No abstract

The claims and counterclaims made for and against simulation games as learning devices are now legion. Within this sizable debate, the aims of the present article are modest: to examine the effect of participation in a simulation game on two types of cognitive knowledge. Those two types are objective test performance (a topic already much investigated) and concept recognition ability (a topic much less investigated). The experiment was conducted in a large (180 students) introductory sociology course and made use of random allocation of students to experimental and control groups.The large class size is itself a limiting condition on the experiment. Although not uncommon in colleges and universities, large classes are generally not the most favorable settings for simulation games. In smaller settings, the effects of a simulation game may differ.

No abstract