A wide use of interactive training
methods for creative skills development is emphasized in training process with
a perspective of achieving higher level of education. The core elements
intended to develop students’ thinking skills are identified in David
Jonassen’s integrated model within three core strands: basic (skills, attitudes
and dispositions required to learn essential information), critical (the dynamic
reorganization of knowledge), and creative (the requirement to go beyond
accepted knowledge to generate new knowledge) skills [6,130].
One of the very natural ways of acquiring knowledge in
a domain is to be immerged in a situation related to this domain and to
practice. This mode of acquisition is known as “learning by doing”. In the
context of business education, where the amount of operational knowledge to
transmit is very important, two solutions have been found: the business
cases, the business simulation games.
Simulation is the process of
designing a model of a real or imagined system and conducting experiments with
that model. The purpose of simulation experiments is to understand the behavior
of the system or evaluate strategies for the operation of the system.
Assumptions are made about this system and mathematical algorithms and
relationships are derived to describe these assumptions. If the system is
simple, the model may be represented and solved analytically [4]. The learning
objectives of simulation exercises are: to simplify systems, to demonstrate
other people's perspectives, to develop "battlefront" skills in
safety and to solve problems from the inside out. The eye-opening moments can
endow trainees with a vivid, deeply personal understanding of the most abstract
training concepts.
The experimental model approach for
the design of large scale systems is the key for learning about human
organizations [2,381]. A topic is more apt to be suitable for simulation if it
embodies at least one of the following characteristics: seeing the world
through other people's eyes (teams-competitors); performing tasks
simultaneously; performing under pressure; developing systems thinking; recognizing
cognitive dissonance [3].
Question prompts include procedural
prompts (designed to help learners complete specific tasks, learn cognitive
strategies in specific areas), elaboration prompts (to help learners to articulate
thoughts and elicit explanatory responses), and reflection prompts (guide
student in planning, monitoring and evaluation) [1, 9-10].
One of the problems simulation
designers face is development of an appropriate performance assessment model.
Because of a perceived superiority of mathematics-based scoring systems in
training, simulation designers often attempt to develop quantitative models for
assessing trainee performance. These may be appropriate for quantitative
simulations-those dealing with financial or other formulaic disciplines – but
for most qualitative simulations they are not. "Qualitative" simulations
teach human-centered subjects like ethics or teamwork or cultural diversity.
Mathematical analogs are usually too limited and inflexible to account for
their myriad variables-or too complicated to produce meaningful results.
At the last – analysis phase students
should be able to perceive in retrospect the process of their investigation,
how it drove toward purpose, how it depended on assumptions embedded in concepts,
how the perception of relationship and gathering of facts struggled with
personal opinion, and, most important, how the process drew them closer to
reliable answers than they were at the beginning.
Simulation experience provides
conditions for more sophisticated and relevant inquiry. Perhaps the important
thing is what happens after the simulation is over, when students ask about
real world analogues to events and factors in the simulation, about ways of dealing with stress and
tension. Maybe participation gives a more integrated view of the interconnection
of political, social, interpersonal, cultural, economic, historical, etc.,
factors. In simulations the students learn skills of decision-making, resource
allocation, communication, persuasion, influence-resisting. Simulations provide
participants with explicit, experiential, gut-level referents about ideas,
concepts, and words used to describe human behavior [5]. Since simulations are
student-run exercises, "control" of the classroom is moved from the
teacher to the structure of the simulation, and thereby student-teacher
relations become more informal and interactive.
1.
GE Xun, Land Susan M. A
Conceptual Framework for Scaffolding Ill-Structured Problem-Solving Processes
Using Question Prompts and Peer Interactions // Educ. Technology Research and
Development. – 2004. – Vol. 52, # 2. –
Pp.5-22.
2.
Klabbers Jan H. G. Learning as
Acquisition and Learning as Interaction // Simulation & Gaming. – SAGE
Publications, 2000. – Vol. 31, No. 3. Pp. 380-406.
3.
Shirts R.G. Ten Secrets of
Successful Simulations – http://www.simulation
trainingsystems.com/business/articles/tensecrets.html.
4.
Smith Roger D. Simulation
Article – http://www.modelbenders.com/
encyclopedia/encyclopedia.html.
5.
Sprague Hall T. Inventory of
Hunches - http://www.simulationtraining
systems.com/business/articles/inventory.html
6.
Townsend M., Wheeler S. Is
There Anybody Out There? Teaching Assistants’ Experiences of Online Learning //
The Quarterly Review of Distance Education. – 2004. – Volume 5 (2). – Pp.
127-138.