ORIGINAL ARTICLE

EDUCATIONAL BUSINESS GAMES IN THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS

JUEGOS DE NEGOCIOS EDUCATIVOS EN EL PROCESO EDUCATIVO

Ph. D. Dmitry V. Gribanov¹, Ph. D. Kseniya E. Kovalenko², MSc. Natalia E. Kovalenko²

¹ Ural State Law University. Yekaterinburg. Russian Federation.

² Altai State University. Barnaul. Russian Federation.

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ABSTRACT

Increasing the efficiency of training specialists based on the introduction of new progressive forms and methods of teaching is an important task facing teachers. It is known that the necessary condition for the success of training is the activity of students, which is realized through their activities. Such an educational process, focused on the organization of activity of trainees, provides more effective training of a specialist. Thus, the use of a system of active teaching methods, developed and improved depending on the specific learning situations, is one of the key elements in the implementation of management accumulation and development of skills and knowledge of individuals for active self-realization. Active methods include methods in which each trainee is forced to actively extract, process, and implement educational information presented in a specific didactic form that provides objectively much better compared with traditional methods, the results of training practical activities. The detailed description of each generalized technology is an independent task, we in our study have focused on the characteristic of active learning, predominantly contextual and game type. This choice is explained by the fact that in the system of vocational education active learning can become (and in many countries has already become) system-forming, within the framework of which all other generalized pedagogical technologies are used. In addition, it is in the training technologies of this type that the most promising is the use of business games.

Keywords: Education, university, educational process, efficiency, students.

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RESUMEN

Aumentar la efectividad de los profesionales de capacitación. Se sabe que la condición necesaria para el éxito de la capacitación es la actividad de los estudiantes. Tal proceso educativo, centrado en la organización de la actividad de los aprendices, proporciona una capacitación más efectiva. Por lo tanto, el uso de un sistema de métodos activos de aprendizaje, desarrollado y mejorado según las situaciones específicas de aprendizaje, es uno de los elementos clave en la realización de la acumulación de gestión y el desarrollo de las habilidades y el conocimiento de los individuos para la autorrealización activa. Los métodos activos incluyen métodos en los que cada alumno se ve obligado a extraer, procesar e implementar de forma activa la información educativa presentada en una forma específica. La descripción detallada de cada tecnología generalizada, predominantemente contextual y tipo de juego. Esta elección se explica por el hecho de que en el sistema de educación profesional, el aprendizaje puede convertirse (y en muchos países ya se ha convertido) en un sistema de formación, en el marco del cual se utilizan todas las demás tecnologías pedagógicas generalizadas. Además, es en el entrenamiento de tecnología de este tipo que lo más prometedor es el uso de juegos de negocios.

Palabras clave: Educación, universidad, proceso educativo, eficiencia, estudiantes.

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INTRODUCTION

When constructing the learning process through learning activities, it is necessary to rely on the idea of contextual learning. Verbitsky (1990), defines context learning as a conceptual basis for integrating the various activities of students (educational, scientific).

Active forms and methods of teaching or active learning technologies play a special role in contextual learning, which relies not only on the processes of perception, memory, attention, but first of all on creative, productive thinking, behavior, and communication.

Technology is called active if the role of the teacher changes significantly (instead of the role of the informer as the manager), and the role of the trainees (instead of the object of influence, the subject of interaction), and the role of information (information is not a goal, but a means for mastering the actions and operations of professional activity).

We propose a classification of active learning technologies based on the following features:

1) The existence of a model (subject or process of activity).

2) The presence of roles (the nature of communication of trainees).

Educational game is a complex multi-faceted phenomenon, which is studied today by representatives of different sciences - economics, management, pedagogy, psychology and others. There are numerous theoretical developments on particular problems and a large practical experience, but there is no single point of view on the business game. We adhere to the definition of a business game, according to which, it is a form of recreating the subject and social content of professional activity, modeling the systems of relations characteristic of this type of practice. Business game accumulates elements of various forms and methods of teaching (specific situation, role-playing, discussion, etc.). Game design, simulation training, role-playing, business game has a more flexible structure, does not limit the choice of objects of imitation, involves the introduction of spontaneously arising situations.

The first educational game developed and conducted in the USSR in 1932 by M.M. Birshtein. On weekends, students of universities and business leaders gathered in the territory of the factory "Red Weaver" and discussed the process of transition to the production of new products without stopping production. In 1938 business games in the USSR suffered the fate of a number of scientific areas, they were banned. But seriously began to engage in business games at the end of the last century. The organizational and activity games (ODI) of the philosopher and methodologist Georgy Schedrovitsky, as well as the managerial fights of Vladimir Tarasov, the founder of the Tallinn School of Managers, became a notable phenomenon in the Russian market. Their second birth took place only in the 1960s, after the first educational games appeared in the United State of America.

DEVELOPMENT

The educational business game from the position of game activity is the cognition and actual learning by the students of the social and objective reality in the process of solving the game problem by playing imitation, recreating the main types and behaviors in the roles of certain rules laid down in the game conditions, and on the model of professional activity in conditional situations. A business game is: 1) a model of the interaction of people in the process of achieving certain goals-economic, political, etc.; 2) a group exercise to develop solutions in artificially created conditions that imitate the real situation.

