Experiencing the art of intelligence: using simulations/gaming for teaching intelligence and developing analysis and production skills

Abstract

This article discusses the use of experiential (or active) learning methods – specifically the use of simulations, exercises, and games – to enhance student learning in intelligence courses at universities to prepare students for careers in intelligence organizations. The article argues that most disciplines and academic fields employ laboratories, simulations, internships, and practical exercises when the learning objective is to develop the required skills to successfully practice a professional discipline. The use of active learning techniques challenges prospective intelligence professionals to learn by exercising previously learned concepts, frameworks, and tools in simulated ‘real world’ scenarios, leading them to gradually become more technically skillful and effective.

Notes

1. Kolb, Experiential Learning, 21, 22.

2. Nilson, Creating Self-regulated Learners, x–xv.

3. Ibid., 48.

4. William J. Lahneman, personal experience, 2006, 2016.

5. Kolb et al., On Becoming an Experiental Educator, 229.

6. Ibid.

7. Kolb, Management and Learning Process; Kolb and Fry, Toward an Applied Theory; Kolb, Learning Styles and Disciplinary Differences; and Kolb, Experiential Learning.

8. Kolb, Experiential Learning, 38.

9. Dawson, Simulation in the Social Sciences.

10. Ibid.

13. Crookball and Thorngate, “Editorial,” 19.

14. Ibid.

15. Guetzkow, Simulation in Social Science, 189.

16. Dawson, Simulation in the Social Sciences, 8–12.

17. Bloom et al., Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.

18. See: Krathwohl, Bloom and Masia, Handbook II: Affective Domain.

19. Ibid., 12.

20. Ibid., 38.

21. Ibid., 7.

22. Gosen and Washbush, A Review of Scholarship, 272.

23. Geithner and Menzel, Effectiveness of Learning through, 250, 251.

24. Ranchhod et al., Evaluating the Educational Effectiveness, 75–90.

25. Bredemeier and Greenblat, The Educational Effectiveness, 322.

26. Gosen and Washbush, A Review of Scholarship, 270.

27. Chin, Dukes, and Gamson, Assessment in Simulation and Gaming, 565.

28. Bredemeier and Greenblat, “Educational Effectiveness of Simulation Games,” 325.

29. Barkley, Student Engagement Techniques, 35.

30. Ibid., 35.

31. Nilson, Creating Self-regulated Learners, 2.

32. Ibid., 2.

33. Weimer, Learner-centered Teaching, 23.

34. Barkley, Student Engagement Techniques, 30, 31.

35. The simulations mentioned have been run several times in graduate courses, including intelligence courses in the Master’s Degree in Intelligence Analysis at Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid, Spain ‘Estimating Iraqi WMD’ has also been conducted for postgraduate programs at the University of Cádiz, the University of Maryland, and American University; at IE University for undergraduate students; and at the International Spy Museum, Washington, DC.

36. Lahneman and Keesing, “Simulating Iraqi WMDs,” 3–23.

37. Wheaton and Breckrenridge, “Spies and Lies,” 61–74.

38. Richards, “Competing Hypotheses in Intelligence Analysis,” 23, 24.

12. Ibid., 226