Tactical Learning Research Articles

Military Maladaptation: Counterinsurgency and the Politics of Failure

Tactical learning is critical to battlefield success, especially in a counterinsurgency. This article tests the existing model of military adaption against a ‘most-likely’ case: the British Army’s counterinsurgency in the Southern Cameroons (1960–61). Despite meeting all preconditions thought to enable adaptation – decentralization, leadership turnover, supportive leadership, poor organizational memory, feedback loops, and a clear threat – the British still failed to adapt. Archival evidence suggests politicians subverted bottom-up adaptation, because winning came at too high a price in terms of Britain’s broader strategic imperatives. Our finding identifies an important gap in the extant adaptation literature: it ignores politics.

小学校高学年のバスケットボール授業に取り入れたフリーシュートゾーンが戦術に与える影響

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of creating two Free-Shoot Zones (FSZ) at freely chosen spots on acquisition of tactics in the setting of 4-on-3 basketball games in upper-elementary physical education classes. Tactics learning was incorporated as an important part of basketball classes, and implemented at two different upper-elementary grade levels during physical education classes. Because the purpose of creating the FSZ is to ensure opportunities to take a shot, it prevents defenders from interfering, thus maximizing the shooter's chances of a successful shot. During the study, 25 1-m2 squares were placed in restricted areas, and then the students chose two preferred areas before the game. In order to analyze the influence of the FSZ, students' conversations were recorded during tactical timeouts in every class using a digital voice recorder. At those times, students discussed where to place the FSZ. They recorded the offensive strategies of their team on their learning cards. Furthermore, the teacher categorized the students' strategic ideas into patterns A, B, or C. Later, for every physical education class, the number of occurrences of each predetermined strategy was recorded on the basis of the three patterns. The data were then displayed on a line graph to illustrate how the tactical patterns differed among the classes. The main findings were as follows: 1. Many teams modified their strategies intentionally or made gradual tactical transformations depending on the defense's positions and movements when the FSZ was both guarded and unguarded. 2. After determining spots where it was possible to create unmarked spaces, many teams devised strategies to attract the defense to create free spaces for shooting, and also collaborated in creating shooting opportunities. The present findings demonstrate the effectiveness of incorporating a FSZ into tactical learning in elementary school basketball classes.

Developing Tactical Skills through the Use of Static and Dynamic Soccer Visualizations: An Expert–Nonexpert Differences Investigation

In a 2 × 3 design, we investigated how level of expertise and type of visual presentation influence the tactical learning of a soccer playing system. Nonexpert players benefited more from the two static visualizations than from the dynamic visualization, whereas expert players benefited more from the dynamic rather than static visualizations. Moreover, nonexperts benefited more from the static-with-tracing presentation than from the static-without-tracing presentation, while experts performed at the same level with both types of the static presentation. Results recommend the need to consider levels of player expertise when designing different types of visualization intended to improve learning.

Dynamic capabilities: implications for marketing strategy formulation and implementation

Theories concerning the source of superior firm performance are evolving. Marketing orientation theory and its counterpart, the resource-based view, are becoming outdated by the dynamic capabilities perspective as the importance of industrial change becomes evermore significant. Dynamic capabilities are the processes managers use to modify their organisations in order to ‘keep in touch’ with changes occurring in their industrial setting. This paper introduces the dynamic capabilities perspective by first tracing the debate on the source of superior firm performance. The contribution is made by informing strategic marketing academics and practitioners about the potential implications the era of dynamic capabilities has on marketing strategy formulation and implementation, otherwise known in practice as the SOSTAC process. This paper advocates strategic marketing practice should be an incessant, habitual, entrepreneurial opportunity sensing managerial skill which is incremental in nature allowing firms to adapt to or even drive industrial change through tactical flexibility, trial and reflective learning with the relentless monitoring of actions taken.

Elementos comunicativos en entrenadores de baloncesto en diferentes categorías. Un estudio de casos. (Communicative elements among basketball coaches in different categories. A case study)

The processes of conscious communication in sport improve playerslearning; thus, the job of the basketball coach is paramount. The present study investigates the communication elements referred to as space arrangements, grouping information, and period of the season. We studied three basketball coaches in different categories (ACB, LEB and EBA). The instruments and the technique used were video cameras and systematic observations by means of triangulation. The results indicated that the team in the highest category (ACB) was the one that transmitted the most information (36.5%; n=1052). In general, the use of half the space (45.2%), the transmission of information to the group (67.2%), and instructions in the week before eliminatory competitions (around 35%) offered the highest values. The lowest-level category (EBA) indicated the need for greater technical and tactical learning, which resulted in a greater use of space near the coach; all employed mostly group information as the mode of communication, with half the space being the most used.

