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Policy study visits - formal visits or tours made by participants to a specific site or sites outside of their own jurisdiction to observe and gather information about a policy or policies in place at the site(s) ? are a form of policy learning through the processes of policy transfer. In this paper we review the research literature in the fields of organizational and policy learning and in policy transfer in order to generate hypotheses about policy study visits and their potential effectiveness. We then set forth a tentative typology of policy study visits and discuss various functions they might serve. We discuss the probable roles played by the visit participants, host, and organizers in affecting the effectiveness of the visit. We define effectiveness to include not only the communication of policy ideas to participants, but also that these ideas are adequately assessed and that conclusions derived from that assessment are utilized in policy making. Finally we describe research we are undertaking to better understand policy study visits and to test the hypotheses we generate in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computer micorworlds are becoming a popular tool for both instruction and research in the natural and social sciences. Unlike a verbal description, the microworld provides the students an opportunity to experience in a non-passive and first hand manner the effect of alternative courses of action on the system they are exploring. This is because the student can repeat over and over the same sequence of events and observe the outcome of alternative effects. This presentation will illustrate how a relatively simple microworld was integrated into the classroom in courses in Israel and New Zealand in order to demonstrate to the students the constraints and dynamics of decision-making within the context of a protracted conflict. Another element that the students learned for themselves was the dilemma between their cognitive impulses and rational decision-making practices. The students were so captivated by this exercise that they did not want to leave the class when it ended, and requested to experiment with the simulator after the class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]