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Teaching with Inter-Nation Simulation and Case Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

James A. Robinson ,
Lee F. Anderson ,
Margaret G. Hermann  and
Richard C. Snyder
James A. Robinson
Affiliation:
The Ohio State University
Lee F. Anderson
Affiliation:
Northwestern University
Margaret G. Hermann
Affiliation:
Educational Testing Service
Richard C. Snyder
Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine
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Extract

“Simulation” and “case studies” are supplementary teaching aids available for university courses in political science and international relations. The newer technique, simulation, has been used at several universities to augment instruction in international relations, foreign policy making, national security policy, urban politics, and political parties and elections. In fields other than political science, similar techniques abound. The number of business games or simulations exceeds 100, and less numerous games exist for educational administration, legislatures, career choices, and diplomacy, to name a few. Case studies also supplement a wide range of politics courses, including introduction to American government, public administration, party organization, legislative processes, and public law. The case method is the hallmark of schools of law and schools of business, and it is now emulated in teaching the history of science and in training in research methodology in sociology.

Different types of simulations and cases and their uses have been described and discussed elsewhere. Evaluation of games and cases as supplementary instructional aids has almost invariably been impressionistic. The consumers of these teaching methods have reported their personal experiences with them and have advanced claims for and criticisms of them, but they have undertaken little empirical research to determine whether the claims for particular simulations or cases are valid or to compare the actual effects of alternative methods. Moreover, the Ford Foundation expended thousands of dollars to induce business schools to try business games, but their investment in evaluating the success or failure of this innovation extended to convening a conference to discuss the subject, not to carrying out research on it.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 60 , Issue 1 , March 1966 , pp. 53 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1966

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References

1 In addition to the use of Inter-Nation Simulation at Northwestern by Chadwick F. Alger, Raymond Tanter, and others, the aame technique has been used at The Ohio State University in courses on national security policy and decision making and at the University of Michigan in an introductory course in international relations. Professors Lincoln Bloomfield and Norman Padelford of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have a political-diplomatic game for use in foreign policy courses. Bernard Cohen introduced a similar game at the University of Wisconsin. Other forms of simulations or games include Robert C. Wood's local politics game designed for courses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Smith College; James S. Coleman's election game used at The Johns Hopkins University and in Baltimore high schools; Dale Garvey's national political system game at Kansas State Teachers' College, Emporia; and Robert Alperin's American government game at the University of Maryland.

2 Greenlaw, Paul S., Herron, Lowell W., and Rawdon, Richard H., Business Simulation in Industrial and University Education (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1962)Google Scholar. A useful directory of management games, including information about basic models, administration, and where further information can be found, is in Kibbee, Joel M., Craft, Clifford, and Nanus, Burt, Management Games: A New Technique for Executive Development (New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1961), pp. 315–336Google Scholar.

3 For an introductory reader, see Guetzkow, Harold, ed., Simulation in Social Science: Readings (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1962.)Google Scholar

4 Casebooks include Westin, Alan F., ed., The Uses of Power: 7 Cases in American Politics (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1962)Google Scholar; Stein, Harold, ed., Public Administration and Policy Development: A Casebook (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1952)Google Scholar; and Tillett, Paul, ed., Cases on Party Organization (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963)Google Scholar.

5 Conant, James B., ed., Harvard Case Histories in Experimental Science (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957), 2 volumesGoogle Scholar. Riley, Matilda White, Sociological Research: A Case Approach (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1963), 2 volumesGoogle Scholar.

6 See Guetzkow, ed., op. cit.; Stein, ed., op. cit., pp. xx–xxiv; and Bock, Edwin A., ed., Essays on the Case Method in Public Administration (New York: Inter-University Case Program, 1962)Google Scholar.

