new church life: november/december 2015
have any interest in higher education, it’s a great read.
Why are these kinds of approaches so memorable?
Carnes argues that when students take on a role in a
simulation, a mock trial, or especially a full role-immersion
game, one or more of three elements capture them:
imagination, competition and absurdity.
Imagination: Just like taking on a character in a
theatrical production, immersing themselves into other
people’s worlds allows students to think differently.
Competition: These games involve winners and losers.
Dr. Greg Rose
It is most often the competitive element that encourages
students to pay more attention and exert more effort than they might otherwise.
Absurdity: Students often dress the part; strange things happen in the
games; and they have fun.
Do students learn anything?
Yes! Not only are these games devised to engage students, but they are
carefully designed to engage them with core liberal arts skills and activities,
including:
• Engagement with foundational texts (in our case, the Federalist
Papers and Plato’s Republic)
• Research, writing and public speaking
• Critical thinking and debate
• Consideration of multiple points of view
• Team work
The evidence so far in the class has been positive:
• Our students have been very engaged – some intensely engaged
– but we have also seen students willing to think about and
discuss course-related issues in a much more sustained way in the
classroom.
• Some students have reported that the debates frequently continue
outside of the classroom.
• Another student told us that he was reading his primary sources
more closely, because he had to really understand the arguments
and think of the counter arguments.
• A group of students even took trips to Independence Hall, the
Liberty Bell and City Tavern in nearby Philadelphia on their own
initiative to gain extra points in the game.
We have completed more than half the course and are eager to see the
results and hear the students’ assessment at the end.
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