Sociomateriality in medical practice and learning: attuning to what matters

Abstract

This discussion concludes with implications for learning in practice. What is required is a shift from an emphasis on acquiring knowledge to participating more wisely in particular situations. This focus is on learning how to attune to minor material fluctuations and surprises, how to track one's own and others' effects on 'intra-actions' and emerging effects, and how to improvise solutions.

Theorising simulation in higher education: difficulty for learners as an emergent phenomenon†

“…The argument in this paper remains at a super-ordinate level, proposing the disruptive value of a sociomaterial approach as per general, shared tenets (not least, the idea of emergence), rather than being tied to specific concepts associated with particular versions of sociomaterialism. This extends a new body of work that has applied sociomaterial approaches to medical education more generally (Fenwick 2014), medical simulation (Fenwick and Abrandt Dahlgren 2015), the philosophical foundation of simulation pedagogy (Hopwood et al 2014), development of agile learners through simulation (Rooney et al 2015), and knowledge practices in scenario, observation and control spaces (Ahn et al 2015).…”

“…Furthermore, Dieckmann et al (2012) call for theorised, process-oriented analyses of current simulation practice. This paper extends a distinctive, contemporary strand of work that addresses precisely such concerns, based on what is termed a sociomaterial perspective (Fenwick 2012(Fenwick , 2014Fenwick et al 2011;Lee and Dunston 2011).…”

“…Approaches centred on the idea of emergence decentre individual human subjects as the unit of analysis, and instead explore phenomena such as learning from a relational point of view (Fenwick 2010(Fenwick , 2012(Fenwick , 2014. Thus a property, such as difficulty, would be not be conceived as residing in any particular feature (instructional design, piece of equipment, task skill), but rather in the relationship between them.…”

“…This force is not internal but a property of entanglement with social phenomena. Sociomaterialism leads us to trace dynamic relationships between objects and intentions, meanings, interactions and emotions (Fenwick et al 2011, Fenwick 2014.…”

Residents’ use of mobile technologies: three challenges for graduate medical education

“…Medical educators have tended to overlook the role of materiality—objects, technologies and so on—in considering our practices 12. In so doing, we have centred human processes—social, cultural and personal considerations—which are certainly important; however, social factors are entangled with the materials we use in our every day,14 like mobile technologies.…”