Teachers actively highlight specific in-game actions as examples of tactical decision-making, including distinguishing sound tactical reasoning from negative outcomes¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · qualitative r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Connections between concrete in-game actions and the concept of tactics are not treated as transparent in the gaming experience but require active highlighting by instructors. → Sjöblom 2025 q2 i? Teachers positively assess tactical reasoning even when the outcome was a failure-event, distinguishing outcomes from the quality of reasoning. → Sjöblom 2025 (2)

Evidence¶

Sjöblom 2025¶

Sjöblom, B., & Lymer, G. (2025). Conceptual socialization in debriefing: tactics as an object of knowledge in wargame interactions. Instructional Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-025-09717-8

q2 · i? · qualitative · r3

Analysis of a transcript in which a teacher highlights a logistics-related discussion as an example of "a tactical decision". The article treats this as illustrating the instructor's task of making explicit connections between game actions and the concept of tactics.

"This connection is thus not treated as transparent or immanent in the gaming experience as such but as requiring active highlighting to be rendered salient as an issue of tactics."

Sjöblom 2025 (2)¶

Sjöblom, B., & Lymer, G. (2025). Conceptual socialization in debriefing: tactics as an object of knowledge in wargame interactions. Instructional Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-025-09717-8

q2 · i? · qualitative · r3

Transcript analysis of an end-of-day debriefing where students lost a radar helicopter to technological surprise; the teacher assessed the handling as tactically correct, separating outcome evaluation from evaluation of tactical reasoning.

"The teacher, however, highlights that in spite of this unfortunate outcome, the students had handled the helicopter in a “tactically correct” way (line 03)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Students appropriate the concept of tactics in their own post-game reasoning through thematization of general principles and framing performance in terms of creating dilemmas for the opponent
• Teachers construe tactical reasoning as a generalizable, transferable skill, using the educational design of wargames to downplay concern with realism
• In post-wargaming debriefings, teachers and students delineate tactics from related areas of military competence such as teamwork, communication, and technology
• A systematic review argues that concrete materials aid mathematics and science learning when they are explicitly and gradually connected to the abstract symbols they represent — a broader claim this one bears on
• A 2017 cyberlearning community report states that students learn more from games when bridging activities connect game learning to classroom instruction, and that learning analytics can strengthen the connection — related
• Dale argued learning becomes more meaningful when abstract learning and concrete experience are related, not that more realism is better — related
• Teaching Games for Understanding improves tactical decision-making more than traditional physical education instruction. — related