Simulations, Games, Role-Playing, and Dramatization

Self-Assessment Question:

Do you know how to use these four forms of experiential learning activities in ways that engage students' identity and feelings, thereby promoting a fuller understanding of the meaning of the subject of your course?

Quick Take:

Few learning activities have the capability of engaging students' emotions more powerfully than having them take on and portray the thinking and behavior of another person. This set of four activities all do that in one way or another, but differ somewhat in the way each one accomplishes this. An educational game, for example, involves students in some sort of competition or achievement in relationship to a goal. Drama usually involves a prepared script while role play typically involves more spontaneity and created responses.

When preparing one of these activities, think of problematic and challenging situations that students may face in the future. These situations will often involve some choice or a conflict of motives. Then devise a game, role play, simulation, or dramatization around that situation. But be clear about what the purpose or learning goal is for the activity. Is the primary purpose to get them to be more empathic with a perspective they find difficult to understand? Or to work through and resolve some typical conflicts? Or develop a bigger repertoire of possible responses? Or something else?

A second key practice is to hold a debriefing after the activity, to allow the class to discuss what happened during the activity, the reasons for that, alternative responses that different people might have made, what "lessons should be learned" from the experience, etc. In some cases, professors have students write individual essays on the experience and what they learned from it, after the whole-class debriefing.

References:

1. "Instructional Games and Simulations," and "Role Playing and Microteaching," Chapters 16 and 17 respectively in Teaching Tips, 9th edition, by Wilbert J. McKeachie. Lexington, Mass.: Heath, 1994. Pp. 163-172. McKeachie offers some succinct advice and some examples of three of these forms of teaching.

2. "Role Playing and Case Studies", Chapter 19 in Tools for Teaching by Barbara Gross Davis. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993. Pp. 159-161. A good introduction to what is involved in role playing, and some well-chosen advice.

3. "Drama", "Role Playing, Simulations, and Games," in Active Learning by Charles C. Bonwell and James A. Eison. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 1 (1991). Washington, D.C.: George Washington University. Pp. 46-50.
Offers some good distinctions among all four of these forms of experiential learning, some examples, some advice, and information on some studies of their effectiveness.