurringtoday(Cullenetal.).
There has been much discussion in
thecase-teachingliteraturethathascovered a wide variety of topics, including but not limited to teaching styles,
innovations in case delivery, and the
value and applicability of cases in certain fields.Yet, there has been nothing
published to date that has considered
theimpactofthecasecontent,particularly the background and origin of the
decision maker or business, on student
motivation.Theimportanceoffamiliarity in case teaching has been implied,
however, in several occurrences.
Prostano and Prostano (1982) and
Roselle (1996) have stated that relevance, currency, and familiarity have a
positive influence on student involvement, and because of this higher level
of involvement, students become more
engagedwiththecasestudy.Similarly,
Cullenetal.(2004)stated,“Casestudies should be chosen that students find
interestingandmotivating,usinghouseholdnames,becausetheyarefamiliar”
(p. 254). Despite these references to
a need for familiarity in case content,
therehasbeennoresearchthathasjustifieditsinfluence.
Looking beyond the case-teaching
literature,however,andconsideringthe
relevanceorcontent-familiarityfactorof
teachingmaterial,thereisalimitedbody
ofresearch.EarlyworkbySchonwetter,
Clifton, and Perry (2002) revealed that
contentfamiliaritywaspositivelycorrelatedwithlowertestanxietyandhigher
achievement. Further, research by
Markovits (1986) found that increased
contentfamiliarityresultedinhigherperformance levels of conditional reasoning.Oneofthemorewidelycitedpieces
ofwork,however,hasbeenresearchby
Frymier and Shulman (1995), which
has specifically considered the impact
ofrelevanceonmotivation.Theirstudy
has revealed that relevance of material
is positively correlated with students’
state motivation. In their research, 470
undergraduate students participated in
a survey that assessed not only their
perceptions of course relevance but
also verbal and nonverbal instructor
immediacy (i.e., the instructor’s use of
behaviorintheclassroomthatincludes
smiles, head nods, inclusive language,
eye contact, use of first names, and a
willingnessandinterestintalkingwith
students) and trait or state motivation.
As part of this research, Frymier and
Shulmandevelopeda12-itemrelevance
scale. As hypothesized, when students
perceived course material as relevant,
they were more motivated to study
for the course. Other researchers have
posited the same belief of the influenceofcontentrelevanceonmotivation
(Keller,1979,1983;Sass,1989;Visser
& Keller, 1990; Weaver & Cottrell,
1988);however,ascitedbyFrymierand
Shulman, only work by Newby (1991)
haspresentedempiricalevidenceofthe
association. This leads us to the question of why content relevance in case
teaching is so important. What could
educators hope to achieve if content
relevant cases were linked to higher
levelsofstudentmotivation?Asearlier
researchershavediscovered,intrinsically motivated students process information more deeply (Lepper, 1988); they
usemorelogicalinformationgathering
and decision-making strategies (Condry&Chambers,1978);andtheyhave
greater appreciation and tolerance for
challenging work (Lepper). Therefore,
if it could be shown that case content
relevance is positively correlated with
higherlevelsofmotivation,caseteaching for business educators would take
onanentirelynewapproach.
Hypothesis
There is a limited body of research
thathasconsideredtheimpactofcourse
content relevance on student motivation. Further, there has been no identified research that has specifically consideredtherelevanceofcasecontenton
interestandmotivationlevelsexpressed
bystudents.Therefore,weproposethe
following hypothesis: A positive relationship exists between student reports
of case content relevance and student
motivation.
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METHOD
Wechoseacase-studyapproachand
selected Cape Breton University, Nova
Scotia, Canada, as the organization.
In May 2005, Cape Breton University
engaged its faculty and senior students
in a case-writing project that centered
on the creation of cases that profiled
local alumni entrepreneurs. It was the
intent of the project to build on the
perceivedassociationbetweenrealbusinesses or entrepreneurs and increased
student interest and motivation. It was
anticipated that this elevated level of
studentinterestwouldholdorbegreater
ifthecaseprofiledlocalbusinessesthat
wereoperatedorownedbyindividuals
who were university alumni. During
the2005–2006academicyear,sixcases
were taught in six courses, covering
disciplines such as introductory business, introductory marketing, marketing management, financial accounting,
small business management, and businesspolicy.
Sample
The student population was defined
as undergraduate business students
enrolled in a 4-year degree program.
All students were exposed to the cases
throughcoreorrequiredcourses;therefore, students representing all majors
were included. In addition, the courses
using the cases ranged from introductory,1st-yearlevelcoursestofinal-year,
capstone courses. In total, the student
populationofinterestwascomposedof
176individuals.
