An instructional approach was developed for training applied sonar skills. The approach allows a student to effectively apply concepts learned in a classroom to problems presented on a training simulator. Instruction is in the form of visualizations integrated with the training simulation. These visualizations of environmental, tactical, and acoustic variables facilitate training by providing links from simulation elements to their more abstract representations on the tactical console. Information which addresses the procedural aspects of operating the tactical console is included in the training approach. This approach was presented to submarine sonar instructors and students, as a series of static display snap-shots in the context of specific training scenarios. Evaluation was based on their judgments, obtained with a structured-interview questionnaire, addressing the overall instructional approach and prototype display/control design features. The value of this type of instructional assistance was found to be very high.