Abstract:
In this paper I put Kemmis et al’s (2014) theory of practice architectures to work in re-imagining simulation pedagogy in university-based professional education. I locate simulation within a broader landscape of links between higher education and the professions. This links to the empirical context underpinning the paper: an observational study of simulation classes in an undergraduate nursing degree. I take up calls to enrich the theoretical basis for simulation pedagogy, and to shake off an attachment to the notion of ‘fidelity’.
The paper is theoretical in nature, but has been shaped by empirical work. Observations were conducted in simulation-based classes within an elective, final-year subject of acute care, where the focus is on dealing with deteriorating patients. The cohort is divided into a number of tutorial groups, two of which were selected for observation. Researchers were located in the plenary discussion space (where students observing the simulation remain), in the control room, and by the ‘bedside’ near the simulated action. Each class involved two or three scenarios, and two such classes were attended by each tutorial group. In total ten scenarios were observed in the first year of study. Excerpts from the observation data are provided in the paper, illustrating the theoretical ideas in practice.
I address questions of the relationships between clinical practices, simulating practices, pedagogic practices, and practices of learning, viewing these in ecological relation (Kemmis et al 2012). Simulation pedagogy brings these into particular relationships, occupying a niche that is not available through other pedagogic practices such as the lecture or clinical placement. In this niche there is interdependence between practices of clinical work, simulating, teaching, and learning. None can be taken out while leaving the niche in tact. I show how this niche emerges out of such relationships: no one practice precedes the others, especially not the ‘real’ clinical practices out there. Following non-representational logic I see simulation pedagogic practices as both a distinctive kind of practice (singular, as a space of multiplicity), and an ecology of multiple (other) practices. There is no need to find a singular resolution underpinned by linear sequence.
Weaving practice architecture theory with Baudrillard’s (1981, 1983) concepts of hyper-reality and simulacra, I analyse three moments from observed simulation classes. I show how these are constituted as productive pedagogic moments not through a logic of mirroring stable realities of practice, but through much more fluid play between real and imagined worlds. This provides a basis to pinpoint the transformative potential of simulation, avoiding the traps of conservativism that accompany a view that is too closely tied to a fixed, stable reality referent. This involves a shift from simulation (re)creating architectures and practices on ‘as if’ logic, to a ‘what if’ notion, where cultural-discursive, material-economic, and socio-political arrangements of both real and imagined practices come together, woven together with those of responsive, emergent pedagogy. Here, simulation is conceived as emergent, challenging stable notions of fidelity, common in simulation literature. New possibilities of simulation in the production of agile practitioners and learners in practice are surfaced. The paper extends and enriches thinking by providing distinctive new ways of understanding simulation and the relationship it affords between education and professional practice, and by illuminating the untapped potential of simulation for producing agile practitioners.
References
Baudrillard, J. (1981). Simulacra and simulation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press (trans. Sheila Glaser).
Baudrillard, J. (1983). Simulations. New York: Semiotext[e].
Kemmis, S., Edwards-Groves, C., Wilkinson, J., & Hardy, I. (2012). Ecologies of practices. In P. Hager, A. Lee & A. Reich (Eds.), Practice, learning and change: practice-theory perspectives on professional learning (pp. 33-49). Dordrecht: Springer.
Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards-Groves, C., Hardy, I., Bristol, L., & Grootenboer, P. (2014). Changing practices, changing education. Dordrecht: Springer.
The paper is theoretical in nature, but has been shaped by empirical work. Observations were conducted in simulation-based classes within an elective, final-year subject of acute care, where the focus is on dealing with deteriorating patients. The cohort is divided into a number of tutorial groups, two of which were selected for observation. Researchers were located in the plenary discussion space (where students observing the simulation remain), in the control room, and by the ‘bedside’ near the simulated action. Each class involved two or three scenarios, and two such classes were attended by each tutorial group. In total ten scenarios were observed in the first year of study. Excerpts from the observation data are provided in the paper, illustrating the theoretical ideas in practice.
I address questions of the relationships between clinical practices, simulating practices, pedagogic practices, and practices of learning, viewing these in ecological relation (Kemmis et al 2012). Simulation pedagogy brings these into particular relationships, occupying a niche that is not available through other pedagogic practices such as the lecture or clinical placement. In this niche there is interdependence between practices of clinical work, simulating, teaching, and learning. None can be taken out while leaving the niche in tact. I show how this niche emerges out of such relationships: no one practice precedes the others, especially not the ‘real’ clinical practices out there. Following non-representational logic I see simulation pedagogic practices as both a distinctive kind of practice (singular, as a space of multiplicity), and an ecology of multiple (other) practices. There is no need to find a singular resolution underpinned by linear sequence.
Weaving practice architecture theory with Baudrillard’s (1981, 1983) concepts of hyper-reality and simulacra, I analyse three moments from observed simulation classes. I show how these are constituted as productive pedagogic moments not through a logic of mirroring stable realities of practice, but through much more fluid play between real and imagined worlds. This provides a basis to pinpoint the transformative potential of simulation, avoiding the traps of conservativism that accompany a view that is too closely tied to a fixed, stable reality referent. This involves a shift from simulation (re)creating architectures and practices on ‘as if’ logic, to a ‘what if’ notion, where cultural-discursive, material-economic, and socio-political arrangements of both real and imagined practices come together, woven together with those of responsive, emergent pedagogy. Here, simulation is conceived as emergent, challenging stable notions of fidelity, common in simulation literature. New possibilities of simulation in the production of agile practitioners and learners in practice are surfaced. The paper extends and enriches thinking by providing distinctive new ways of understanding simulation and the relationship it affords between education and professional practice, and by illuminating the untapped potential of simulation for producing agile practitioners.
References
Baudrillard, J. (1981). Simulacra and simulation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press (trans. Sheila Glaser).
Baudrillard, J. (1983). Simulations. New York: Semiotext[e].
Kemmis, S., Edwards-Groves, C., Wilkinson, J., & Hardy, I. (2012). Ecologies of practices. In P. Hager, A. Lee & A. Reich (Eds.), Practice, learning and change: practice-theory perspectives on professional learning (pp. 33-49). Dordrecht: Springer.
Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards-Groves, C., Hardy, I., Bristol, L., & Grootenboer, P. (2014). Changing practices, changing education. Dordrecht: Springer.