Instrumentation
The faculty’s perceived belief of an
increase in motivation on the part of
students initiated the research. Therefore,theprimaryobjectiveofthisstudy
was to provide empirical evidence of
whether the perception was true. As a
result,itwasnecessarytomeasureboth
perceived relevance of local cases and
motivation.
Relevance
Frymier and Shulman (1995) presenteda12-itemLikert-typescaleusing
anchorsthatrangedfrom0(never)to4
(very often). This scale was developed
on the basis of previous works of Sass
(1989),WeaverandCottrell(1988),and
Keller (1983, 1987a, 1987b). Frymier
and Shulman’s scale measures the relevance of explicit teacher behavior.
However,forthecurrentresearch,scale
items were slightly adjusted to assess
the relevance of local cases. In addition to minor changes in wording, two
constructswerecombined,andanother
wasremovedbecauseitdidnotapplyto
relevance in this context. This resulted
inafinalscalecontaining10measures.
Last, instead of the anchors never and
very often, it was decided to have the
respondents indicate their degree of
agreement on a 5-point scale ranging
from1(stronglydisagree)to5(strongly
agree).Wethoughttheseanchorswere
more appropriate given the interest in
attitudes.Thereliabilityofthemeasures
of relevance were methodically tested
and refined by Frymier and Shulman
intheirresearch.ThescalehadaCronbach’salphareliabilityof.88.Reliabilityanalysiswasalsoconductedforthe
subjectstudy,andCronbach’salphawas
calculatedtobe.84.
Motivation
Using similar methodology to that
proposed by Frymier and Shulman
(1995),wealsomeasuredstatemotivation by means of Richmond’s (1990)
motivation scale. That scale consists
of five 7-step bipolar adjectives. State
motivation refers to a student’s motivation at a certain point in time and
is influenced by the situation and can
vary over time (Brophy, 1986, 1987;
Keller, 1983). Richmond’s scale items
were motivated–unmotivated, excited–bored, uninterested–interested,
involved–uninvolved,anddreadit–look
forwardtoit.Forthecurrentresearch,
these measures were applied to the
statement, “A class using local cases
tohelpteachcoursecontentmakesme
feel...”Toavoidthehaloeffect,two
setsofbipolaradjectiveswerereversed
on the scale. Richmond reported reliability levels of .94 for this measure.
For the current research, reliability
analysis revealed a Cronbach’s alpha
scoreof.88.
The survey instrument was divided
intothreesections.Thefirstsectionasked
students to assess the relevance of the
local-case approach. The second section
presented Richmond’s (1990) motivation
scale. The third section asked students
about the overall effectiveness of the
learning experience, the realism of the
experience, its effectiveness in teaching
entrepreneurship, and preference for this
typeofcaseoverthosefeaturingunfamiliar people or businesses. Last, students
wereaskedtoprovideclosingcomments.
DataCollection
We collected data through developmentofanquestionnaireandinvitation
sampling by e-mail (Burns & Bush,
2006). To protect the integrity of the
data, all potential respondents were
suppliedaloginpasswordthatenabled
them to answer the questionnaire only
once. An online survey administration
was deemed to be acceptable because
the population of interest was consideredcomputerliterateandhadaccessto
theInternet.Discussionswithapretest
sample also revealed this was the preferred method and the one believed to
elicitthegreatestresponserate,depending on the timing of the delivery. The
data were collected during the 2-week
period at the commencement of the
academic term 2006–2007.The survey
was made available to 176 students,
and 84 (47.7%) individuals responded.
This allowed for a margin of error of
±7.75%.
Limitations
Although it might be argued that
there are limitations to the current
study, primarily because of the casestudyapproachandsmallsample,other
research on the benefits of case-study
methodologies deserves attention.
Specifically, it has been argued that
researchthatiscontextdependent,like
case-study research, is valuable in that
it creates a type of learning that generates expert activity (Eysenck, 1976;
Flyvbjerg, 2006). Flyvbjerg explained,
“If people were exclusively trained in
context-independent knowledge and
May/June2008
253
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rules, that is, the kind of knowledge
that forms the basis of textbooks and
computers, they would remain at the
beginner’slevelinthelearningprocess”
(p.222).Therefore,thecurrentresearch
may not be developed enough to supporttheoreticalknowledge.However,it
isvaluableasacontributortoconcrete,
practicalknowledge.
A second criticism of case-study
methodology centers on a common
beliefthatcasescannotbegeneralized.
