Games and simulations: Creative educational alternatives

On “Stepping Back and Letting Go”: The Role of Control in the Success or Failure of Social Studies Simulations

“…This study tentatively affirms the importance of the features of simulations articulated earlier in Wright-Maley (in press) and adds to the literature that suggests student participation and dynamism are central to the nature of simulations (Arnold, 1998;Butler, 1988;Colella, 2000;Leigh & Spindler, 2004;Wilensky & Stroup, 1999;Young et al, 2012). Simulations enable teachers to facilitate opportunities for students to wrestle with the complexities of human action and to develop critical skills used in navigating an uncertain world.…”

“…First, simulations should reflect the dynamism of real-life processes, events, or phenomena (Leigh & Spindler, 2004;Wilensky & Stroup, 1999;Young, Slota, & Lai, 2012) in a delimited way (Adlrich, 2006). Second, they should incorporate participation that positions students in active decisionmaking roles that meaningfully impact the activities' outcomes (Arnold, 1998;Butler, 1988;Colella, 2000). Third, simulations must be pedagogically mediated by the teacher to ensure that these other elements cohere into focused and powerful learning experiences (Crookall, 2010;DeLeon, 2008;Gillespie, 1973;Smith & Boyer, 1996;Wright-Maley, in press).…”

Beyond the “Babel Problem”: Defining Simulations for the Social Studies

“…Others features scholars have attend to include the completion of events (Jacobs & Dempsey, 1993) and students' assumption of roles (Butler, 1988). Simulations are also variously described as enactments of underlying models (Feinstein, Mann, & Corsun, 2002), as a representational form of play (Meyers, 1999), more generically as "learning tools" (Gosenpud & Washbush, 1996), or, unhelpfully, as a representation of any other thing in a different form (Cruickshank & Telfer, 1980).…”

“…In order to avoid redundancy, it is sufficient to say that much of the dynamism described by Arnold (1998), McCall (2012, and others is linked to active student participation; it is for this reason that the participation of students is a fundamental component of simulations (e.g., Arnold, 1998;Butler, 1988;McCall, 2012). Even in the case of the plague simulation described in the previous section, students are active participants in the simulation.…”

Identificación de estrategias en un juego bipersonal entre estudiantes universitarios

“…Para los fines de esta investigación son de particular interés los resultados relativos a juegos de estrategia y el impacto que tienen en las estrategias de resolución de problemas. En este sentido, Krulik y Wilderman (1976), Kraus (1982), Butler (1988), Oldfield (1991aOldfield ( , 1991b, De Guzmán (1995), Corbalán (1996) y Olfos y Villagrán (2001) coinciden en que las similitudes de los juegos de estrategia y los problemas matemáticos pueden resultar provechosas para el desarrollo de estrategias utilizables en la resolución de problemas; Gairín (2003) explora la utilidad de juegos de estrategia para iniciarse en el campo de las demostraciones matemáticas y De Guzmán (1984) puntualiza que no todos los juegos se prestan para el aprovechamiento didáctico, puesto que algunos son simplemente acertijos que no admiten un esquema de pensamiento que conduzca a un método. Sin embargo, ninguno de los autores establece bajo qué condiciones emergen estrategias que enriquezcan el proceso de resolución de problemas y tampoco aportan evidencia de efectos negativos del uso de juegos en la clase de matemáticas.…”