2016 East Asia STS Network Conference

1. Application of Case Method to
Education for Science and Technology
Communication
Gensei Ishimura
gensei@elsi.jp
Adjunct Associate Professor
Earth-Life Science Institute(ELSI),
Tokyo Institute of Technology, JAPAN

2. What is “Case Method”?
• Case method is one of lesson styles where students discuss
about materials named “case” which is the edited material
containing the essence of practical example in the target
study area.
• It was originally used in Harvard Law School and Business
School and now has been spread to many organizations to
train practitioners, typically to business schools (MBA), all
over the world.

3. The Feature of Case Method
• In case method, so called “dilemma situations”, where you
cannot find clear answers, are frequently referred.
• When you make “cases”, you don’t describe facts in time
series. From the viewpoint of given learning goals and
effectiveness of learning, you should edit materials.
• change the order of facts
• choose appropriate facts
• include “noisy” information
• Thus, you need special experience and skill to make “cases.”

4. Case Method and Case Study
• “Case method” is often misunderstood as “case study”.They
are related but clearly different.
• Case study
• one of qualitative and descriptive research methods for, mainly,
academicians.
• case as research subject
• Case method
• “teaching method” using cases as “teaching materials” specially and
deliberately designed in order to achieve specific learning goals for,
mainly, practitioners or students to be ones.
• case as teaching method

5. Step by Step Process from
Practice to Case to Learning
*case=case as teaching material
practice
practice
practice
practice
everythinghappenedinthefield
practice
practice
case
writing
case
writing
case
writing
case lesson
Learning
achievement

6. Step by Step Process from
Practice to Case to Learning
practice
practice
practice
practice
everythinghappenedinthefield
practice
practice
case
writing
case
writing
case
writing
case lesson
Learning
achievement
*case=case as teaching material

7. Relationship between Cases and
Learning Goals
case 3
Lesson C
case 2
Lesson B
case(*) 1
Lesson A
case 4
Lesson Dcase 5
Lesson Ecase 6
case 7
Learning goal C
Learning goal B
Learning goal A
Learning goal D
Learning goal E
*case=case as teaching material

8. Relationship between Cases and
Learning Goals
case learning
goal O
learning
goal P
learning
goal Q
learning
goal R
learning
goal S
learning
goal T
learning
goal U
learning
goal V
learning
goal W
case1 ◎ ○ △ △
case2 ○ ◎ ○ △
case3 △ ◎ ○ ○ ○
case4 △ ◎ △ △
case5 △ ◎ ○
case6 ○ ◎ ○ △ ○
case7 △ ○ ◎ △
case8 ○ △ ◎
case9 ○ ◎ ◎
case10 △ △ △ △ △ ○ △ △
case11 △ △ ○ ◎
case12 ○ △ ◎

9. Relationship between Cases and
Learning Goals
case learning
goal O
learning
goal P
learning
goal Q
learning
goal R
learning
goal S
learning
goal T
learning
goal U
learning
goal V
learning
goal W
case1 ◎ ○ △ △
case2 ○ ◎ ○ △
case3 △ ◎ ○ ○ ○
case4 △ ◎ △ △
case5 △ ◎ ○
case6 ○ ◎ ○ △ ○
case7 △ ○ ◎ △
case8 ○ △ ◎
case9 ○ ◎ ◎
case10 △ △ △ △ △ ○ △ △
case11 △ △ ○ ◎
case12 ○ △ ◎
Cases are made for achieving the given learning goals.

10. Practices Cases Lessons
Learning
achievement

11. Practices Cases Lessons
Learning
achievement

12. Science and Technology Communication
• thoughts
• discussions
• decision making
• activities
• learning
• investment
• regulation
Scientific
knowledge
Various citizens and
specialists of
diverse standpoints
Practices to design occasion(=“ba”) for communication in order for them to do these
activities appropriately and to support the activities.
(reflectivity)

13. Problems of Education of
Science and Technology Communication
Education of science and technology communication for the
purpose involve strong difficulties derived from the following
features.

