• 02
  Mar 2023

• Train Your Brain – Simulations at B-Schools

  
  

  Prof. Vaibhav Kulkarni | PGDM

A management degree from a reputed institution certifies that the person holding the degree has enough managerial skills required to face the competition. The management education system is divided into some very important components which need to be regularly updated. Some of these include the upgradation of curriculum and course content, designing of new programs to suit the corporate requirements, integrating the corporate needs with those of the student skills and venturing into unexplored areas of research. Along with these, there is also a dire need to upgrade pedagogical styles which have been dominantly used for several decades. In the lecture methods, Students typically become so concerned and engrossed about the technical and theoretical derivations that they miss the practical value of learning. Faculty at many top B-schools a in Mumbai have tried and tested various forms of teaching methodologies to create an interesting environment for active and engaged learning in the classroom. One of the popular methods of imparting knowledge is the use of business related games. As instructors continue developing useful learning tools for their classrooms, games have become one popular alternative. The use of games and simulations for educational purposes may be traced to the use of war games in the 1600s. Some of these games help students to experience situations they would encounter in future, at their workplace. Effective experiments through games can induce learning at a deeper level that results from being convinced about the usefulness of an otherwise abstract theory. These kinds of games also help to form and develop enterprising attitudes for learning the methods of modern management. There are other games which help students improve their thinking ability. For example, Wharton High School linked chess and business through the experiences and insights of high school chess players who were also business-minded. With tools in hand, namely pawns, knights, rooks, bishops, a queen and a king, these teens were sharpening their business acumen, one strategic move at a time. A substantial body of literature indicates that the use of non-traditional interventions, such as games, simulations, multimedia instruction and interactive activities are valuable teaching methods. Sometimes, practising games which utilize one’s problem solving skills could be useful but may not enhance the student’s problem solving confidence. Certain web based games are used for student development too. Results of such games indicated that interactivity induced by multi-players is conducive to germane cognitive load and significantly enhanced vocabulary recall. In this paper, the researcher has another game to develop the intellectual prowess of B- school students through logical and mathematical thinking strategies.

The Rubik’s cube was invented by Hungarian sculptor and Professor of architecture Ern? Rubik. Originally called the Magic Cube, the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Ideal Toy Corp. in 1980 it won a special award for ‘Best Puzzle’ that year. As of January 2009, 350 million cubes had been sold worldwide making it the world’s top-selling puzzle game. It is widely considered to be the world’s best-selling toy. There has been some previous research, carried out to test the impact of solving the cube on the human brain. The findings of some scholars suggest that the Rubik’s cube improves ‘Spatial Thinking’, brings coordination between the right and the left brain and increases creative as well as logical aspects within an individual. The findings also suggested that it helps improve skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, memorization, patience and perseverance and increases IQ levels. The 3 by 3 Rubik’s cube represents a potential benchmark for temporal sequence learning under a discrete application domain with multiple actions.

I carried out an Experimental Study using convenience sampling with 30 Students having similar aptitude scores. Out of these, 15 students were introduced to the Rubik’s cube and taught to solve it for two months. A second aptitude test was conducted for these 30 students after a time interval of 2 months to observe the difference in the scoring pattern between those who regularly solved the cube and those who did not. The results showed an impact of solving the Rubik’s cube for two months, on the logical reasoning ability of the students. There was a negligible change and difference in the other types of reasoning. This could be because the cube has several logical ways of being solved. In some parts, there are algorithms used to solve the cube. The students were taught to solve the cube using the ‘Layer By Layer’ and the ‘F2L’ methods. Both these methods begin by solving the first face of the cube without algorithms. The algorithms need to be applied using logic at every step after the first step of solving the cube. The algorithms are coupled with rotating the cube in the right directions while solving it layer by layer. It also includes using logic for getting the right colours in the right place for applying the algorithms. There is very little creativity or mathematics involved in this process. The results obtained indicated that regular usage of the Rubik’s cube could enhance logical reasoning ability. It can be a useful tool for the intellectual development of students if used, over a while.