ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the role of strategic behaviour as a component of school behavioural systems. The focus is on the analysis of strategic behaviour through game theory, which is a mathematical approach to analysing such behaviour. The author traces the origins of the analysis of such behaviour to Plato and his writings and the subsequent expansion of the idea of game theory through the works of John Von Neumann, Oskar Morgenstein, John Nash, Lloyd Shapely, Martin Shubik, John Maynard Smith, G.R. Price, Robert Trivers, Robert Axelrod, William Hamilton, Albert Tucker, Garrett Hardin, Anatol Rapoport and others. During the course of this discussion, fundamental concepts of game theory like Nash equilibrium and Pareto optimality are explained in detail. The chapter analyzes various games like the tragedy of the commons, prisoner’s dilemma, hawk and dove game, ultimatum game and rock-paper-scissors equilibrium that play out in school situations, with examples, real-life cases and narration from some behavioural game theory experiments among children.
