Demonstrating professional intersubjectivity: The instructor's work in simulator-based learning environments

Abstract

Abstract Maritime traffic, like most traffic, is rule-governed. In situations in which multiple vessels traffic the same waters, anti-collision regulations enable bridge teams to coordinate their actions with those of other vessels. In maritime education, simulators provide a safe environment for students to begin practicing the application of anti-collision regulations to different traffic situations. This study explores how aspects of rule appliance, analytically understood as professional vision and professional intersubjectivity, are trained in a simulator environment by analyses of a video-recorded episode from a navigation course. The results show how instructions during the scenario are continuous achievements that build on an instructor's ability to recognize the fit between learning objectives and on-going activities in the simulator as they unfold. These embedded assessments and their subsequent demonstrations draw on several social and material resources in the simulator environment. In the simulator, the instructor demonstrates the rule system as a dialogical practice where one interprets each other in line with the rules in negotiations between vessels. This interpretation requires a level of professional intersubjectivity that goes beyond merely following rules, towards seeing oneself through the eyes of others with regard to the intentions projected in one's manoeuvring actions.