 What Is Board Game Pedagogy?Simply put, board game pedagogy is the use of carefully selected board games with children and young people to achieve educational goals. The important distinction is that we don't use educational games—we use games for education. From a motivational perspective, this makes a huge difference. Educational games, designed specifically as teaching tools, can certainly be valuable. However, children quickly realize that they are in a learning situation—they know they are being taught. Once that happens, many of them become far less engaged. For twelve years, I led an educational support program for disadvantaged children and young people at a Hungarian foundation. Among the many challenges we faced, one of the most significant was low motivation to learn. Board game pedagogy was developed in this environment because we needed an approach that could develop children's skills without making them feel that skill development was the primary goal. The moment they sensed they were being "developed," many of them simply shut down. Board game pedagogy is therefore about selecting games that serve our educational goals and creating situations in which meaningful play can happen. We expect learning and personal growth to emerge from the shared gaming experience itself. We do not constantly draw attention to the learning process, nor do we turn games into disguised lessons. We simply play together. We believe that playing together is essential. Parents and educators should participate as players, not as game masters. In a traditional classroom this can be difficult to achieve, but in our foundation's program we worked with smaller groups, making this approach possible. The same is true in families and homeschooling environments. Of course, children also benefit when they play without adults. But we believe there is additional educational value when adults join the game, bringing along their own knowledge, curiosity, enthusiasm, and gaming culture. Board game pedagogy is not about training gifted players or raising future chess grandmasters. Parents and educators do not need to become expert gamers, because our goal is not to master one particular game. Instead, we believe children benefit most from experiencing a wide variety of games and game mechanisms, constantly facing new situations and new ways of thinking. For adults, this requires a broad knowledge of games and a solid understanding of the rules. Explaining rules clearly is essential, and I have written about this in more detail here. Let's look at a few concrete examples.  Developing Reading Motivation and Reading Comprehension Through Board GamesWhen we first launched our educational program, this was one of the first challenges we wanted to address. We quickly realized that it was impossible to improve reading comprehension without first improving reading motivation. Traditional reading exercises simply bounced off many of the children. They didn't want to read. That's when we had a simple idea: instead of asking them to read, why not introduce them to great games that just happen to involve reading? Building trust and creating a positive gaming culture is essential for this approach. If children know that I'm usually introducing them to games they'll enjoy, I can gradually push their boundaries. They trust me when I tell them, "You're going to like this." We've experienced countless moments when children who normally refused to read ended up reading without even noticing. One of my favorite examples was playing Love Letter with a group of teenage boys. It was a joy to watch them struggle through the text on the cards. They couldn't show their cards to me or to each other—that would have ruined the game—so they had no choice but to work out the meaning of each card on their own. At no point did they feel that they were practising reading or improving their reading comprehension. Their only goal was to win the game. The progression can be very gradual. You can begin with individual letters—we even created our own Dobble cards for letter recognition years ago. Then letters become words through games such as Scrabble, Typo, or Word Bits. Later come short sentences in games like Citadels or Love Letter, and eventually longer texts, such as those found in Agricola or Munchkin. Our role as adults is to find the games that genuinely appeal to our children—games they are excited to play and, almost as a side effect, games that encourage them to read, if that's one of our educational goals. If you're looking for ideas, we've collected plenty of recommendations to help you get started.  Can Progress Be Measured?Absolutely. In 2018, József Jesztl and I published our book Board Game Pedagogy in Hungarian. In it, we introduced an observation and journaling method that we had developed ourselves. We believed that game situations remain the most authentic—and that we stay closest to our own educational principles—if the assessment itself remains invisible. That's why we chose the role of participant observer and relied on reflective journals instead. I already had extensive experience using both methods in my educational work, so adapting them to the context of board games felt like a natural step. We identified eleven areas that we considered both important and observable through board game play:
We then used Declan Kennedy's theory of learning outcomes to define different developmental levels for each of these areas. Our goal was to avoid purely subjective evaluation. Rather than simply giving a child a "good" or "bad" score, we wanted each level to be defined by concrete, observable behaviours. We wanted to avoid situations where one educator might rate the same behaviour as a "2" while another would call it a "4." Instead, we described precisely what each level represented. Interestingly, these descriptions also provide an excellent roadmap for how a particular skill can develop over time, making them useful not only for assessment but also for educational planning. For example, we described six levels of decision-making:
A tool like this can be valuable both for initial assessment and for tracking progress over time. For example, while working with one of my groups, I completed 118 observation journals. One interesting finding was that their average score for awareness of their own play was only 1.99. In practice, this meant that they evaluated games almost entirely on an emotional level. A game was simply "good" or "bad." They rarely reflected on whether they had played well or poorly. This was valuable feedback for me as an educator. I realized that I also needed to change my own behaviour at the table and model reflective thinking more consciously. The ability to reflect on our own actions is essential for effective learning, and board games provide an excellent environment for developing this skill. Of course, assessment is not our ultimate goal. What truly matters is following children's development over time. We also kept journals for a boy who was about to start first grade. He had never attended our preschool program, had not participated in any school preparation classes, and according to his parents, had never really played board games before. His first observations looked like this:
