The Role of Games and Simulations to Teach Abstract Concepts of Anarchy, Cooperation, and Conflict in World Politics

McCarthy, Mary M.

doi:10.1080/15512169.2014.947417

Cited by 32 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Importantly, the student engagement benefits of simulations are not only due to their ability to apply new knowledge to actual situations, but also because they are fun and a change from more traditional lecture styles of teaching, they create intrinsic desires to learn and can allow for social relationships to develop (cf. Hromek and Roffey 2009;McCarthy 2014). Simulations also show real-world implications allowing students to determine the relevance of what they are being taught.…”

Section: Simulations In the Literaturementioning

confidence: 95%

The Effectiveness of Simulations as an Outreach Tool: Using Simulations to Boost Interest in EU-Related Higher Education Study

Heard-Lauréote

Bortun

Kreuschitz-Markovic³

2019

JCER

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The pedagogical effectiveness of active learning methods within university teaching, such as simulations, has been widely acknowledged. There is some evidence that simulations are effective tools at engaging students in the classroom. Yet, empirical evidence of actual impacts on learning are not as well-documented as they could be. Importantly however, little work has been done to see their contribution and impact as an outreach and recruitment tool to bring new students into the social sciences discipline. This article builds on the assumption that simulations can prove effective when used as university outreach tools to enhance interest in pursuing higher education study. We argue that EU-related simulations engaging students in secondary education stimulate their interest in studying European politics and, more generally, international relations at university level. The article relies on data collected through pre-and post-simulation questionnaires completed by the pupils who participated in simulations that took place in six secondary schools between 2016 and 2017. The empirical investigation reveals three key effects of those simulations. First, the simulations enhanced the participants' interest in pursuing university degrees associated with European Union (EU) politics. Second, the simulations increased the participants' self-assessed knowledge of EU politics. Third, the simulations consolidated the participants' perceived importance of understanding how the EU works. Overall, these findings back our claim that EU-related simulations may be used as outreach tools to boost interest in pursuing EU-related subjects in higher education. In the context of the ongoing Brexit process, such a boost is desirable as the understanding of EU politics will continue to be relevant for the future generations of British students.

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Section: Simulations In the Literaturementioning

confidence: 95%

The Effectiveness of Simulations as an Outreach Tool: Using Simulations to Boost Interest in EU-Related Higher Education Study

Heard-Lauréote

Bortun

Kreuschitz-Markovic³

2019

JCER

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“…The debates are more impassioned when RPS are approached through the educational or mixed approaches. It has been argued that the research is equivocal on whether the RPS develop relevant skills (Baranowski and Weir 2015;McCarthy 2014;Raymond and Usherwood 2013;Gosen and Washbush 2004). Moreover, some argue that RPS and other active learning techniques do not improve students' knowledge and results overall, as their tests demonstrate.…”

Section: Rps and Skills Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Role-Play Simulation of Negotiations between the EU and the Eurasian Economic Union: Teaching while Enhancing a Transnational Dialogue

