IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-02276711.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Tangling with spaghetti : pedagogical lessons from games

Author

Listed:
  • Caroline Verzat

    (Advancia-Negocia - Advencia-Negocia)

  • Janice Byrne

    (EM - EMLyon Business School)

  • Alain Fayolle

    (EM - EMLyon Business School)

Abstract

Governments are seeking to develop entrepreneurial competencies among today's technology, science, and engineering graduates. However, the creation of "bilingual" graduates who have dual technical and managerial competencies is thwarted by students' inferior teamwork and interpersonal skills. In education, what is taught is inextricably bound to how it is taught (Dewey, 1916). Current pedagogies in engineering education are insufficiently adapted to student learning style needs (Felder & Silverman, 1988), and the management component of engineering education remains underdeveloped. This problem is keenly felt in one French engineering school where students struggle with a team-based innovation project. We detail efforts made to equip students with teamwork skills by using games as a pedagogical device. Student teams compete to build weight resistant structures using only spaghetti sticks and sewing thread. Their written feedback forms the primary qualitative data for this study. Individual student interviews were subsequently carried out to further uncover potential learning outcomes. We found that students' responses to the spaghetti game were overwhelmingly positive. Their commentary also illustrates concrete learning of many crucial teamwork processes. Finally, we discuss what makes this pedagogical innovation work and how it should be further studied.

Suggested Citation

  • Caroline Verzat & Janice Byrne & Alain Fayolle, 2009. "Tangling with spaghetti : pedagogical lessons from games," Post-Print hal-02276711, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02276711
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-02276711v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-02276711v1/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kalman J. Cohen & Eric Rhenman, 1961. "The Role of Management Games in Education and Research," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 7(2), pages 131-166, January.
    2. Raelin, Joe, 2006. "Does Action Learning Promote Collaborative Leadership?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 5(2), pages 152-168.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Snihur, Yuliya & Lamine, Wadid & Wright, Mike, 2021. "Educating engineers to develop new business models: Exploiting entrepreneurial opportunities in technology-based firms," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    2. Sandra Kapoor & Belinda de Villa-Lopez, 2015. "Developing Teamwork Skills In Hospitality Management College Students," Tourism Research Institute, Journal of Tourism Research, vol. 10(1), pages 10-24, June.
    3. Yilin Zhou & Hongbo Li & Fakhar Shahzad, 2021. "Does College Education Promote Entrepreneurship Education in China?," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, July.
    4. Yami, Saïd & M'Chirgui, Zouhaier & Spano, Claude & Gontier Barykina, Olga, 2021. "Reinventing science and technology entrepreneurship education: The role of human and social capitals," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    5. Saïd Yami & Zouhaier M'Chirgui & Claude Spano & Olga Gontier Barykina, 2021. "Reinventing science and technology entrepreneurship education: The role of human and social capitals," Post-Print hal-03145505, HAL.
    6. Shane Tilton, 2019. "Winning Through Deception: A Pedagogical Case Study on Using Social Deception Games to Teach Small Group Communication Theory," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(1), pages 21582440198, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lee Revere & Phillip Decker, 2012. "A Robust And Cost-Effective Database Approach To Managing And Reporting Assessment Data," Business Education and Accreditation, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 4(2), pages 97-112.
    2. Janice Byrne & Frédéric Delmar & Alain Fayolle & Wadid Lamine, 2016. "Training corporate entrepreneurs: an action learning approach," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 479-506, August.
    3. Shabnam A. Shaikh & Anna-Maija Lämsä & Suvi Heikkinen, 2023. "Collaborative Leadership in the Institution of Higher Education: A Sociocultural Context of Pakistan," South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases, , vol. 12(1), pages 65-80, April.
    4. Jayshree Suresh, 2019. "Board Room Simulation Game Helps Strategic Management Course," South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases, , vol. 8(3), pages 232-240, December.
    5. Shoeb Ahmed Memon & Steve Rowlinson & Riza Yosia Sunindijo & Hafiz Zahoor, 2021. "Collaborative Behavior in Relational Contracting Projects in Hong Kong—A Contractor’s Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-15, May.
    6. Raelin, Joseph A., 2023. "Leadership-as-Practice: Its Past History, Present Emergence, and Future Potential," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 2(2), pages 19-30.
    7. Mie Augier & Michael Prietula, 2007. "Perspective---Historical Roots of the A Behavioral Theory of the Firm Model at GSIA," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(3), pages 507-522, June.
    8. Miles M. Yang & Hong Jiang & Michael Shayne Gary, 2016. "Challenging learning goals improve performance in dynamically complex microworld simulations," System Dynamics Review, System Dynamics Society, vol. 32(3-4), pages 204-232, July.
    9. Michael Shriberg & Kathryn Harris, 2012. "Building sustainability change management and leadership skills in students: lessons learned from “Sustainability and the Campus” at the University of Michigan," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 2(2), pages 154-164, June.
    10. Maura MacPhee & Li-Lu Chang & Farinaz Havaei & Wen-Shan Chou, 2014. "A Descriptive Account of an Inter-Professional Collaborative Leadership Project," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-27, September.
    11. Sandra Kapoor & Belinda de Villa-Lopez, 2015. "Developing Teamwork Skills In Hospitality Management College Students," Tourism Research Institute, Journal of Tourism Research, vol. 10(1), pages 10-24, June.
    12. Raelin, Joseph A., 2007. "Toward an Epistemology of Practice," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 6(4), pages 495-519.
    13. Michalisin, Michael D. & Karau, Steven J. & Tangpong, Charnchai, 2004. "The effects of performance and team cohesion on attribution: a longitudinal simulation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(10), pages 1108-1115, October.
    14. Craig Caulfield & Jianhong Xia & David Veal & Stanislaw Maj, 2011. "A Systematic Survey of Games Used for Software Engineering Education," Modern Applied Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 5(6), pages 1-28, December.
    15. Raelin, Joseph A., 2019. "Deriving an affinity for collective leadership: below the surface of action learning," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 16(2), pages 123-135.
    16. Arthur Shelley, 2014. "Active Learning Innovations in Knowledge Management Education Generate Higher Quality Learning Outcomes," Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation, Fundacja Upowszechniająca Wiedzę i Naukę "Cognitione", vol. 10(1), pages 129-145.
    17. Jaime Antonio Plata Bogoya & María Eugenia Morales Rubiano & Mayra Alejandra Arias Cante, 2009. "Impacto de los juegos gerenciales en los programas de administración de empresas como herramienta pedagógica," Revista Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, June.
    18. Raelin, Joseph A., 2009. "Seeking conceptual clarity in the action modalities," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 6(1), pages 17-24.
    19. Catherine Marsh, 2013. "Business Executives’ Perceptions of Ethical Leadership and Its Development," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 114(3), pages 565-582, May.
    20. Schneeberger, Kenneth C., 1969. "Gaming As A Farm Management Teaching Device: A Development And Analysis," Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 1, pages 1-6, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02276711. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.