Danish School of Education

Teacher Roles in Learning Games: When Games Become Situated in Schools

This paper examines what happens when professional simulation learning games enter school classrooms, using a case study of the game Homicide, in which students role-play forensic investigators solving murder cases.

• Teachers using professional simulation learning games such as Homicide must balance two overlapping roles: a fictional in-game role (police chief) and a pedagogical role as supervisor of students who may know more about the specialized content than the teacher.
• The study draws on about 120 hours of full-time video observation across four 13-to-15-year-old school classes, supplemented by group interviews, pre- and post-tests, and student work logs.
• Breaking the game's fiction undermines its meaning: when a science teacher had students practice fingerprint-lifting as a standalone transferable skill, students confused by the irrelevance to the murder narrative became visibly less engaged.