7 See Dill, William R., Jackson, James R., and Sweeney, James W., Proceedings of the Conference on Business Games (New Orleans: Tulane University School of Business Administration, 1961)Google Scholar. A critical appraisal of an elaborate innovation is Cohen, Kalman J., Dill, William R., Kuehn, Alfred A., and Winters, Peter R., The Carnegie Tech Management Game: An Experiment in Business Education (Homewood, Ill.: Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1964)Google Scholar.

8 Exceptions include Somit, Albert, Tannenhaus, Joseph, Wilke, Walter H., and Cooley, Rita W., “The Effect of the Introductory Political Science Course on Student Attitudes Toward Personal Political Participation,” this Review, 52 (1958), 1129–1132Google Scholar; Boocock, Sarane S., Effects of Election Campaign Game in Four High School Classes (Baltimore: Department of Social Relations, The Johns Hopkins University, 1963, mimeo.)Google Scholar.

9 Reviews of the literature by Wilbert J. McKeachie have appeared periodically. See “Research on Teaching at the College and University Level,” in Gage, N. L., ed., Handbook of Research on Teaching (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1963), pp. 1118–1172Google Scholar; “Impact of New Media on Higher Education,” to be published in a volume of papers edited by Bruce Biddle and Peter H. Rossi.

10 Systematic data on American political scientists have been collected through a mail questionnaire to a random sample of those listed in the Directory of the American Political Science Association. See Somit, Albert and Tannenhaus, Joseph, American Political Science: A Profile of a Discipline (New York: Atherton Press, 1964)Google Scholar.

11 Donald T. Campbell and Julian C. Stanley, “Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Research on Teaching,” in Gage, op. cit., pp. 171–246.

12 For an effort to determine some effects of a training program on subsequent administrative performance, see Guetzkow, Harold, Forehand, Garlie A., and James, Bernard J., “An Evaluation of Educational Influence on Administrative Judgment,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 6 (1962), 483–500CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Guetzkow, Harold, Alger, Chadwick F., Brody, Richard A., Noel, Robert C., and Snyder, Richard C., Simulation in International Relations: Developments for Research and Teaching (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1963)Google Scholar, esp. chs. 2–3.

14 Among the cases used in American foreign policy were the following: Roberts, Chalmers, “The Day We Didn't Go To War,” Reporter, 09 14, 1954, pp. 31–35Google Scholar; Dawson, Raymond H., “Congressional Innovation and Intervention in Defense Policy: Legislative Authorizations of Weapons Systems,” this Review, 56 (1962), 42–57Google Scholar; Schilling, Warner, “The H-Bomb Decision: How to Decide Without Actually Choosing,” Political Science Quarterly, 76 (1961), 24–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar; McLellan, David S. and Woodhouse, Charles E., “The Business Elite and Foreign Policy,” Western Political Quarterly, 13 (1960), 172–190CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 Gyorgy, Andrew and Gibbs, Hubert S., Problems in International Relations, 2nd. ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1962)Google Scholar.

16 Among administrative cases were Cyert, Richard M., Simon, Herbert A., and Trow, Donald B., “Observation of a Business Decision,” Journal of Business, 29 (1956), 237–248CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Simon, Herbert A., “The Birth of an Organization: The Economic Cooperation Administration,” Public Administration Review, 13 (1953), 227–236CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Herzberg, Donald and Tillett, Paul, “A Budget for New York State, 1956–1957,” Inter-University Case Program Case 69Google Scholar; Rourke, Francis E., “The Politics of Administrative Organization: A Case History,” Journal of Politics, 19 (1957), 461–478CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 McClelland, D. C., Atkinson, J. W., Clark, R. A., and Lowell, E. L., The Achievement Motive (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1953)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Atkinson, J. W., ed., Motives in Fantasy, Action and Society (Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc., 1958)Google Scholar. Scores on TAT are determined by content analysis of short essays written in response to the projection on a screen of several pencilled sketches. In this research the content analysis was done for each of the three courses by the same two scorers. The rank order correlations between their scores on a sample of essays (N = 57) were as follows: Men: n ach, .83; n aff, .83; n power, .66. Women: n ach, .84; n aff, .73; n power, .66.

