Title: A pluralistic and gamified senior seminar in economics: capstone to a heterodox undergraduate liberal arts economics curriculum

Authors: Benjamin Balak

Addresses: Department of Economics, Rollins College, 1000 Holt Avenue – 2751, Winter Park, FL 32789, USA

Abstract: The paper recounts the development and implementation of gamified pedagogy for the capstone senior seminar of the pluralistic undergraduate curriculum of the Department of Economics at Rollins College. An introduction to gamification and its neurological, behavioural, and pedagogical foundations, is followed by description of the experimental process used to arrive at some promising pedagogical methodologies for the senior seminar in particular. The process evolved along two synergistic paths: finding ways to guide students in doing applied pluralistic economics in their senior research project, and using gamified pedagogy to facilitate this. Finally, the paper discusses some of the insights gleaned and problems encountered in order to outline proposals for further research and data collection, and to provide fruitful ideas for other pluralistic reformers of undergraduate economic education, so that students gain an applied critical appreciation of the complex and diverse argument that is economics.

Keywords: economics curriculum; gamification; gamified pedagogy; heterodox; capstone senior seminar; undergraduate curriculum; pluralism; economics education; student engagement; economic schools of thought; neurological foundations; behavioural foundations; cognitive science; teaching; learning; computer games; video games; liberal arts; applied pluralistic economics; research projects.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPEE.2016.076915

International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education, 2016 Vol.7 No.1, pp.7 - 21

Received: 03 Nov 2015
Accepted: 17 Nov 2015
Published online: 07 Jun 2016 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article