Case Study
Speran ţa ŢIBU
Institute of Educational Sciences, BucharestHistory
Case study was used as early as the end of the 19th century in various domains (law,
legislation, medicine, business), especially as a research method, but the 1950s marked
the spread of method on a larger scale and the recognition of its efficiency in the school
process. Conant (1949) was apparently among the first to organize his course using
written case studies, read out and then discussed. Experimented in Harvard Business
School as a pedagogical method, case study revealed particular formative qualities
through “the transfer from teacher to student as regards the responsibility of learning, the
role of the latter shifting from passive accumulation to active involvement” (Boehrer,
1990).
Nowadays the method is widely employed both in education and professional training. In
career counselling, case study penetrated together with other modern counselling
methods, being used next to and complementary to traditional methods.
Theoretical background
In modern societies, requiring well-trained individuals for rapid and immediate entry on
the labour market, work methods with pupils, students and adults must offer the
conditions of a much closer link to the real world, help practice abilities that could easily
be transferred to day-to-day activity at the workplace.