The city as a machine for learning

Despite its centrality to urban politics, economies and life, learning remains a neglected and undertheorised domain in urban geography. In this paper, I address this by exploring a politics of learning through two key sites: tactical learning and urban learning forums. I offer a conception of learning based on three processes: translation, or the relational distributions through which learning is produced as a sociomaterial epistemology of displacement and change; coordination, or the construction of functional systems that enable learning as a means of linking different forms of knowledge, coping with complexity and facilitating adaptation; and dwelling, or the education of attention through which learning operates as a way of seeing and inhabiting the world. I then consider this conception of learning in relation to tactical learning, i.e. the resources marginal groups use to cope with, negotiate and resist in the city, and urban learning forums, i.e. the possibilities for progressive forms of learning between different constituencies in the city. I conclude with an outline of a critical urbanism of learning.

Modelling ball circulation in invasion team sports: a way to promote learning games through understanding

Background: Sport Education and ‘Tactical decision learning model’ (TDLM) are two curriculum models used by physical education teachers in France to help students in the development of a tactical intelligence of game play in the didactics of team sports. Purpose: Identify prototypic configurations of play in the sense that they represent an original model, archetype of a model that reproduces itself. Participants and setting: We conducted this research with three age groups of secondary school students (grade 6, 11/12 years old; grade 9, 14/15 years old; and grade 12, 17/18 years old). The team sport selected was soccer with a 4 vs. 4 player format. Research design: Based on the video observation of a final sample of 188 sequences of play having led to a shot at goal or a goal, we considered three categories of criteria combined and came up with eight prototypic configurations of play often displayed by novice players. Data collection: The following observational categories were retained: (1) location of ball recovery with reference to the position on the field: high ball recovery (in the opponents’ side of the pitch); recovery in the middle area of the pitch; low recovery (in one's own side of the pitch); (2) location of recovery with reference to the position within the effective (occupied) play-space (EP-S): recovery at the front of the EP-S; recovery at the rear or in the middle area of the EP-S; and (3) selection of play after recovery of the ball: (a) ball exchange with a teammate (long pass, short pass, number of passes); and (b) dribble. Findings: Eight prototypic offensive configurations of play are presented and a related didactical model is discussed. Conclusions: In team sports with a constructivist approach, such modelling, models and efficient-action rules imply a construction by students. It requires an evolution of the various concepts involved, a progressive integration, step-wise or level-wise, to a thinking process. For this purpose, in the teaching/learning system in team sports, we propose to switch from Teaching Games for Understanding to Learning Games through Understanding.

Students' situated action in physical education: analysis of typical concerns and their relations with mobilized knowledge in table tennis

Background: In most studies in the classroom context, the student is generally only one variable in the analysis of the effects of the teacher's work. Our research was based on the postulate that the student's activity is basically autonomous, i.e. irreducible with the influence that the teacher has. This is why we propose to analyse the dynamics of students' activity in the PE lesson by adopting their point of view, i.e. starting from their meanings which emerge in the situation. We adopted a French socio-cognitive model: the ‘course of action’. Purpose: This qualitative study was interested in the activity of two students (their typical concerns and their relations with mobilized knowledge) when they play face-to-face in table tennis. The first objective was to provide detailed information about students' typical concerns in PE in relation to their mobilized knowledge. The second objective was to contribute to a reflection on the intervention in PE, and in particular in racket sports. Participants and setting: Four 11th graders (two girls and two boys) from the same class in a rural secondary school in France meeting weekly for two hours of PE over the year. Intervention: A study of the activity of two out of four students (i.e. a dyad) in one of the 10 lessons of a cycle in table tennis, then a study of the other dyad in the following lesson. Voluntarily, the researchers did not take part in the design of the lessons of the cycle. They also limited the study to the specific periods when the two students played face-to-face. The first lesson privileged cooperative tasks whereas the second was focused on competitive tasks. Data collection: Three kinds of materials were collected during each lesson: (a) a video and audio recording of the students' activity during the lesson; (b) a self-confrontation interview with the students after the lesson; and (c) complementary ethnographic notes. Data analysis: It consisted of cutting the flow of activity into Elementary Units of Meaning (EUMs) that the students used to think and act. The data were analysed in three stages: (a) the construction of a two-level protocol, confronting the observation and interview data; (b) the identification of the EUMs; and (c) the identification of the series and archetypal series (larger units which gather the EUMs of which the concerns are the same). Findings: Separate results were presented in the analysis of both dyads. They showed: (a) components that were shared by the students of the same dyad in both case studies; (b) but no common components between both students' dyads. Discussion: The results were discussed on two levels: the first part concerned common features and differences in students' activity within and between the two dyads. It shows that it is important to understand that the students share certain concerns in similar tasks (in particular when they play face-to-face). In addition, it is important also to note that there are no common concerns between students who played in tasks of opposition and students who played in tasks of cooperation. The second level drew instructional implications from this research. We proposed to include systematically three dimensions in each task: tactical project, learning and pleasure.

