Power and Politics in the Classroom: The Effect of Student Roles in Simulations

Abstract

We argue that power roles can make a significant difference in how students experience in-class simulations. To test this, students who participated in Congressional simulations in one of the author's introduction to American politics classes were surveyed concerning their views of Congress, the legislative process, and the simulation experience. We then compared responses between students assigned to the majority and minority parties, as well as between students in “high-power” roles (leadership positions in the majority party) and “low-power” roles (non-leadership positions in the minority party). Power role had little effect on general views of Congress or the legislative process, but there were clear differences between power-role and non-power-role students in their views of the simulation. Students in power roles reported a greater understanding of and appreciation for the legislative process and found the simulation to be a more worthwhile experience than did students in non-power roles. Given this, simulations that enable students to experience both power and non-power roles may be preferable to those in which students only experience a single role.

Keywords:

• active-learning
• Congress
• pedagogy
• power
• simulation

Notes

*Difference of means statistically significant (p < .05).