EU Operations Are Studied with Roleplay Simulation
Diplomat, minister, EU Commissioner or European civil servant. Slight tension and speculating the motives of your colleagues. These are the ingredients of EU enlargement negotiations. After everyone has put their mind to their role, the roleplay simulation can begin.
Jesse Fomin (left), a student of Political Science; Riccardo Labianco Trenton, an exchange student from an Italian university; Taneli Elomaa, a student of Political Science, and Riikka Kevo, a student of Economic Geography in the heat of the negotiations.
November 2012, The History and Politics of European Integration programme organised a course Negotiating and Deciding EU Enlargement: A Roleplay Simulation. The course examined the EU enlargement process to the Western Balkans.
The negotiations of the enlargement process were simulated through a roleplay. The simulated negotiations were held between the representatives of the EU member states, EU institutions and the member candidate state of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Beforehand, the students were given roles such as diplomat, minister, EU Commissioner and European civil servant.
The New Course Form Gets the Students to Cooperate
According to Ville Laamanen, the teacher in charge of last year’s course, this teaching form uniquely allows the students to cooperate like no other teaching form can.
Laamanen sees the course as a team achievement of the teachers and the students. The course is also beneficial in other ways.
– As a course form, the roleplay simulation is more memorable and participatory than regular course forms. The students really empathize to their roles as EU institutions. This makes the course more enjoyable and interactive, Laamanen ponders.
One third of the participants were exchange students. The course taught the students new ways to get to know each other.
– The course form also supports the learning of teachers. The learning situation gives them immediate feedback. Based on that they can improve their own educational methods, Laamanen says.
Concretising the Enlargement Process
According to Iiro Heikkilä, a Contemporary History student, the course was a really reasonable and brave approach to a difficult matter.
– Research literature concerning the EU occasionally feels like occultism. This course really concretised the teachings of many books about the coordination between European institutions. It also taught us to understand what happens behind press releases, Heikkilä clarifies.
The Course Form Is Continued This Year
Laamanen says that the next course is held in November 2013.
– Of course it is more time-consuming to organise this type of a course. In my opinion, the advantages of the course are so great that we need to organise these kinds of courses also in the future, Laamanen emphasises.
In the lower photograph Miska Linden (left), a student of Russian and Iiro Heikkilä, a student of Contemporary History.
Text: Jasmina Savolainen
Photographs: Jaakko Joki