Simulation as an Emerging Literacy
(Room S320D)
27 Nov 18
4:30 PM
-
5:00 PM
This discussion paper argues that simulation training is a form of experiential learning that privileges a particular mind-body relationship: one that collapses the processing time between action and reflection. It proposes that when contextualized against the experimental neurobiological theories of Libet, Damasio and Varela, the simulation process is more analogous to how the brain and not the mind, cognizes and processes information across time. The case is presented for the need to review how we traditionally approach pedagogy. It contends that the subjective, embodied and enacted nature of the simulation training experience reels in our body and our biology just as much as our mind.
This highlights a need to consider additional competencies and literacies such as sensemaking and a more granular real-time mapping of subjective navigation in order to interpret what is happening within a trainee. The paper begins with a review of key concepts relating to the processing brain and of the recent experimental neurobiological theories.
Next, it cites feedback from both a clinical simulation experiment and examples from the games industry to illustrate the principle of embodied cognition. Finally, it folds these understandings into some preliminary recommendations for the development of a new simulation literacy.