14. Features of Science and Technology
Communication
1. High uncertainty, low transparency, high liquidity
2. Huge diversity and complexity of value systems
3. Many stakeholders are related to one issue
4. Necessary to involve various specialists and specialties to deal
with one issue
5. Difficult to catch up with quick change of situations and
increase of complexities for practitioners as professional
6. Frequently face with unpredictable situations and forced to
make decision with “improvisation” under insufficient
information
7. Many practical working process are difficult to describe with
words (=implicit knowledge)

15. Problems of Education of
Science and Technology Communication
• In Japan, around 2005, special training programs started to
nurture science and technology communicators, and they
continue until now to achieve outcome to some extent.
• However, to be honest, training method is not yet matured
enough to nurture practitioners to handle the features
described above appropriately and effectively.

16. Problems of Education of
Science and Technology Communication
• Education of science and technology communication is mostly
done in traditional organizations such as universities or science
museums.
• One directional, mass lecture-style educational programs, which
have been normal for traditional education, are optimized for
learning “how to solve the problems which already have clear
answers”.
• Thus, the style, if it’s straightly applied, is not suitable for
education of science and technology communication.
• Of course, today, many advanced educational methods, such as
active learning, PBL, flipped classroom, are introduced into
schools.
• However, they are still experimental, trial-and-error stage, or at
least, limited in terms of volume.

17. Problems of Education of
Science and Technology Communication
• On the other hand, more than 10 years have passed since the
word “science and technology communication” began to be
frequently mentioned in the society, especially in the field of
higher education, science education, science and technology
policy.
• For the period, individual practitioners and organizations
have accumulated significant amount of practical knowledge
here and there in our society.
• Thus, now is the time to start to make use of the
accumulation of practical knowledge for education of science
and technology communication.

18. Introduction of Case Method to Education
for Science and Technology Communication
• Then, how should we do to make use of accumulation of the
practical knowledge for education?
• Now, it’s considered to be very helpful to refer to educational
methods for practitioners, especially of law schools and
business schools.
• Among them, “case method” mentioned before is considered
to be valuable to focus on.

19. Introduction of Case Method to Education for
Science and Technology Communication
• In case method, “learning community” consisted of learners are
thought to be inevitable. (Barnes and Christensen, 1994）
• The principle is common also in the field of science and
technology communication.
• It suggests that not only learning something “by” case method,
but also “learning through case method itself” can be effective
training for practice of science and technology communication.

20. Research and Development of Case-Method-
Based Educational Program for Science and
Technology Communication
• The author tries to
• visualize accumulated practical knowledge of science and
technology communication through utilizing case method,
• clarify conditions for better learning program to provide
learners with effective learning occasion,
• contribute progress in human resource development
program to nurture practitioners able to conquer the
difficulties mentioned before.

21. Learners Make Cases by Themselves
• As mentioned before, you need special experience and skill to
make cases.
• So, at first, teachers(researchers) mainly make cases.
• However, in this project, it is planned that
learners(practitioners or potential practitioners) are gradually
encouraged to make cases based on their own experience by
themselves for other learners.
• It has two major benefits:
1. Learners understand practice much more deeply and reflectively by
making cases by themselves.
2. Much more cases can be provided to learners than only teachers
make them.

22. Research and Development of Case-Method-
Based Educational Program for Science and
Technology Communication
• This R&D is expected to be not only effective for education, but
also promotion of theoretical progress of the field which hasn’t
have systematic theory yet, by the R&D’s giving sharper
structure to accumulation of practical knowledge.
• Besides, it contributes to keep the theory “up-to-date” by
supplying cases continuously.
• On the other hand, the case method developed by this R&D is
not only used to educate students belonging to specific
educational programs, but also, possibly, open broadly to be
used to provide learning and deliberation opportunities in civil
society.

23. Project Schedule
Studying today’s
education of science
and technology
communication and
extraction of
problems
Defining the
purpose of
introducing case
method
Clarifying conditions
for introduction
(necessity/sufficien
cy/constraining)
Studying how to
develop cases and
how to apply them to
educational
programs
Investigation of
practices of science
and technology
communication
Feasibility study
about whether each
practice can be
edited to “case”
Development and
formative evaluation
of experimental
educational program
Prototyping of cases
Development of
cases
Development of
evaluation method
for learning outcome
Execution of
program and general
evaluation
Evaluation for case
method
Integration of case
making and learning
Inspecting
applicability of the
research and
drawing future vision
Application of
case method
Execution and
evaluation of
case method
Development of
case method
Clarifying
conditions to
introduce case
method
Preparation for development of case
method
2016 2017 2018