Abstract
In civic education and political science classes, simulation games are increasingly recognised as a teaching tool to promote active learning, expecting them to enhance participants’ motivations and to convey transferable knowledge and skills. Furthermore, they have been described as a promising teaching approach with regard to the complex multi-level system of the European Union (EU). Empirical studies have underlined positive effects of simulation games; however, they usually either use purely qualitative or very small-N quantitative approaches. More systematic studies conducted recently didn’t focus on causes of the measured effects and have lacked depth due to a closed items design. The study presented here uses a mixed-method approach, analysing the effects of simulations of European Parliamentarian decision-making conducted with secondary school classes in Germany on students' political knowledge, motivations and attitudes. In addition to a standardised questionnaire with pre- and post-tests (N = 308), qualitative interviews were conducted (n = 12). The paper focuses on the relation between participants' conceptual changes and changes in perceived responsiveness of the EU. The results highlight relevant learning effects students experience in EU simulation games that are not yet captured appropriately by questionnaire studies and can stimulate the development of measurement tools for assessing process-oriented learning outcomes more adequately.
Highlights
Simulation games are an established teaching tool in civic education and political science classes
This paper focuses on the following research questions: What kinds of political knowledge do the participants gain during the simulation game? How is the students’ knowledge gain— or in other words, their conceptual change—related to changes in their attitudes towards the European Union (EU), their perception of EU responsiveness? In addition to a standardised written questionnaire with pre- and post-tests (N = 308), qualitative interviews were conducted with selected participants (n = 12)
Even though the simulation games evaluated in this study were quite short with only three hours including preparation and debriefing, the intervention study was able to highlight significant learning effects both on political knowledge and on political motivations and attitudes
Summary
Simulation games are an established teaching tool in civic education and political science classes. Scholars have described several positive expectations, such as enhancing participants’ political interest and conveying transferable knowledge and skills. They have been described as a promising teaching approach to convey deeper insights into the political process and to help students ‘to understand parliaments from the inside’ (Schöne). Empirical studies have underlined positive effects of simulation games on learners’ political dispositions. Systematic intervention studies have provided further insights into the effects of political simulation games. These studies didn’t focus on causes of the measured effects and have lacked depth regarding the learning effects due to a closed items design. There still is a lack of understanding how students’ conceptual changes brought about by participating in the game are related to their changes in political attitudes
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