Contextualized learning theory in practice: An assessment study of cultivating procedural vis-à-vis conceptual fluencies in operations management fundamentals through simulations

Contextualized learning theory promotes effective learning by placing new information in meaningful contexts; however, despite its desirability among educators, identifying practical ways to apply this theory in specific classroom teaching remains an ongoing challenge. To that end, undergraduate business students often find operations management topics challenging to contextualize because of the inherently complex integration of theoretical concepts and methodical procedures that characterize the subject. Accordingly, instructors strive to identify viable instructional tools to help students overcome this challenge and achieve parallel mastery of the intertwined quantitative and qualitative aspects of operations management fundamentals. This paper presents the results of a comparative experimental study examining the effectiveness of simulation-assisted instruction in promoting contextualized learning in an introductory operations management course. The empirical results based on a quasi-experimental design showed that computer simulations enable students to experience contextualized learning, thereby enhancing their performance and fluency in understanding and applying OM concepts and techniques. On that note, performance-based assessment of learning outcomes revealed that students' conceptual fluency, as a reflection of their contextual efficacy, improved the most when simulations were used. Moreover, students' procedural fluency, as evidenced by their technical efficacy, was simultaneously improved, albeit to a lesser extent, when simulations were employed. Perception-based assessment of learning outcomes showed similar improvement patterns; however, unlike the performance-based results, these improvements did not reach statistical significance. The findings provide valuable insights into the utility of such instructional tools through a methodical inquiry into the objective and subjective assessments of polydimensional learning outcomes.