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Besides its use as a powerful systems analysis tool, simulation has also been used for decades in educational settings as a teaching and learning method. Simulation can replace or augment real-world inquiry-based experiences by providing learners with a low-cost and risk-free experimentation platform to develop knowledge and skills in a simulated environment. This paper presents an overview of current applications and the ongoing transition from physical experimentation to digital simulations and immersive simulated learning environments in engineering education. The paper highlights major implementation and research gaps related to simulation-based learning and immersive simulated learning environments, namely, lack of integration with learning theories and limited formal assessments of effectiveness. Potential implementation approaches and important areas for future educational research are discussed and exemplified in response to the identified gaps. The discussions presented are intended for simulationists, educational researchers, and instructors who are interested in designing and/or utilizing engineering education interventions involving simulated learning environments and immersive technologies in their teaching and educational research. In particular, the Immersive Simulation-Based Learning (ISBL) approach discussed in the paper provides a framework for simulationists to reuse the models developed as part of their simulation projects for educational purposes.
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Physical Research: Professional Dancers Exploring Collective Possibilities in a Solidifying Substrate
This paper reports on ethnographic work that explores professional dancers’ practice, “physical research,” as a members’ phenomenon. The practice of physical research enables this company to explore their unknown expressive potential as an ensemble through an iterative process of creating and refining collective, full-body movements. As a case of ensemble learning that foregrounds artistic agency, physical research supports a community of learners (1) to be comfortable and open with “unknowing,” (2) to engage playfully and “absurdly” in their inquiry and (3) to persist collectively in their inquiry over long stretches of time. These three aspects, each difficult to foster and lauded in learning environments, are grounded in the creative and physical nature of physical research. Here and in ongoing work, I argue that this practice can inspire the design of formal and informal learning environments.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1742257
- PAR ID:
- 10202099
- Editor(s):
- Gresalfi, M. and
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Interdisciplinarity of the Learning Sciences, 14th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS) 2020
- Volume:
- 2
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 737-740
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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