An Empirical Analysis of Case-Based Teaching in E-Commerce Education: Effects on Learning Motivation, Classroom Engagement, and Career Cognition among Vocational Students

Abstract

The increasing complexity of digital commerce environments has demanded the need for vocational education systems to move from transmissive teaching practices toward practice-integrated forms of pedagogy. While there is substantial evidence supporting the case-based form of pedagogy for various professional fields, there are fewer empirical studies on the effectiveness of case-based teaching for vocational e-commerce education at the secondary level. The present study investigated whether case-based teaching has a positive influence on learning motivation, engagement, and career cognition for vocational students at the secondary level (ages 16-17 years). The study applied the quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test design and conducted a systematic contrast between case-based teaching and Lecture-based teaching in two vocational colleges in Malaysia (N = 86). The results showed that case-based teaching has a positive influence on intrinsic learning motivation, engagement and career cognition. The study also applied semi-structured interviews with five teachers and five students to validate the results from the quantitative study and provide insight into the experiential, motivational and cognitive processes of the students. The study contributes to the empirical database for case-based teaching in vocational secondary education and develops an integrated theoretical framework for the relationship between case-based teaching and learning motivation, engagement and career cognition from the perspective of constructivist learning processes and career identity development.