by Hall T. Sprague
Following are some guesses
about the educational value of simulations. None of them is
proved, but they are more than just idle hunches, since they
were formulated by instructors and students with extensive experience
in their use. These may help you to decide how you will use
the technique and what the outcomes might be.
1. Maybe simulations are "motivators." Their main payoff may
be that they generate enthusiasm for or commitment to: (a) learning
in general, (b) social studies or some other subject area, (c)
a specific discipline like history, (d) a specific course, (e)
a specific teacher.
2. Maybe a simulation experience leads students to more sophisticated
and relevant inquiry. That is, perhaps the important thing
is
what happens after the simulation is over, when students ask
about the "model" which determined some of the elements of
the simulation, about real world analogues to events and
factors
in the simulation, about processes like communication, about
ways of dealing with stress and tension. Maybe participation
leads
naturally into a critique and analysis of the simulation by
the students, and maybe this can lead easily into a model
building
experience. And maybe the greatest learning occurs when students
build their own simulations.
3. Maybe simulations give participants a more integrated view
of some of the ways of people. Maybe they see the interconnectedness
of political, social, interpersonal, cultural, economic, historical,
etc., factors. Maybe simulations help people understand the
idea of a "social system." Maybe the simulation experience helps
them integrate ideas and information they already have.
4. Maybe participants in simulations learn skills, decision-making,
resource allocation, communication, persuasion, influence-resisting.
Or maybe they learn how important those processes are. Maybe
they learn about the rational and emotional components of these
skills.
5. Maybe simulations affect attitudes: (a) maybe participants
gain empathy for real-life decision makers; (b) maybe they get
a feeling that life is much more complicated than ever imagined;
(c) maybe they get a feeling that they can do something important
about affecting their personal life or the nations of the world.
6. Maybe simulations provide participants with explicit, experiential,
gut-level referents about ideas, concepts, and words used to
describe human behavior. Maybe everyone has a personal psychology
or sociology, and maybe a simulation experience brings this
personal view closer to reality.
7. Maybe people know many things they don't know they know,
and simulations act as an information retrieval device to help
bring this knowledge to consciousness.
8. Maybe participants in simulations learn the form and content
of the model which lies behind the simulation. That is, in a
corporation management simulation, maybe they learn about the
ways in which certain aspects of the marketplace are related;
in an inter-national simulation, maybe they learn the relationship
between the relative satisfaction of political influentials
and the probability that leaders will retain office.
9. Maybe the main importance of simulations are their effect
on the social setting in which learning takes place. Maybe their
physical format alone, which demands a significant departure
from the usual setup of a classroom (chair shuffling, grouping,
possibly room dividers, etc.), produces a more relaxed natural
exchange between teacher and students later on. since simulations
are student-run exercises, maybe they move "control" of the
classroom from the teacher to the structure of the simulation,
and thereby allow for better student-teacher relations. Simulations
are usually very engaging; maybe one product of such engagement
is that students drop their usual interpersonal facades, and
maybe this leads to more open classroom atmosphere in later
sessions.
10. Maybe simulations lead to personal growth. The high degree
of involvement may provide some of the outcomes hoped for from
T-groups, sensitivity training, basic encounter groups, etc...
that is, a better sense of how one appears to others; discovery
of personal skills, abilities, fears, weakness, that weren't
apparent before; opportunities to express affection, anger and
indifference without permanently crippling consequences.
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This article maybe downloaded and distributed provided Hall
T. Sprague is cited as the author and Simulation Training Systems,
P. O. Box 910, Del Mar, California 92014 (1-800-942-2900: e-mail
as mitch@simulationtrainingsystems.com) is identified
as the publisher.
