Social Constructivism

While observing Tabletop from a social constructivist lens, I explored how players constructed a shared understanding while playing board games. Observing Tabletop through social constructivism was very insightful, as each episode featured a small group of four to five people; small groups tend to be best for studying collaboration and shared meaning making (Stahl et al., 2006). Throughout my observations, I took note of dialogue, gestures, expressions, and game pieces. I was very fascinated by the discussions surrounding effective strategy, as well as by the role of prior experience and game equipment in promoting shared understanding. Although my research questions went through many iterations, based on a consolidation of my field notes across all nine episodes of Tabletop, I honed in on three research questions centered around players’ shared understanding of effective game strategy:

1. How do players develop a shared understanding of an effective strategy?

2. How does a player’s prior knowledge contribute to the construction of a shared understanding of effective strategy?

3. How does game equipment influence players’ shared understanding of effective strategy?