POSSIBILITIES OF USING GAMIFICATION IN TEACHING ECONOMICS TO MEDICAL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

Background. Among the key trends influencing education today, the following stand out: “massification” and internationalization of education, turbulence of the world economy, “digital revolution”, technological innovation. Gamification has become a popular tool for solving various problems of varying degrees of complexity and today is confidently used in areas including business, personnel management, healthcare, and education. The purpose is to examine the application of gamification in teaching economics to medical students. Materials and methods. When working on the article, we used an analysis of sources containing experience in the use of gamification by domestic and foreign scientists, generalization and systematization of the results obtained, modeling of the educational process, a pedagogical experiment on modifying existing economic games and using them in practical classes in economics, observation of behavior students in classes using gaming technologies, analyzing the results of using games. Results. The characteristics of generations differ in different countries depending on the economic, social, political and other conditions of the development of society. Taking these characteristics into account, educational standards and teaching technologies are changing. Educational technologies used in the process of teaching economics to students of generation “Y” required significant improvements for teaching to students of generation “Z”. The idea of using gaming technologies, which is actively used in our time, cannot be called completely new. The classics of pedagogy K.D. Ushinsky and Sukhomlinsky V.A. spoke about the need for games in learning. The authors conducted a pedagogical experiment on introducing gamification into the teaching of economics to medical university students. At a medical university, students study economics in their junior years, when they themselves are still dependent and, with rare exceptions, have no experience of earning money on their own. The use of games, common in teaching economics at specialized economic universities, presupposes a well-developed economic thinking and knowledge base. For medical students, gamification tools require significant adaptation and refinement. Also, when introducing games into the learning process, it is necessary to take into account the different perceptions of students of generations “Y” and “Z”. Generation Z is closer to computer games and, accordingly, there are opportunities for their use in education. However, as the experiment showed, these students willingly take part and show interest in classes using the classical principles of board games. As a result, approaches to introducing gamification into teaching economics to medical university students have been developed. An analysis of gamification as a tool for developing interest and motivation of students was carried out, taking into account the theory of generations. As part of gamification, board games were modified and tested, which allowed students to develop skills in applying economic knowledge in future professional activities, including the commercialization of scientific developments.