Playing to learn? Analyzing participants' framing of competition and professional conduct in maritime simulations

This study scrutinizes how a simulated scenario framed as a competition is discussed in a post-simulation debriefing, where students reflect on game-like play in the context of professional education. This study draws on Erwin Goffman's (1974/86) analytical concept of framing. In particular, the analysis focuses on the instructor's and students' authentic conversations during a debriefing session and explores how these conversations open up negotiations of professional and playful learning. The research design is ethnographically informed and based on observations, field notes, and 34 h of video data from a navigation course in which 35 bachelor's students from a Norwegian university participated. Our analytical findings reveal that the activity undergoes continuous negotiation between two framings: professional and competitive. In professional framing, students are held accountable for adhering to professional rules, regulations, and norms of “good seamanship.” In the competition framing, students were competing to win the race. Moreover, as the competition mode intensified, students prioritized winning the race over adhering to the rules and regulations of the profession. Consequently, the findings illustrate how a competition framing within a professional education context has engaged the students, letting them demonstrate their knowledge and skills in a playful manner. Furthermore, the findings emphasize the need for an additional exploration of the opportunities and challenges of competition on professional decision making and ethical conduct in settings where simulation-based learning is utilized for training, particularly in domains that train students in high safety standards.