Flyvbjerg (2006) and others (Eckstein,
1975;Ragin,1992;Rosch,1978),however, have argued that a researcher’s
ability to generalize findings from a
case study is based on the selection of
the case. For instance, if a researcher
wants to get the greatest amount of
information possible about a phenomenon, a representative case or sample
may not be the best approach. “The
typical or average case is often not
the richest in information” (Flyvbjerg,
p. 229). A critical case, however, can
have strategic importance (Flyvbjerg).
In the instance of the current research,
study of the impact of content-relevant
cases on student motivation is a relatively unexplored topic. Therefore, to
choose Cape Breton University as a
critical case-study organization made
sense given the history of the school
with respect to case teaching. There
was significant use of local content
cases,andthesampleofstudentsusing
thecaseswaswideranging,enablinga
diverserangeofpossiblefindings.Stake
(1995) supported the ability of casestudyresearchtobegeneralized,buthe
referredtothegeneralizationasintuitive
andempiricallygrounded.Specifically,
hetermeditnaturalisticgeneralization.
Stake believed the data collected from
a case study would resonate experientially with a broad section of readers
andwouldcreateabetterunderstanding
ofthephenomenonbeingstudied.
RESULTS
RelevanceandMotivation
Ratings
Table 1 is a summary of respondent mean scores for individual construct items selected from Frymier and
Shulman’s (1995) relevance scale.
254
JournalofEducationforBusiness
TABLE1.MeanResponseRatingsforRelevanceScaleCategories(N=84)
Relevancescaleitem
Rating
Allowsfordiscussionthathelpswithunderstandingoftopic
Providesexplanationofbusinessmanagementpractices
Demonstratesrelevancythroughcurrency
Providesexamplesthathelpwiththestudyofbusiness
managementpractices
Demonstratestheimportanceofcoursematerial
Demonstrateshowthecasecontentmightapplytointerests
orcareergoals
Demonstrateshowbusinessconceptsfromdifferentareas
linktooneanother
Revealsexperiencesofentrepreneursandaidsinunderstanding
ofconcepts
Demonstratestheimportanceofbusinessconcepts
Demonstrateshowcoursematerialrelatestofuturecareergoals
4.35
4.35
4.24
4.21
4.19
4.19
4.18
4.10
4.08
4.06
Note.EachitemwasmeasuredusingaLikertscalefrom1(stronglydisagree)to5(stronglyagree)
adaptedfromA.B.Frymier&G.M.Shulman(1995).
Respondentsagreedverystrongly(4.35)
thatalocalcasehelpedthemtounderstandconceptsbeingtaughtandprovided an explanation of business managementpractices.Infact,forallrelevance
items, respondents, on average, rated
theirlevelofagreementaseitheragree
or strongly agree. The two items with
the lowest mean scores were (a) the
ability of local cases to help students
understand the importance of business
concepts (4.08) and (b) the ability of
a local case to demonstrate how the
course material relates to a student’s
futurecareer(4.06).
In addition, students were asked to
rate their feelings on certain descriptors as they applied to the use of local
alumnicasesinteaching.Table2demonstrates that of the five items composing the motivation scale, students
indicated highest scores for the ability
ofalocalcasetomakethemfeelinterested(6.1).Itshouldbenoted,however,
that relatively high ratings were also
providedfortheremainingscaleitems.
The lowest score was reported for the
ability of the local case to make them
feelexcited(5.1).
To determine if a correlation existed
between the relevance and motivation
ratings, it was necessary to calculate a
summated score for each construct. It
is acceptable to calculate a summated
scale when using attitude scales, like
Likert and semantic-differential scales,
as in this study. To calculate a summatedscale,thescoresoftheitemsfor
each of the relevance and motivation
scales were summed and averaged to
yield each individual’s attitude score.
This allowed the placement of each
respondent somewhere on a continuum of the attitude in question.Table 3
TABLE2.MeanResponseRatingsforMotivationScaleCategories(N=84)
Motivationscaleitem
Uninterested–Interested
Uninvolved–Involved
Dreadit–Lookforwardtoit
Unmotivated–Motivated
Unexcited–Excited
Rating
6.1
5.7
5.6
5.6
5.1
Note.Eachitemwasmeasuredona7-pointsemanticdifferentialscalefrom1(uninterested)to7
(interested)adaptedfromV.P.Richmond(1990).
when we were assessing the viability of
thebusiness.
TABLE3.AverageSummatedScaleScoresandCorrelation(N=84)
Statistic
Value
Motivationscalescore
Range
M
SD
Relevancescalescore
Range
M
SD
Correlationcoefficient(r)a
2.4–7.0
5.63
0.96
2.9–5.0
4.19
0.48
.516*
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Note.Maximumpossiblevaluesonmotivationandrelevancescalesare7and5,respectively.
a
Averagesummatedscoresforbothscaleswerecorrelated.
*
p