Enhancing Student Motivation and Learning: Experiences with a Simple Simulation

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the author's experiences in an introductory course in international relations with a simple simulation. The objective is to encourage others who have not yet done so to try using a simple simulation. After a brief review of the literature on simulations, it shows how the simulation is an easy and effective way to motivate students, improve social relations among students, and enhance learning. By participating in the simulation, students gain insights from their personal experiences. They gain insights into some of the problems confronting foreign policy makers and into the essence and limitations of the dominant approach to the study of international relations which provides the underlying assumptions upon which the simulation rests. Because it is a simple simulation it is easy to use early in an introductory course, but its very simplicity means it must not be used later in the course when a more complex simulation would be required. The paper encourages others to try simple simulations and makes some general observations for easy, early and effective use of them.