We present a case-based role-play exercise that effectively simulates a crisis students must manage. In the exercise, a farm equipment manufacturing company has decided to redirect its product line, and this change requires laying off a significant portion of its workforce. Students must grapple with the fact that a local news report will be…

Role-play is a natural and dominant form of early childhood activity. While playing, a child masters new forms of behavior, learns to interact with others, and develops imagination and self-regulation skills. The existing methods of play assessment are based on different theoretical approaches that variously define both the criteria for play and…

A group of adults, dressed in authentic medieval costumes, organize and stage a full-scale battle at a local park; weapons (made from foam), roles, and medieval speech are all part of the event. This is known as "Live Action Role Play" -- more commonly referred to as "LARP." Although many settings and scenarios have been used…

The traditional treatment of the electric circuit in textbooks can be criticized in at least three respects: A) Knowledge of the global aspects of the electric circuit as a system is essential for a deeper understanding. However, this is not sufficiently emphasized. B) The presentation of the term "potential difference" or…

This paper is based on the first two iterations of the Twitter reenactment in "History 450: The Growth of Metropolitan Milwaukee," taught at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) in Fall 2020 and 2021. According to the authors, they did not come up with the Twitter reenactment as a pedagogical tool on their own. This paper…

In this adaptable activity, students add research about other regions and cultures to the traditional role-play. Students are given a character, research the lives of people in the area and the issues affecting them, and then develop their ideas about what that character might think about those issues. Giving them the chance to research and learn…

This article describes a developmental framework for the application of role-playing games (RPGs) in leadership learning. RPGs relate to leadership learning on a range of levels from individual development, to team building, to parallel group processes. The variety and depth of learning and development potential in RPGs is very exciting,…

Employee selection and group decision-making skills are critical for ensuring hiring is valid, meets organizational goals, and considers ethical and legal limitations. This exercise has participants role-play members of a search committee reviewing job finalists using shared and unique information. A novel twist to traditional hidden-profile…

In this role-playing teaching case, students impersonate Selective Consulting, a fictitious, Australian-based company tasked with assessing the information security practices of SkillPlat, a provider of apprenticeship and traineeship services. The case develops around the one-week visit paid by Selective Consulting to SkillPlat's headquarters,…

Getting students comfortable with responding to customer objections is a challenge. This assignment introduces students to objection response using a live role-play conducted with professionals over the phone. The project typically takes 3 weeks to complete and is an excellent way to deliver value to professional partners or involve alumni in a…

During the course of international curriculum reform, decision making about socioscientific issues (SSI)--open-ended controversial issues with connections to science, technology, and society--has been labeled a critical tool for achieving scientific literacy. Therefore, enhancing students' socioscientific decision making as part of science…

Playing satisfies basic human needs such as deepening social relationships (Melton et al., 2019) and experiencing an ideal self's characteristics (Przybylski et al., 2012). In addition, games foster student engagement through the use of intrinsic motivation, critical thinking skills, and the use of creative problem solving (Boghian et al., 2019;…

This article outlines an active learning exercise that gives students the opportunity to learn and apply the behaviors of transformational leadership theory. Students watch a brief, prerecorded "before" video depicting transactional manager--employee interactions. Students then revise the script so that the manager exhibits the four I's…

Scholars have developed original pedagogical approaches to impart the knowledge and skills required for professional life in the area of peace and development. Experience-based learning, simulations, games, and role-plays have been used with positive results. Yet most efforts tend to overly simplify and narrow down the learning experience in…

A key concept and problem in international relations, the security dilemma obtains when one state's attempts to increase its security decreases the security of other states. The security dilemma's consequences are said to include unnecessary armament and conflict spirals. Described herein is an in-class exercise that challenges students to…