Learning by Casing

As the end of my summer school class is approaching I want to summarize the differences between the Harvard teaching system and what we are doing at home in Mannheim.

There are no lectures at Harvard business school, just case discussions. This means a group of students has to prepare a solution to a real life problem and present it to class members. Students need to self-educate themselves on the theory behind the case and that is what makes it time consuming and difficult. On the other hand, this way you have to truly understand the theory rather than just plug in numbers in a formula you have learned in class. The lectures are much more interactive than at home and students get more confident to defend their stand in discussion with others. The downside of this teaching method is that it can sometimes take you very long to understand something by yourself that you could learn much faster in a lecture.

Back in Mannheim we use the classical ex-cathedra teaching where the lecturer explains a theory and students need to apply it in exercises. The case method would not be practical as classes are just too big and the financial resources to support students with teaching assistants who can help them in solving the cases are not available. However, German students have a better theoretical foundation after learning the theory in debth.

As with so many things in life, I think a combination of both is the best way to go. By getting an international education and learning many different ways to learn you set up the best basic to be successful in a later business profession.