That's the point I'm struggling to try to make Jack. However, I would say we are using similes more than metaphors; we are expressing a resemblance between things of different kinds, what we teach and the process by which we teach, and reality.
My classes in New Zealand consist of students from 10 to 12 national cultures, most from "Asia". The pedagogy that some have been exposed to is that what is taught is the way things are, and they're supposed to learn (sometimes memorise) and be able to repeat the course material. In spite of spending hours on personality traits and cultural traits being distributed more or less normally across populations, I still get national sample means of Hofstede's value dimensions being used as if they were laws in explanations. (I'm well aware of the adage that "If the student has not learnt, the teacher has not taught.) Understanding and using simulations requires a significant breadth of knowledge and maturity.
I've been on teams in post-graduate and executive education classes where we used simulations and competed against other teams. Some of us were quickly able to determine the biases of the simulation authors and to start playing to the rules of the simulation, which did not necessarily reflect reality. The goal was to outperform the other teams. When we did this, we got the highest scores. This has application to reality if you believe life is a game we play; games have rules to be followed and used.
Romie
Jack Ring <jring@AMUG.ORG> wrote:
Perhaps it would be useful to see simulation not as an attempt to depict reality but a way of educing learning --- far beyond the factoids in the simulation.
Perhaps it would be useful to see that every lecture or other academic artifice is a simulation of sorts, as distinct from the real act of managing a business.
Using metaphor to help people learn is rather well accepted. Now, as observed by the U.S. national poet, "What isn't metaphor?"
QED
Jack Ring
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, August 19, 2006 11:48 PM
Subject: Re: Two excellent articles on shortcomings in teaching IB in this issue of AI...
True, Erwin, but, taking a military map as a model, I'm yet to see a simulation package that approaches that wealth and detail of information. Thinking through my opinons, I would say that simulations would be more useful if that dealt with a specific task, such as B2B marketing, consumer marketing, greenfield FDI in China or India or the EU or the USA rather than a "global" approach. Do a specific simulation well, and develop into several specific simulaitons, rather than a sometimes misleading simulation trying to do too much. Which most do.
They're kind of like using the "CIA World Factbook" to make FDI or markeing decisions.
Regards,
Romie
Erwin Rausch <DidacticRa@AOL.COM> wrote: In a message dated 8/18/2006 8:44:51 PM Eastern Daylight Time, littrellaom@YAHOO.CO.NZ writes:
Aren't we trying to educate students to operate successfully in an apparently infinitely complex environment?
Yes. Romie - that should be our goal.
However, in my opinion that does not need depicting all of reality in a simulation - since that is impossible anyhow. What we need to do is to provide them with a map and a compass - guidelines in our situation.
That is what decision-making guidelines can do - they can provide the tools for navigating an infinitely complex environment that constantly comes up with NEW challenges.
Cheers,
Erwin
"Who dare to teach must never cease to learn."-John Cotton Dana
Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA,PhD, FIAIR, An fánaí fiáin
Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, N.Z.
http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
PARTICIPATE in a study of leadership & values:
hppt://www.leadershipvalues.homestead.com/
Try the all-new Yahoo! Mail . "The New Version is radically easier to use" The Wall Street Journal
"Who dare to teach must never cease to learn."-John Cotton Dana
Romie F. Littrell, BA, MBA,PhD, FIAIR, An fánaí fiáin
Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, N.Z.
http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/PARTICIPATE in a study of leadership & values:
hppt://www.leadershipvalues.homestead.com/
The
all-new Yahoo! Mail goes wherever you go - free your email address from your Internet provider.