Purpose of S&RP

Undergraduates often have difficulty conceptualizing phenomena for which they have little experience, such as life in an Islamic state or the pressures of foreign policy decision making. The participants of the S&RP Track I explored multiple ways political science might address this challenge. While the exercises employed by participants differed, the desire to help students experientially learn key concepts and materials provided the central motivation. S&RP are a valuable complement to traditional teacher-centered methods of content delivery, such as lectures that tend to focus on acquisition of knowledge without reflection. One clear advantage of S&RP is the ability to encourage synthesis and evaluation of information by literally taking students out of their chairs and having them “learn by doing.” Such strategies help students shift their roles from being passive receivers of information to active participants in the learning process. The participants of this track felt strongly that S&RP can play a vital role for students, faculty, and their institutions by enhancing faculty ability to impart key skills, analytical tools, and varied perspectives to students who in turn become empowered as a part of their own education. As institutions compete for students and students demand applicable courses, novel teaching methods that make clear connections between political instruction and the lived realities of those taught benefit everyone.

Design Elements of Simulations and Role Playing

Although rewarding for participants and instructors, the creation and execution of a successful S&RP activity can be time-consuming and challenging. Instructors must consider that even well-designed plans can fall victim to unforeseen circumstances, such as when participants fail to play key roles properly or technology-based simulations have glitches. Careful attention to the pedagogical goals of the simulation, time for preparation and debriefing, exercise format, and appropriate assessment increase the chances of significant student learning despite occasional unanticipated variables.

Numerous, usually overlapping, goals might be pursued in a simulation but knowing one's goals in advance is critical. For example, Wesley Chapin's Futura exercise prompts student teams to design governments, promoting student coordination and decision-making. Evaluating concepts of fairness in the absence of a classroom clique or social cues is a goal of Amy Lauren Lovecraft's tax experiment. In both cases, each activity helps students better understand and appreciate the problems of collective action through shared engagement. Instructors also may want to enhance specific course content or key skills. The Moot Court, as presented by John Kearnes and Becky daCruz, focuses students on honing the argumentation and textual analysis skills employed by lawyers, and the course design of Victoria Williams and Daniel Lang uses classic texts to teach modern political skills. Another common theme among the presentations was the connection between the theories of politics and their practice. Chapin's project of creating states from scratch, Michael Alan Brittingham's simulation of international tension over Taiwan, David Sadler's recreation of the Cuban missile crisis, and Brian Cook and Kristen Williams' presidential crisis all allow students to experience the pressures and pitfalls of Realpolitik. Lastly, experiential learning events can enhance student understanding of “the other.” How can students living in a democratic society understand the everyday realities and pressures facing citizens living in a totalitarian state? By having students assume legal roles in an Iranian court, Janet Laible encouraged students to learn the difficulties facing citizens engaged in a polity very different from the United States. In each case, students acquired new tools to both analyze and participate in political scenarios.

Once the goals have been established, instructors must consider some key variables as they design their S&RP tools. Course enrollment, the availability of technology, time constraints, the nature of the material, the degree of control an instructor desires, the level of complexity, and the preparation time needed are pertinent considerations for exercise design. Furthermore, the results of each simulation will be unique and debriefing is critical to student contextualization of their experience. The value of the simulation itself may not even be apparent to some students until they reflect upon it orally, in writing, or both. How one assesses the significance of the exercise can be crucial to demonstrating the worth of simulated learning to colleagues within and outside home departments and to administrators. Ideally, assessments should be both quantitative and qualitative. In any case, keeping good records of an S&RP exercise and creating a feedback mechanism from students are keys to avoiding problems and refining the simulation for future use.

Current Challenges and Future Directions

Using S&RP exercises in class is not without its challenges. For extensive projects, institutional support can be important to reduce costs or coordinate student availability. Even in small-scale exercises other problems may arise, such as the free rider. Most instructors supplement careful monitoring with peer evaluation to ensure the widespread and meaningful participation of students. Sometimes difficult to overcome is the tendency for assigned roles to become stereotypes. For example, students who assume controversial identities, such as portraying Fidel Castro, are likely to need more guidance than a student in a role more closely related to her or his interests. The most complex simulation roles require careful student preparation to ensure not only accurate portrayal, but avoidance of issues related to ill-prepared or absent students; both can wreak havoc with the success of role-playing exercises.

The investment costs of S&RP exercises in terms of time and energy are high for instructors, but the rewards can be substantial. Students enjoy simulations, achieve “deep learning,” and remember the event long after taking the class. In many instances, students reward instructors with better teaching evaluations, perhaps as a function of the degree of learning they achieved in the course. Furthermore, as the academy embraces more forms of cross-disciplinary methods and courses, simulations are well suited to help students bridge fields of knowledge. As in real life, simulations require of students a mixture of skills such as effective communication, strategic thinking, considering history, or handling budgets to address any particular political problem. Unfortunately, many would-be converts are discouraged by the investment costs necessary for S&RP success. This is indeed a daunting hurdle to overcome with the increasing expectations placed on faculty. To encourage others a network should be created where simulation-users can share their experiences, ideas, and designs. Many instructors create and use simulations in isolation, yet the S&RP Track I discussed the similarity of instructor experiences across and beyond the United States. It is time to make experiential learning a collective enterprise, and the development of such a network through APSA and its linkage to other networks such as those in the UK is strongly encouraged.