18 Harvey, O. J., Hunt, D. E., and Schroder, H. M., Conceptual Systems and Personality Organization (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1961)Google Scholar.

19 McClelland, David C., The Achieving Society. (Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 Lasswell, Harold D., Psychopathology and Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1930)Google Scholar; World Politics and Personal Insecurity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1934)Google Scholar; Power and Personality (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., Inc., 1948)Google Scholar; Rogow, Arnold A. and Lasswell, Harold D., Power, Corruption, and Rectitude (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1963)Google Scholar.

21 Driver, Michael J., Conceptual Structure and Group Processes in an Inter-Nation Simulation, Part One: The Perception of Simulated Nations (Princeton: Educational Testing Service, 1962)Google Scholar, sections 2, 3 and Appendix A.1.

22 Guetzkow, Alger, Brody, Noel, and Snyder, op. cit., pp. 150–189.

23 We have sometimes been embarrassed by the advantages claimed for Inter-Nation Simulation by some of our friends and colleagues. For example, Ralph M. Goldman has remarked, “Ad-mittedly primitive and oversimplified, these simulations are unquestionably successful in providing the students with insight into many of the decision-making realities with which policymakers must operate”: “The Political Context of Arms Control: A Systems Approach,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, 7 (1963), 618–646CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 639, fn. 9; Journal of Arms Control, 1 (1963), 712–740Google Scholar, at p. 733, fn. 9.

24 For a review of the literature, see McKeachie, Wilbert J., “Procedures and Techniques of Teaching: A Survey of Experimental Studies,” in Sanford, Nevitt, ed., The American College: A Psychological and Social Interpretation of the Higher Learning (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1962), pp. 312–334CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 Snow, C. P., The Search (New York: The New American Library of World Literature, Inc., 1960), p. 23Google Scholar.

26 William R. Dill, “The Educational Effects of Management Games,” in Dill, Jackson, and Sweeney, op. cit., pp. 61–72.

27 Cohen, Bernard C., “Political Gaming in the Classroom,” Journal of Politics, 24 (1962), 367–381CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

28 Campbell, Donald T. and Fiske, D. W., “Convergent and Discriminant Validation by the Multi-trait-Multimethod Matrix,” Psychological Bulletin, 56 (1959), 81–105CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

29 The presence of observers was explained to the sections at the first class meeting and was justified in terms of our desire to contribute to better undergraduate teaching on the basis of empirical research.

30 Handbook: Cooperative Test on Foreign Affairs. (Princeton, N. J.: Educational Testing Service, Cooperative Test Division, 1962)Google Scholar.

31 Forehand, Garlie A. and Guetzkow, Harold, “The Administrative Judgment Test as Related to Descriptions of Executive Judgment Behaviors,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 45 (1961), 257–261CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 Boocock, op. cit.

33 Greenstein, Fred, Children and Politics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)Google Scholar; Easton, David and Hess, Robert, “The Child's Political World,” Midwest Journal of Political Science, 6 (1962), 229–246CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Eulau, Heinz, Wahlke, John, Ferguson, LeRoy, and Buchanan, William, “The Political Socialization of American State Legislators,” Midwest Journal of Political Science, 3 (1959), 188–206CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 McClelland, Charles A., College Teaching of International Relations (San Francisco State College, multilithed, 1962), pp. 269–270Google Scholar.

35 For examples recalled affectionately by a veteran and inspiring teacher, see Hyneman, Charles S., “Some Crucial Learning Experiences: A Personal View,” in Connery, Robert H., (ed.), Teaching Political Science: A Challenge to Higher Education (Durham, N. C.: Duke University Press, 1965), pp. 217–237Google Scholar.

36 This research was supported by the Cooperative Research Branch, U. S. Office of Education, and Northwestern University under Contract No. OE-2-10-122, Project 1568. We acknowledge also the assistance of the International Relations Program, Northwestern, through funds made available by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Illinois Center for Education in Politics.

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