Abstract:

There are more and more reasons that justify the implementation of coaching in the educational system and thus, boost student motivation and results. The work of the coach is essential in this process, as, through emotional intelligence, he or she is able to transmit and connect proactively with the student, bringing out their greatest potential.

Gamification is a very interesting technique that, if well implemented in the educational field, favours the acquisition of knowledge and the improvement of useful skills for their future working life. In this way, they can apply all the theoretical knowledge previously acquired to a business simulation, such as the Global Management Challenge.

In the 2019-20 academic year, the Teaching Innovation Project was launched under the title "Simulación empresarial para acercar la toma de decisiones de los directivos al aula ". The objective is to tutor and accompany the students of the different degrees of the Economics and Business Faculty throughout the different phases of the Global Management Challenge (hereinafter, GMC) competition. The tutoring team consisted of 9 members: 3 teachers and 6 students who participated in the simulation in 2018 and 2019, finishing fifth and fourth at national level.

Therefore, in order to be able to bring different points of view to coaching, it was decided that each group of coaches would consist of 1 teacher and 2 ex-participants, making 3 groups of coaches in total. The task of the tutors throughout this process is to guide the student throughout the competition by applying the coaching methodology. Through reflection, active listening and asking the right questions without directly influencing their own strategies or decisions, they help the student to have a global and critical vision, which is fundamental for personal and professional development.

In the latest edition of the Global Management Challenge competition we tutored a total of 9 teams out of the 30 participants, distributed in 4 markets. The first round in which the students participated took place between the months of November and December 2020, where they made 5 decisions, one per week. Once the round was over, they would know which teams would go on to the next round, which is the Autonomous Final. Only the two best teams from each market would qualify. Knowing the distribution of the 9 teams, 6 teams could qualify. Finally 4 teams qualified. It should be noted that three teams dropped out of the tutorials in the third position. We suppose that in the third decision as they were classified in their respective markets (between 6th and 8th position) it was difficult for them to qualify and they dropped out. Therefore, out of the 6 teams that we coached during the 5 weeks, 4 qualified for the final in Aragon. In other words, 67% of the teams that went through the process obtained positive results. They managed their companies in the best possible way by coming first and second in each market.

The team of tutors is satisfied with the work done. On the one hand, the use of a simulator has allowed the students to get closer to the management of a company. On the other hand, the methodology used, coaching, has allowed tutoring the different teams from impartiality and helping them to bring out their potential. It has also favoured the teacher-student relationship as it has been closer and not as formal as in a classroom.

Keywords:

Simulator, coaching, gamification, learning.