Despite long years of effort and experimentation, the use of simulation/games for education has known little acceptance. In reaction to this, there has been a tendency to sharply distinguish adult games from children's games. The author's experience and observation leads him to argue that there is, in fact, a continuity and that the elements of games that favor learning in children are also at work with adults. However, there is a progression from child to adult, and the games used with adults must be adapted to the adult's interest in games. The article ends with some practical suggestions for pursuing this approach.
The aim of this research is, first, to determine the validity of a simulation game as a method of teaching and an instrument for the development of reasoning and, second, to study the relationship between learning and students’ behavior toward games. The participants were college students in a History of International Relations course, with two groups participating in a simulation game and one serving as a control group. The results show that the experimental groups had higher scores on a test of comprehension and that participants within these two groups who were identified as operating at a level of formal reasoning (as evaluated by an arrangement test) obtained the highest knowledge scores. Learning style was found to be an important variable in explaining motivation toward the game.
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