Enhancing Students' Learning Through Simulation: Dealing With Diverse, Large Cohorts

• As healthcare simulation matures, new questions about pedagogy are emerging.
• The challenges of large and diverse student cohorts need to be accounted for.
• Relevant pedagogies are: informal learning, clinical judgement and sociomaterial.
• Assist active participants and observers to become attuned to professional practice.
• Improving students’ noticing skills assists in learning about practice.

As the field of health care simulation matures, new questions about appropriate pedagogy are emerging which present challenges to research and practices. This has implications for how we investigate and deliver effective simulations, how we conceive effectiveness, and how we make decisions about investment in simulation infrastructure. In this article, we explore two linked challenges that speak to these wider concerns: student diversity and large cohorts. We frame these within contemporary simulation practices and offer recommendations for research and practice that will account for students' varying cultural expectations about learning and clinical practice in the Australian context.