Storytelling plays a central role in human communication and in conflict. This activity can be used to teach students the importance of telling stories to better understand conflict or simply to practice storytelling. By engaging in mediations, students simulate the process of resolving conflict, practice storytelling, and improve their active…

Competition among parties is a central feature of democratic politics, but extreme partisanship can undermine democratic practices and institutions. We report the results of a formative curricular intervention involving reflective discussions designed to avoid hyper-partisanship in a training program for anyone--including university students--with…

This research offers innovative ways to study fanaticism in higher education. It builds on simulations of regional crises to test four expectations and discusses their implications. The first, on the benefits of experimental learning, is supported: participants identify with their actors and show little empathy to rivals, indicating they learn the…

Incomplete and insufficient university programmes in the field of Peace and Conflict Resolution have led to an important gap in knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA) among peacebuilders and peacekeepers. In theory, experiential learning through problem-based learning (PBL) and simulations should be able to address this gap. This article explores…

Simulations are traditionally divided into three phases, namely preparation, interaction, and debriefing. This article argues that the first phase has been neglected. The preparation phase is indeed widely seen as necessary but merely instrumental to the interaction phase of simulations rather than as a self-contained activity that may also…

We have used a role-play exercise to help students understand the role of the whips in British parliamentary politics, a subject with which students often struggle. In itself, this proved a valuable learning and teaching tool, but we found it became even more useful when we incorporated a practitioner into the exercise. This overcame some of the…

Simulations and games can offer valuable insight into the management of conflict and the achievement of peace. This special symposium issue of "Simulation & Gaming" examines several such approaches, used in both educational settings and to prepare practitioners to deal with the concrete challenges of peacebuilding. In the introduction, the authors…

Playing With Conflict is a weekend course for graduate students in Portland State University's Conflict Resolution program and undergraduates in all majors. Students participate in simulations, games, and experiential exercises to learn and practice conflict resolution skills. Graduate students create a guided role-play of a conflict. In addition…

This article reflects critically on simulations. Building on the authors' experience simulating the Palestinian-Israeli-American Camp David negotiations of 2000, they argue that simulations are useful pedagogical tools that encourage creative--but not critical--thinking and constructivist learning. However, they can also have the deleterious…

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is normally included as part of an introductory business law/legal environment course. While some business schools offer stand-alone ADR courses, the majority do not. As a result, a business student's only exposure to ADR processes may be through a Legal Studies in Business course. Several scholars have created…

Simple role-play simulations can not only demonstrate the dynamics of a conflict but also create awareness of multiple perspectives even among populations relatively set in their opinions. To teach my student population of military officers, I utilize simple, nongame simulations of multisided Middle East conflicts that not only facilitate learning…

Provides a fundamental overview of conflict resolution, suggests a teaching plan to implement conflict resolution in a classroom, and recommends various classroom activities that illustrate conflict resolution techniques. (HOD)

A simulation game provides a highly versatile model suitable for use is economics, political science or sociology lessons, or in any situation in which conflict of groups or individual interests are being examined. (Author/KM)

Stressing the critical importance of the post-debriefing session of classroom gaming and simulation, instruments are offered which provide the mechanism to examine data, insight, perception and knowledge generated. Teacher and participants can examine the conceptual structure, principles, and values associated with the model. (Author/JB)