M. Zh. Arstanov and P.I. Pidkasisty note that "Didactic value of the use of gaming activities is due to the fact that the simulation game combines the following principles of" optimal "training technology: 1) activity; 2) dynamism; 3) entertaining; 4) performance of roles; 5) collectivity; 6) modeling; 7) feedback; 8) problems; 9) performance; 10) independence; 11) systemic; 12) competitiveness."

In general, the authors note the following purposes of use:

- Formation of cognitive and professional motives and interests;

- Education of the specialist's system thinking, including a holistic understanding not only of nature and society, but of himself, his place in the world;

- Transfer of a holistic view of professional activity and its large fragments taking into account emotional and personal perception;

- training in collective mental and practical work, formation of skills and skills of social interaction and communication, skills of individual and joint decision-making;

- Education of responsible attitude to business, respect for social values and attitudes of the collective and society as a whole;

- Training in modeling methods, including mathematical, engineering and social design.

Considered from the standpoint of educational activities, this complex pedagogical technology - the educational game - represents a specific way of managing the student's educational and cognitive activity. The essence of a business game as a means of learning its ability to serve the goals of education and upbringing, as well as the fact that it translates these goals into real results. This ability is embodied in gambling modeling in conditional situations of the main types of personality activities aimed at recreating and assimilating social and professional experience, as a result accumulation, actualization and transformation of knowledge into skills and accumulation of personal experience and its development.

Business game as a method of training, a normative model of the processes of activity. In particular, such a model is a role that contains a set of rules that determine both the content and direction, the nature of the actions of the players. First of all the game method perform  the role according to certain rules laid down in it, and the games used in education and training, first of all, role-playing games. Particular regulatory importance in gaming education belongs to the gaming problem: it is the core of the playing role and determines the educational and learning value of a particular game. In the game, the problem is the source of development, "sets in motion" the role, it also creates problematic situations of the game.

The educational business game is a variant, dynamically developing form of the organization of purposeful interaction of activity and communication of all its participants in the implementation of pedagogical guidance by the teacher. The essence of this form is the relationship of simulation modeling and role behavior of game participants in the process of solving typical professional and educational tasks of a sufficiently high level of problems.

Transformation of personal qualities of students takes place at all levels of preparation and conduct of educational game. Before them, the goal is to get used to the image of a specialist whose role they will perform. When preparing a game, the teacher, as a rule, recommends that they try to think for their own character, think over the preparatory stage, as his specialist would have thought out. At the same time, the student learns to overcome the difficulties of verbal and non-verbal (sign language) associations.

Business game can be considered as a dynamic and deterministic system of "teacher-student" and "student-student". From the standpoint of system analysis, it is an open system in which the activities of participants are based on information coming through feedback with the constant diagnosis of partner reactions.

Business game is a controlled system, as the procedure of the game is prepared and adjusted by the teacher. If the game occurs in the predicted mode, the teacher may not interfere in the game relationship, but only observe and evaluate the gaming activities of students. But if the actions go beyond the predicted result, exceeding the limits of "tolerance", disrupting the objectives of the lesson, the teacher can correct the direction of the game.

CONCLUSIONS

Business game can be considered as a self-regulating system. If the usual training sessions involve communication of the teacher and students "vertically", when the instructor completely dictates the direction and mode of work, revealing the students' lack of information on a number of issues, then the relations in the business game between its participants are formed along the "horizontal". It develops the basis of free, creative relationships, equally informed partners. The teacher is excluded from the number of direct partners, he seems to be going to second place, on Wednesday, the audience; this circumstance removes a certain psychological barrier to the general situation, liberates students.

The student fills the role with individual means of self-expression, struggles for professional and intellectual recognition in the group.

The preparation of a business game is a multi-stage procedure and depends on a number of subjective or objective factors.

In order to facilitate the process of designing a business game model and giving it flexibility, use the modular principle consisting of successive blocks and their operations, each block is characterized by its tasks, goals and results. The preparatory operation is a homogeneous, logically conditioned part of the block, aimed at achieving the tasks, objectives and results corresponding to the given block.

Any operation of the block is coupled with forecasting. Game actions of participants inevitably entail changes in game situations, a complex set of reactions of players. Therefore, the game should be analyzed by the teacher from various positions, so that the students' activity does not become unpredictable and uncontrollable. The more game options, the more ideal the model will be. At the same time, the probability of mistakes made by the teacher is reduced.

Thus, all preparatory activities should be based on a prognostic basis. Forecasting when preparing a business game provides the teacher the opportunity to detect a problem situation, to conduct a multivariate analysis of the course and results of role-playing activities of students; identify possible typical errors; determine a series of techniques aimed at stabilizing the psychological regime of employment; establish trends and patterns of development of the business game, taking into account the composition of the participants.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

Bespalko, V.P. (1995). Pedagogy and progressive learning technologies. Moscow: Institute of Professional Education of the Ministry of Education of Russia.

Mashbits, E.I. (1988). Psychological and pedagogical problems of computer learning. Moscow: Pedagogika.

Verbitsky, A. A. (1990). Active methods of teaching in higher education: Contextual approach. Moscow: Moscow State Humanitarian University.

Yanushkevich, F. (1986). Technology of education in the system of higher education. Moscow: Academia.

Yudin, V.V. (1997). Pedagogical technology. Yaroslavl: University of Business and New Technology.

Recieved: October 2017.

Accepted: December 2017.

Ph. D. Dmitry V. Gribanov

E-mail: [e-mail]

Ph. D. Kseniya E. Kovalenko

E-mail: [e-mail]  

MSc. Natalia E. Kovalenko

E-mail: [e-mail]