This study reviews literature of simulation-based training and assessment to trace conceptual developments in maritime education and training (MET). Our aim is to highlight and examine the historical trajectory of salient topics in MET with the goal of help developing the field forward. The investigation is based on articles published from 1961 to 2021 (n = 87) on simulation-based training and assessment in maritime academic journals. The first review of its kind in MET, the study combines quantitative topic modelling and qualitative content analyses of exemplary texts. Our study investigates: (a) how training and assessment in simulations are conceptualised in MET research and (b) how these conceptualisations have developed over the decades. Our review reveals an educational field dominated by human factors research and dedicated to upholding industry standards. Moreover, adopting quantitative text mining we identified four prominent topics in the literature. These revolve around management of resources, academic performance, simulator training and authentic assessment. A more in-depth qualitative content analysis of the model, tracing conceptual developments over time, suggests that the word ‘learning’ occurs for the first time in 1980. As a concept for scientific inquiry, learning does not gain prominence in the literature on simulation in MET before 2021. Our results suggest some future directions of research and offer a methodological framework for future reviews in maritime affairs that combines quantitative topic modelling with qualitative content analysis.

This article explores how opportunities and limitations in creating intercontextualtiy between everyday and scientific ideas emerge in teacher–student interactions, with a particular focus on the teacher's role. The article draws on data from an empirical, longitudinal, study in a lower secondary school in Norway to analyze student-teacher interactions in regular lessons. The analysis is based on sociocultural and dialogical approaches to meaning-making and learning, in which video data is subjected to interaction analysis. Our main findings illustrate that creating intercontextuality in students' learning trajectories, by building on everyday knowledge and experiences as resources for classroom interactions, remains a complex task. In the classrooms we have followed, the findings show that the teacher's narratives of how to frame learning activities and position the students in meaning-making process are grounded in teachers' norms and assumptions of what constitutes appropriate resources to engage students' in the dialogic creation of intercontextuality. These findings have implications for how teachers frame learning activities where students get opportunities to build upon relevant resources for discussing ideas brought to life in complex social interactions.

This article analyses the coordination between professionals, students and technology in the communication and appropriation of know-how in healthcare simulations. To be successful, simulations require continuous interventions by professionals (in this case, operators and facilitators), who analyse, assess and reflect on the actions participants take as the simulation evolves. This study builds on interaction analysis of 30 video-documented (15 h) conversations between operators and facilitators in post-simulation discussions of outcomes. The specific focus of the analysis is the nature of work done by operators/facilitators as they analyse and evaluate simulations. The results show the multilayered nature of these analyses. The operators and facilitators show three prominent types of consideration. They (a) calibrate what they have observed, (b) monitor the progress of the scenario as an instructional event, and (c) comment on their own contributions as instructors/participants. All these considerations have evaluative elements, and the agentic nature of technologies, students and professionals is addressed. One general observation of interest is the ways in which simulations provide access to student learning, and how these activities become accessible for professional scrutiny and judgement.

This study examines student engagement in maritime simulator-based training. It explores how maritime instructors perceive and utilise full-mission bridge simulator-based training to engage undergraduate students in learning the profession. Online semi-structured interviews are conducted with nautical simulator instructors ( n = 10) in four Norwegian bachelor’s degree programmes. The study analyses the data thematically, based on sociocultural perspectives on learning as an analytical lens. The findings are categorised into two main themes describing simulator-based training as (1) an active and participatory learning environment and (2) engagement connected to the profession. The results show instructors view simulator-based training as enabling active and participatory activities that engage students through embodied participation in domain-specific tasks, guided by the expert maritime instructors. Engagement is enhanced when students can visualise their future working environment by practising real-world-based activities, such as incidents and accidents, using maritime-specific equipment, and performing assigned professional roles. By expanding the understanding of engagement from a sociocultural perspective, this study contributes to the development of simulator-based training and instruction in maritime education.