Abstract:

Modern teaching methods encourage professors to adjust to students’ needs and expectations. In this new academic framework, experiences with business situations that are about to come are highly desired and encouraged. Teachers are required to do their best in introducing their students to business realities and in preparing them to face them correctly. The role-playing method pursues these ideas through simulations of real-life situations from practice. This paper aims at providing insights on students’ opinions regarding this teaching and learning technique. The research was conducted among students of the Faculty of Economics from the University of Valencia in Spain. Participants were students of the Consumer Behaviour course. Firstly, students were engaged in a role-play activity placed in a marketing context. Secondly, they participated in a focus group assignment, where they had to express their opinions regarding the role-playing method. Finally, they completed a structured questionnaire that examined different aspects of role-playing. All these activities started at the end of October and finished by the middle of December in 2018. Students showed positive attitudes towards role-playing and recognized benefits related with increased learning and enhanced interaction with other students.

Keywords:

Role-playing, marketing, consumer behaviour.