Simulation to Teach or Evaluate Problem-Solving in Professional Programs

Abstract

Simulation is a technique which has gained considerable attention and use in education recently as a strategy for teaching, eliciting, and evaluating higher-level problem-solving skills while providing realism, richness, and complexity.

Complex problem-solving skills are important outcomes of most professional programs in medicine, dentistry, law, and education. Various means have been employed to teach and to test these skills, with simulation techniques being among the most promising.

Computer-based simulation can provide a flexible and individually responsive dimension while automatically scoring and maintaining detailed records of each student's performance.

Computer simulation in the health sciences and law provide a strategy—a medium uniquely suited to instruction in problem-solving for large numbers of students. Projects at the University of Iowa and elsewhere to develop, use, and test simulations for instruction in these settings is described and compared.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

McGuire

C. H.

, A Summary of the Evidence Regarding the Technical Characteristics of Patient Management Problems, a special report prepared for the Committee on Examinations of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgery, undated, mimeo.

Edwards

J. B.

, The Application of a System Design Model to the Development and Testing of Computer-Based Simulations in Civil Procedure, paper presented at the ADCIS Conference, Portland, Maine, August, 1975.

Gagne

R. M.

, The Conditions of Learning, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1965, 1970.

Gagne

R. M.

and Briggs

L. J.

, Principles of Instructional Design, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1974.

Bruner

J. S.

, The Skill of Relevance or the Relevance of Skills, Saturday Review, pp. 53, 66–68, 78–79, April 18, 1970.

Miller

G. A.

Galanter

and Pribram

, Plans and the Structure of Behavior, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1960.

Bobula

J. A.

and Page

G. G.

, Manual on Construction of Written Simulations, Center for Educational Development, University of Dlinois College of Medicine, Chicago, 1973.

McGuire

C. H.

, Simulation Technique in the Teaching and Testing of Problem-Solving Skills, paper presented at the 46th Annual Meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Detroit, Michigan, March 27, 1973.