Applying Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy in Business Games

This paper discusses business games as teaching tools in business schools. The business discipline’s traditional teaching methods, while appropriate for the dissemination of foundational knowledge, cannot provide students with a platform to link abstract concepts and real-world problems. Using an assessment framework known as the Revised Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, we suggest that business simulation games are an effective way to engage students in business-related topics; that they compel students to understand and cope with the ambiguities associated with real-world organizations. Specifically, we discuss our experience with the International Operations Simulation Mark/2000 (INTOPIA), a game designed to channel students into a stream of entrepreneurial decision-making. We employed the game over 12 semesters with approximately 1000 advanced MBA candidates. Our findings indicate that business games represent a novel instructional approach: this pedagogy has a real potential to promote the exchange of new ideas on teaching and learning within and across courses in the business curriculum.

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