Designing Epistemic Games for Informed Civic Learning

Abstract

In this paper, we describe the design for PurpleState, an internship simulation that applies the epistemic game model for informed civic learning. PurpleState places students in the role of interns at a political media firm and asks them to design a media campaign on a state level policy issue. Unlike the use of these models in STEM education, here we use the internship simulation to develop key skills, knowledge, and values and to ask participants to reflect on the simulation itself. In this way, we utilize PurpleState to help participants develop the argumentative thinking, epistemic cognition, and self-efficacy for informed citizenship and the reflective capacity to apply their understanding of the political ecosystem being simulated. The design of PurpleState contributes to the use of simulations in civic education by focusing on state level issues and using communities of practice as a model for learning and transfer to local civic engagement.