After a week of classes at St. Augustine University in Mwanza, Tanzania, I am delighted that my students are starting to understand the case method. My students are incredibly intelligent but they fail to apply their theoretical knowledge to the real world. When I ask a question, they give me definitions as responses; I have to push students to think in the context of the case. I push my students to think about how these situations would occur in the real world. Although it's difficult to get them to think in this way, it's incredibly rewarding to see their faces when they finally understand. In one of the cases, I asked the class to think critically about what a large A/R balance means for the company. After ten minutes of the students giving me textbook answers, I was ready to give up and move on when one student raised his hand and connected the fact that because the company was growing and that they didn't have a steady revenue stream, they could run into liquidity problems if they didn't control their A/R balance. The rest of the class suddenly seemed to understand what I was trying to get them to connect and it sparked a debate. I am excited for what the next few weeks have in store now that my students are grasping onto the case style of learning.
