Developing first-year undergraduate business students’ research skills using a Model United Nations framework.

Model United Nations (Model UN) is one of the world’s most popular extra-curricular educational simulations in which students can learn about international relations and the United Nations’ role and responsibilities. Model UN is proposed as a classroom engagement activity where first-year undergraduate students play their roles as delegates from different countries and endeavour to solve real world issues using the policies and perspectives of their assigned countries as well as policies and procedures of the United Nations. An innovative teaching framework includes a variety of learning activities which are based on secondary research conducted by students. This includes self-guided writing of position papers, group exercises, a Model UN role-play, collaborative development of draft resolutions and reflective writing.
Considering the dearth of literature that specifically addresses the processes and challenges of teaching secondary research to inexperienced undergraduate students, the author believes that this teaching innovation could offer practical value to colleagues teaching research methods to first-year undergraduate business students in other educational institutions. Although the case presented in this paper is discipline-specific, it could be of use to academic professionals who teach in social sciences and humanities.