Romanova¹,

Gudalov²

2019

JCER

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The article reviews the experience of the role-play simulation (RPS) 'Modelling negotiations between the EU and EAEU', arranged in 2018 and 2019. Its specific goals were building knowledge (about the European Union (EU) and Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and enhancing a transnational dialogue between EU (Western) and Russian students in the context of a deteriorated EU-Russian relationship. This latter aspect of international RPS has received insufficient attention in the literature, yet it might contribute to the improvement of real-life EU-Russian relations through fostering a transnational dialogue and mutual understanding among young citizens. The article outlines the setting of the RPS and addresses three major difficulties that the organisers faced (designing the RPS, preparing students and fostering their dialogue), the solutions that were developed and the assessments of the results. Keywords Role-play simulation; Modelling; EU-Russian relations; Eurasian Economic Union; Free trade area; Transnational dialogueRole-play simulations (RPS) have been widely practised since the second half of the twentieth century. They model the work of a state, an international organisation (or their institutions), in limited time and space and, based on scripts and role descriptions that are close to the rules and procedures, practised in real life. This article focuses on the simulation of negotiations between the European Union (EU) and Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) that took place in 2018 and 2019 at Saint Petersburg State University. It pursued two goals: 1) to enhance students' knowledge of the EU, EAEU and their relations (in particular prospects for a free trade area between them); and 2) to stimulate a transnational dialogue through building contacts among Russian and EU (Western) students and developing relevant transferable skills. The article first reviews the literature on RPS; it then explains the context in which this RPS was prepared, its goals and setting. Next, it outlines how organisers dealt with three major difficulties, which are: designing the RPS; ensuring that students are prepared; and enhancing the transnational dialogue and ultimately building trust at the societal level. Finally, the article looks at how the results of the simulation were assessed (including the solutions adopted for the difficulties that were identified). APPROACHES TO RPSThe existing literature offers three approaches to RPS, which can be identified as academic, educational and mixed. According to the first one, RPS is a tool of analysis that, through simplifying real processes, allows for a focusing on their most significant aspects and on forecasting future developments. Historically, this is the first approach to RPS, which dates back to studies of biological logics in social organisation through observing the animal world (Tolman 1948) and to studies in modern behavioural psychology (Watson 1913;Thorndike 1905). At a later stage, econometric logic ENDNOTES 1 The team initially consisted of three scholars from the Departmen...

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“…The second distinction can be drawn between the simulation of theory, in which a simulation is created to help students learn about context-independent concepts, and the simulation of practice and specific cases, where theoretical abstraction resides in the background (Bridge & Radford 2014, 425). The theory-practice gap is where most simulations, including ours, situate themselves: Simulations are a particularly engaging way to teaching IR theory (Bridge & Radford 2014;Kille 2002;McCarthy 2014;Simpson & Kaussler 2009), which may be more difficult for students if only offered by abstract means. Equally so, however, simulations may effectively introduce the practical difficulties and real-life dilemmas of international politics to students who qua their background may have little experience in such matters (Asal et.…”

Section: Simulations In the Teaching And Learning Of Irmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching Experience: How to Make and Use PowerPoint-Based Interactive Simulations for Undergraduate IR Teaching

Meibauer

Nøhr

2017

Journal of Political Science Education

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This paper is about designing and implementing PowerPoint-based interactive simulations for use in IR introductory undergraduate classes. Based on core pedagogical literature, models of human skill acquisition, and previous research on simulations in IR teaching, we argue that simulations can be usefully employed at the early transition from "novice" to "advanced beginner" in a learning process, where the student begins to leave behind rational rules in favor of an own situational experience. However, currently available IR simulations for teaching purposes are often high-cost/high-tech and especially time-intensive: if they do not require custom-made software packages with difficult interfaces and expensive licensing fees, they are often targeted at course-long or at least day-long activities that demand extensive preparation of both teachers and students, with book-length manuals, intricate rules, integrated assessment tools, and specific secondary literature, and conventionally target more experienced students. This paper explains how teachers can create an easily accessible and classlong (50 min) interactive experience for undergraduate IR students to encourage theoretical linkage with own in-class experience at a very low cost. We do this by employing PowerPoint, specifically inbuilt features such as hyperlinks, interactive pathways, or audio or video integration that can be used interactively rather than passively (as in a standard presentation).

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The Role of Games and Simulations to Teach Abstract Concepts of Anarchy, Cooperation, and Conflict in World Politics

Cited by 32 publications

References 25 publications

The Effectiveness of Simulations as an Outreach Tool: Using Simulations to Boost Interest in EU-Related Higher Education Study

The Effectiveness of Simulations as an Outreach Tool: Using Simulations to Boost Interest in EU-Related Higher Education Study

Role-Play Simulation of Negotiations between the EU and the Eurasian Economic Union: Teaching while Enhancing a Transnational Dialogue

Teaching Experience: How to Make and Use PowerPoint-Based Interactive Simulations for Undergraduate IR Teaching

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