Pedagogical contraband: A phenomenological approach to understanding student engagement during simulations

The purpose of this study is to explore the lived experiences of students who are taught using simulations in survey history courses. Although simulations have been studied in a variety of domains, few studies have examined the use of simulations to teach history. Further, most of the previous research on simulations has been quantitative in nature, and one goal of the proposed study is to go into greater depth than typically allowed for by quantitative methodologies and examine the lived experiences of students in a college-level history class who are participating in simulations. Results suggest that the five phases of initial exposure, growing anticipation, emotional investment, subsequent exposure, and emotional investment 2.0, can be understood within the purview of the three universal themes—reluctance, novelty effect, and experiential, all of which represent the lived experiences of students during simulations in a survey history course. The experiential effect of simulations due to the emotional investment elicited from students signifies the essence of the phenomenon of engagement during simulations