Case Studies at SIPA

Working in partnership with the Case Consortium @ Columbia, SIPA has developed a pair of case studies that address international policy issues and are further distinguished by their online, multimedia content.

One case, prepared with MPA-DP student Maria Wang and Professor Glenn Denning, addresses rice policy in the island nation of Timor-Leste. The second, a project with Professor Dirk Salomons, examines the challenges of providing humanitarian aid to lawless areas of Somalia.

According to Kirsten Lundberg of CC@C, teaching cases are intended to spark thoughtful, in-depth classroom discussion. A typical case tells a detailed story that stops mid-action, asking students to put themselves into the shoes of a decisionmaker facing a tough call. Students read the case carefully in preparation for a faculty-guided classroom discussion, during which the students have a chance to experience what it’s like to work in their chosen field.

The role of taking responsibility for case-prompted decisions helps develop leadership, management, and critical thinking skills. Students also learn to negotiate, to listen, to persuade, and to speak in public.

The discussion-based interactive approach has historic roots reaching back to Socrates, and was popularized in the 20th century by business schools. But the case method has proven valuable across the spectrum of professional education.

 “Professionally oriented students like those at SIPA want to learn about real-world decisionmaking and policy development ,” says Dan McIntyre, associate dean for academic affairs. “Case studies add variety to the learning process, and can be an especially effective pedagogical tool in the right context.”

Since its founding in July 2011, CC@C has produced cutting-edge case studies for several graduate schools —the Mailman School of Public Health and the Graduate School of Journalism in addition to SIPA. In the year ahead, Lundberg said, it will produce four cases on sustainable development for the Global Association of MDP Programs.

At SIPA, while many faculty already use cases in the classroom, CC@C is working to increase the number of professors trained in the case method and also to generate more original, Columbia-branded cases. CC@C also works with students who want experience in producing professional-quality case studies.

While cases are traditionally prepared by professional writers, the experience of doing so can be educational in itself. Professor Ken Prewitt, for example, assigned students in the core Politics of Policymaking course to write case studies, and students in the MPA-DP program have also proposed cases based on their field work.

SIPA welcomes case topic suggestions from alumni, and urges alumni who teach to explore the case collection for new and original teaching materials. For more information, please contact CC@C director Kirsten Lundberg at [email protected] or 212-854-8398.