Simulating: Bridging the Gap Between Practice and Theory in Higher Professional Education

This chapter draws on three case studies of higher education courses conducted as part of the larger research project Quality of Norwegian Higher Education: Pathways, Practices and Performances. These cases had important elements of simulation in their curriculum as part of their nursing, law and management studies. We look more closely into how simulations are designed and used in these courses. The overall questions are: How are simulations used in these teaching practices, and in what ways do they serve to bridge the gap between theory and practice? Nursing education use sophisticated manikins, manipulated by specially trained nurses who interact with nursing students through, predominantly digital technologies as well as tactile hardware. They pose challenges to the students who try to develop mastery of procedures and handle the uncertainties that follow a “true” nursing situation. The management education course used a role play developed in-house with the purpose of training students to perform interviews and selecting candidates for hiring. The setup for simulation in law studies was to establish a stage for a trial court room, with students filling the roles of prosecutors and defenders and members of the audience. We discuss how the cases display risks and promises for the use of simulations in teaching practices in higher education, especially where potentials for knowledge integration are concerned.