The Interactive Construction of Learning Foci in Simulation-Based Learning Environments: A Case Study of an Anaesthesia Course

The dynamic and interactive character of computer simulations is often thought to be advantageous in vocational education. In the present study, video-recorded data from a course in anaesthesia care are analysed in order to explore the conditions for students to understand and act in simulation-based case scenarios. The results show that the students orient themselves to the simulation in three different ways, thereby constituting three different learning foci. Sometimes, when students use resources from their education, the properties of pharmacological preparations are in focus. On other occasions routines at work organise their approach, whilst at other times, they focus on the specific characteristics of the simulation’s user interface. In the discussion of the constitution of this hybrid activity, two aspects are presented as especially relevant: first, the students’ previous experiences from their education and of nurses’ work and, secondly, how the teacher guides the students’ orientations toward different resources. Finally, we argue that the simulation could function as a unique learning environment since it provides opportunities for linking experiences from work with more theoretical forms of reasoning in distinctive ways.

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