Eighteen months later, after attending our weekly sessions and several of our holiday camps, we observed him again to see whether our impressions were supported by evidence. This time we recorded:
He was still only at the beginning of his journey, but the progress was clearly visible. Abstract Games in the 21st Century?One of the questions I'm asked most often is how I manage to get children interested in board games in today's digital world. To be honest, I've never found it difficult. Perhaps that's partly because of the digital world itself. Sometimes it simply feels good to do something analog. There's a reason we're living through a golden age of board games. There's also a reason vinyl records have made a comeback, books haven't disappeared, and many people still enjoy writing in notebooks. Even in an increasingly digital world, we continue to seek tangible, shared experiences. Modern board games are only part of the picture. Alongside them, we still have abstract games that have been played for hundreds—or even thousands—of years. Go, Chess, Checkers, Nine Men's Morris, and Mancala are known all over the world. Many people are a little intimidated by these games. We tend to think you have to be exceptionally smart to play them well. We know they can be educational—but they also seem difficult. My experience has been quite different. Children are fascinated by games that combine very simple rules with remarkable strategic depth. These games contain no luck, no hidden information, and very little distraction. They are pure logical thinking. And yet children are drawn to them. As adults, however, we often fail to take advantage of this. I believe the main reason is that we don't feel smart enough to teach these games ourselves. But the same principle applies here as before. We don't have to be experts. We simply need to know the rules, introduce the game, and play. Every new game is a new puzzle for a child to explore. They experiment, test ideas, make discoveries, and gradually develop their own understanding. In the process, they practise one of the most important lifelong skills of all: learning independently. Does that mean everyone should start with chess? Of course, if that's what you enjoy. But I would actually recommend beginning with games that are easier to learn, quicker to play, and built around clear, accessible strategic decisions. These provide an excellent foundation. Some children may eventually discover Go—and that's wonderful—but reaching Go is not the goal. This is one of the reasons we created our own collection of abstract games at PlayWise. Both Pebble Huddle and Lily Hop are simple to learn, yet they offer meaningful strategic decisions.Since they can be played online against the computer, children (and adults) can quickly learn the rules and discover whether the games appeal to them. If they do, the games can easily be printed and played face-to-face as many times as they like. Meanwhile, something remarkable happens. Children develop logical thinking, planning skills, mental arithmetic, flexible decision-making, and many other important abilities. And all the while... we're simply playing. The Right MindsetBoard game pedagogy is an attitude. We believe in the power of games. We believe that we can be patient when it comes to development—that not everything has to happen immediately. We can simply enjoy playing game after game together and be happy when the results gradually appear. Personally, working with the educational use of board games has taught me a great deal about myself, both as an educator and as a parent. This patient, indirect approach to education has gradually become part of my everyday life beyond board games as well. It has brought positive results, while allowing me to feel much less pressure to constantly focus on performance.  Where Do We Go from Here?Honestly, I don't know. But only because I don't know you, dear reader, just as I don't know the children you work with. So what follows is simply me thinking out loud. Hopefully, it will help you find your own path. I believe the most important thing is to understand and accept that board games are incredibly educational in themselves. I always begin my workshops with Happy Salmon, a crazy party game that lasts about ninety seconds. And yet we can easily spend the next fifteen minutes talking about everything it develops. It's a fantastic icebreaker. It demands an incredible level of focus. Players have to interpret verbal and non-verbal communication quickly. The only way to score points is by helping other people score points as well. The list goes on. So perhaps the first step is to look at your own favourite games and ask yourself: What do they develop? (You can even ask an AI—it often gives surprisingly good answers.) Once you start thinking this way, you'll begin using those games much more consciously. Or you can approach it from the other direction. What skills would you like to develop? And then ask: Which games might help with that? The most important step, however, is probably much simpler than either of these. Play regularly. Let games become part of your routine. Whether I'm working one-to-one or with small groups, I almost always begin with a game. I often use games as transitions between different activities as well. At home, my nine-year-old daughter and I play together every other evening. On the alternate evenings, I'm usually putting our two-year-old to bed. At weekends, board games also have their special place, alongside all the spontaneous play that naturally happens during the day. Once games have a place in your life, they begin to have an impact. One idea we really enjoy is creating a 10×10 Challenge. We put ten games on the wall and try to play each of them ten times, keeping track of our progress in a visible way. It becomes part of the family's routine. It's also important that children feel ownership of the process. Let them choose which game to play from a selection you've prepared. They don't need to know that you carefully chose that selection so that whichever game they pick will be a good choice. And you should be part of the process, too. Play games that you genuinely enjoy—games that motivate you and feel comfortable to you. That's when you'll bring your whole personality to the table, and that's when you'll have the greatest educational impact. So play often. Enjoy yourselves. The games will take care of the rest.  Máté Lencse is a Hungarian educator, game designer, and co-founder of PlayWise. PlayWise was created to showcase the educational potential of board games and to help people recognize that play surrounds us in everyday life. We believe that if we can slow down a little, spend more time together, and truly pay attention to one another—perhaps through games—there is reason to be hopeful.    What game from your childhood taught you something you'll never forget? When was the last time your family laughed together around a board game? What skill do you wish schools spent more time developing through play? What family board games do you recommend time and time again? Please leave your comments below. Your feedback is always appreciated. 
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