Consider age group/ cultural background
To maximize the impact of case studies, it is crucial to consider the diverse backgrounds, developmental stages, and cultural contexts of your learners. Learners bring with them not only individual cognitive abilities and life experiences, but also deeply embedded cultural norms, values, communication styles, and expectations that influence how they interpret and engage with case material. These cultural perspectives shape their assumptions about authority, collaboration, ethics, conflict, and decision-making. By actively acknowledging, representing, and integrating multiple cultural frames of reference into case design and classroom discussion, educators can foster a more inclusive and globally relevant learning environment. This not only enhances learner engagement but also prepares students to navigate complexity and diversity in real-world professional settings.
When teaching with case studies, we can draw on Erikson’s 5th developmental phase (Identity vs. Role Confusion, adolescence, approx. 12–18 years), which is especially relevant for learners exploring personal and professional identities. However, because many students in higher education are over 18, Erikson’s 6th phase (Intimacy vs. Isolation) is also applicable. This stage reflects the growing importance of forming meaningful personal and professional relationships—an aspect that can be supported through collaborative and socially relevant case study work.
This psychosocial lens aligns well with Piaget’s formal operational stage, which typically begins around age 12 and continues into adulthood. During this stage, learners develop the ability for
- Abstract thinking (the capacity to reason about concepts that are not tied to concrete experiences (e.g., justice, ethics, sustainability)).
- Hypothetical reasoning (the ability to imagine different scenarios, form hypotheses, and logically deduce possible outcomes).
- Systematic problem-solving (thinking about one’s own thinking; monitoring and adjusting strategies for learning or problem-solving).
These cognitive capacities allow educators to design case studies that are not only more complex and nuanced, but also adaptable to the learners' developmental and cultural contexts.