MarketTools: An educational commodity marketing game
Agricultural commodity market participants make decisions in a risky and changing environment. Few agricultural producers use the diverse marketing alternatives available to them. Many are unfamiliar with the mechanics of the alternatives and methods for incorporating them into marketing strategies. This article describes MarketTools, an educational software package designed to support real-time, competitive marketing games. MarketTools simplifies record keeping and provides the basis for a structured approach to marketing education. The concluding section summarizes experience in using MarketTools in adult education and classroom settings. © 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The Effectiveness of Games for Educational Purposes: A Review of Recent Research
This article reviews the literature that compares the instructional effectiveness of games to conventional classroom instruction. Studies dealing with empirical research rather than teachers'judgments are reviewed. Published reviews of research in English dating from 1963 to 1984 were examined and the literature was searched for studies from 1984 to 1991. Of the 67 studies considered over a period of 28 years, 38 show no difference between games and conventional instruction; 22 favor games; 5 favor games, but their controls are questionable; and 3 favor conventional instruction. Results for social sciences, math, language arts, logic physics, biology, retention over time, and interest are examined. Math is the subject area with the greatest percentage of results favoring games, but only eight studies have adequate controls. Thirty-three out of 46 social science games/simulations show no difference between games/simulations and classroom instruction. The authors conclude that subject matter areas where very specific content can be targeted are more likely to show beneficial effects for gaming.
Instructional gaming as a means to achieve skill in selecting ideas relevant for solving a problem
Two pilot studies investigated the effects of using IMP (Instructional Mathematics Play) kits, pamphlets with which individuals may play the mathematical game EQUATIONS against a computer programme. The highly‐branched 105‐kit series presents a total of 21 mathematical ideas ‐‐ five versions of each idea. Twenty‐nine junior high school students in a high‐ability mathematics class completed varying numbers of the kits in five 48 min sessions during a 2 week period; 10 junior high school mathematics teachers in a leadership training programme worked through the entire series at their individual paces during a 21/2 month period. Pre‐ and post‐tests focusing on the IMP kit ideas were designed by the investigators to evaluate the subjects’ abilities to detect the relevance of a particular idea for purposes of solving a problem and to evaluate a mathematical expression involving that idea. On the relevance/selecting pre‐test the students achieved solutions to 3.86 (mean) of the 21 problems; teachers achieved so...