Tips for case study
Case Study-
The detailed study of individual,
family, group, social institute, or society is case study. The whole lifecycle
is studied in case study. A case study is an in-depth study of individual,
group, event, institute etc. It is necessary to study each and every aspect of
the life of the subject of which the case study is to be studied. The case
study involves collection of information or history of the subject and its
analysis to draw the conclusion. It is necessary to study the patterns and
causes of particular behavior in case study. The soul of this method is to find
out the correct reasons behind the particular behavior. Researcher has to take
precaution for keeping all the collected information confidential. The
information ofCase study can be used in many fields like psychology, medicine,
education, anthropology, political science and even social work. A case study
can have both strengths and weaknesses. Researcher has to take in the
consideration these pros and cons before deciding whether this study is
suitable for his work or not. A case study analyzes a defined problem in a real
situation and solved by using real information.
Steps of case study-
1.
Determine the problem and define it.
2.
Decides the research method.
3.
Choose the cases and decide the tools and
techniques to collect the information or data.
4.
Find out
the evidences and collects the information or data by using appropriate tools
and techniques.
5.
Focus on
own knowledge.
6.
Decide
the criteria.
7.
Analyze the collected data.
8.
Draw the
conclusion based on the analysis of information or data.
9.
Generalize
it to large units.
10.
Prepare the report.
Example- Study of a child who does
not has interest in studying any subject.
The researcher has to find out
reasons. Researcher has to study all the factors related to child’s life and
collect the information. Researcher has to collect the information about the
childhood of the child, his environment of his house where he brought up, his
position in the class, his friend circle, his behavior with parents, teachers,
friends, neighbors and even with himself. Once the information or data is
collected the next step is to analyze it. Researcher tries to find out the
factors behind not taking interest in studying any subject. Next step is more
important as the researcher has to find out remedies to solve the problem.
Researcher has to apply the remedies to see the effect. Case study has been
extensively practiced in social and natural sciences.
Definitions of case study-
1. According
to John Gerring, “The case study approach is an intensive study of a single
unit or a small number of units for the purpose of understanding a larger class
of similar units.”
Advantages of case study-
1. The
result drawn from studying one case can be generalized to others of same group.
2. The
greatest advantage of case study is it allow researcher to investigate things
that are difficult to impossible to conduct in a lab.
3. It
allows researcher to collect lot of information.
4. It
gives chance to the researcher to collect information on unusual cases.
5. It
allows researcher to derive the hypothesis that can be explored in the
experimental research.
6. Case
study useful for formulating theories and concepts.
7. Case
study add descriptive richness and have more validity than quantitative study.
Limitations of the case study-
1. Case
study is very subjective so difficult to generalize results to large
population.
2. Ie
does not demonstrate cause and effect.
3. There
is a chance of biasness of the researcher.
4. It may not be scientifically rigorous.
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