Learning Opportunities and Learning Behavior

This study approaches the management learning process of individuals as an interaction between personal and situational characteristics. Combining insights from cognitive learning theory and social construction theory, it aims to explore the interactions between learning opportunities and learning behavior on the job. Learning opportunities are divided into four categories: obstacles, support, task-related characteristics, and transitions. Learning behavior is specified in five elements: instruction-oriented learning Gestalt learning tactical learning, planned learning, and tacit learning. Examination of five main hypotheses leads to the conclusion that, among MBAs in their early career stage, there is an interaction between individual learning behavior and the amount of learning opportunities, although the latter influences learning behavior in a less dominant way. More specifically, Gestalt learning results in more support, which itself leads to more planned learning which in turn increases the number of learning opportunities. Discussion focuses on possible explanations why not all hypotheses were confirmed.

Bridging government–university–industry technological learning disconnects: a comparative study of training and development policies and practices in the U.S., Japan, Germany, and France

Training and Development (T&D) programs are increasingly playing a crucial role in determining long-term survival and success for technologically advanced corporations and societies alike. T&D is the sine qua non to address major challenges at both the societal and the corporate level through continuously building and renewing technological skills and knowledge. A resource-based, dynamic learning systems approach encompassing the major stakeholders of vocational and corporate Training and Development programs, addresses the following three questions: 1. What hinders the strategic role of T&D? 2. What facilitates/reinforces the strategic role of T&D? 3. How can the hindrances be alleviated and the reinforcing elements enhanced in a Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) framework based on multinational benchmarking of “Best Practices”? A comparative analysis of the historical evolution and the state-of-the-art in corporate- and government-sponsored Training and Development in the U.S., Japan, Germany, and France are used as the frame of reference for dealing with these questions. The answers developed provide a conceptual framework for T&D within the context of the learning, technology-driven corporation of the future, which pivots around three mutually reinforcing levels of technological learning: operational learning, tactical learning or learning how-to-learn from experience, and strategic learning or learning to learn how-to-learn from experience.

Managing the International Strategic Sourcing Process as a Market‐Driven Organizational Learning System*

ABSTRACTThis study examines the effects of market‐driven organizational learning on a select set of strategic sourcing outcomes involving the sourcing function of a Fortune 500 multinational corporation. The focus is on the dyadic activities and relationships between the domestic and international strategic business units (SBUs) and the corporate buying center. The hypothesized relationships are tested on the overall sample and based on a two‐by‐two matrix framework defined by international versus domestic settings and frequent versus infrequent sourcing scenarios. Based on a sample of 179 domestic and 167 international SBUs, the results suggest that market‐driven organizational learning in the strategic sourcing units influences customer satisfaction, relationship commitment, and cycle time of the sourcing process. However, while the set of learning orientations appears to be strategically robust across the four quadrant scenarios (moderator settings), the sourcing situations differ somewhat in the specific tactical learning orientations preferred.

Tactical behavior in team sports

O interesse do trabalho concentra-se no treinamento tático com vistas a uma ampliação da capacidade de decisão consciente do atleta, o que, neste estudo, significa tomar decisão correta frente a diferentes situações de jogo e saber justificá-la em função da configuração de jogo apresentada. Objetiva-se verificar até que ponto a aprendizagem do pensamento tático depende da interação de variáveis como idade, experiência e tipo de treinamento. Para isso, a metodologia utilizada consistiu em apresentar a dois grupos (experimental e controle), com idades entre 14-18 anos, vinte e oito situações de jogo com três segundos de exposição, divididas em três instrumentos. O treinamento com o grupo experimental possibilitou um aumento significativo na capacidade de julgar e justificar decisões, particularmente nos atletas mais novos e com pouca ou média experiência. A tendência mostra que a pouca experiência específica parece ser fator altamente decisivo para a aprendizagem proposta no treinamento experimental. O estudo tende a deixar claro que o treinamento tático específico pode propiciar ganhos efetivos na aprendizagem tática