Designing an Inquiry-Based Bridge Program through Board Games: Making Social Inequality Visible and Tangible
Japan Association for College and University Education, Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan, Jun, 2026.
CHIHIRO KARIYA, PhD 
Abstract
This presentation reports on a university–high school outreach program that used the board game Unequal Monopoly to help high school students explore social inequality. After examining the limitations of problem-solving-oriented inquiry learning in Japanese secondary education, it introduces the game’s design, implementation, and learning outcomes. Unlike conventional PBL, the game encourages students to question how inequality is structurally produced and reproduced rather than simply proposing solutions. Participants experienced how unequal initial conditions shaped outcomes and discussed possible institutional reforms through collaborative rule changes. However, discussions of inequality in the Japanese context remained limited, tending to focus on visible regional or political disparities. The presentation concludes by considering how experiential learning and critical reflection can strengthen university–high school articulation programs.