Improving Learners’ Understanding of Environmental Accumulations through Simulation

Krystyna A. Stave, Abby Beck and Chris Galvan

Simulation & Gaming, 2015, vol. 46, issue 3-4, 270-292

Abstract: Background. Poor public understanding of accumulation principles obstructs public engagement in environmental decision-making . Simulation-based learning environments (SBLEs) show promise for improving understanding. Purpose. This study tested the hypothesis that use of stand-alone, self-contained, online SBLEs can improve user understanding of and ability to apply basic principles of accumulation. Method. We used pretest/posttest measures to examine (a) whether user understanding of accumulations principles increased after exposure to a set of two SBLEs in an undergraduate Environmental Science course ( n  =126), and (b) how the extent of simulation use affected depth of user understanding. Results. Understanding improved significantly after simulation use. Further, extent of simulation use affected performance although it is not a simple linear relationship. Those who ran the simulation a moderate amount of times (total of 14-24 runs) scored better than the low-range group (0-13 runs, p

Keywords: accumulations; assessment; computer simulation; discovery learning; education; inquiry learning; learning environment; SBLE; stand-alone exercise; stock-and-flow dynamics; system dynamics; systems thinking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1046878114531764 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:simgam:v:46:y:2015:i:3-4:p:270-292

DOI: 10.1177/1046878114531764

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Simulation & Gaming
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().