Work Sim: Workplace simulations in schools

There has been a dramatic increase in the need for skilled, knowledgeable people in the workplace. Hallmarks of this new economy are jobs that require complex generative decision making, complex human interactions, and flexible adaption to vastly changing work settings, rules and customers to be served. The only way to achieve this higher level of skill and developed talent in the population at large is to make sure that all students, not just a privileged few, learn the workplace skills of the future. The American school curriculum must include aspects of skill, knowledge and flexibility that are necessary for success in the information-age workplace and that have been largely neglected within the traditional academic program of schools.

There have been many calls for school-to-work transition programs that focus on direct workplace experience: for example, youth apprenticeship, technical preparation, and cooperative education. It is unlikely, however, that enough of these programs will develop at a pace adequate for them to be the major or only environments in which most students can learn workplace skills. To have the necessary broad impact, workplace education must also take place in the classroom.

To enter a workplace culture while remaining physically in the classroom requires the use of simulations. By "simulations," we mean a classroom experience that gives students the same sorts of information that they would get working in a specific workplace and that asks them to make the same sorts of decisions that the workplace demands, to take workplace-appropriate actions, and to experience the results of those actions.

For instance, in the Chelsea Bank simulation of Classroom, Inc., the students play the role of bank teller. On a computer screen the students see a line of customers fidgeting in front of the teller window. They can "talk" to the customer via menu selections. They can manipulation money, checks and other objects on the counter top. They can choose among several ways, each initially plausible, to complete a transaction. If they make a serious enough mistake, their supervisor chastises or even fires them. All this is mediated by specially designed computer software.

Research Objectives

This project will conduct a three year program of analytic and evaluative research on simulation programs for learning workplace-relevant skills that will:

• identify and analyze a range of simulation programs used in schools for education about the work world;
• provide a systematic characterization of the different types of simulations and the kinds of workplace-relevant skills they may help teach;
• describe in detail the in-school functions of several representative and promising simulation programs;
• evaluate the potential impact of several programs in teaching workplace-relevant skills and knowledge, as well as general academic skills; and
• develop and illustrate methods for applying cognitive theory and analytic tools to the evaluation of school programs.

Research Methods

The work will be carried out by a team of LRDC researchers led by Professors Michelene T. H. Chi , Gaea Leinhardt and Kurt VanLehn . The project receives funding from the A. W. Mellon Foundation and the Russell Sage Foundation.

The work, which began in January 1996, is proceeding in 3 phases:

• An initial phase, in which we map the domain and lay out parameters for subsequent in-depth investigation. This phase includes a review of existing delineations of work-readiness skills, such as the SCANS report and the Applied Learning component of the New Standards Project . It also includes surveying, collecting and analyzing a wide variety of workplace simulations.
• A second phase, in which we collect detailed field data on three representative simulation programs. We will select three schools using workplace simulations, and collect data on the schools, classrooms, teachers and students as they use the simulations.
• A final phase, in which we analyze the field data and prepare an integrative report on the project's work. Analyses will consider classroom discourse, group process and individual cognitive processes.

The products will include not only an analysis of the effects of workplace simulations in classrooms and individuals, but also the development of an evaluation methodology for these types of interventions.

Publications

Jeong, H., Taylor, R., & Chi, M. ( 2000 ). Learning from a Computer Workplace Simulation .  Proceedings of the 22nd annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, (pp 705-710). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Ferrari, M., Taylor, R., & VanLehn, K. ( 1999 ). Adapting Work Simulations for Schools. Journal of Educational Computing Research. 21 (1), 25-53.

Chi, M. T. H., Leinhardt, G., Van Lehn, K., Ferrari, M., Hmelo, C. E., McQuaide, J., Jeong, H., Stainton, C., & Taylor, R. (1998). Workplace Simulations in Schools Project. Progress Report to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation . Pittsburgh, PA: Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh. [Technical Report]

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Last update: May 21, 2003.