Simulation Theory Briefing paper: ‘best learning moments’, ‘flow’, ‘cognitive absorption’ and the ‘Zone of Professional Development’ to accompany the ALDinHE conference 2023 workshop ‘Why students engage in simulation and how it prepares them for work’, 13 June 2023. *Dr Ben Goldsmith, (FLIE) Dr David Biggins (BuBS), Professor Debbie Holley (FHSS)

1. Briefing paper on ‘best learning moments’, ‘flow’, ‘cognitive absorption’ and the ‘Zone of Professional
Development’ to accompany the ALDinHE conference 2023 workshop ‘Why students engage in
simulation and how it prepares them for work’, 13 June 2023.
*Dr Ben Goldsmith, (FLIE) Dr David Biggins (BuBS), Professor Debbie Holley (FHSS)
Bournemouth University
*Corresponding author
Well-designed simulations of situations that students may face in future professional life can facilitate
deep learning and engagement and can constitute “optimal learning moments” or OLMs (Schneider et al
2016). Drawing from psychologist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi’s (2002) work on “flow” or deep, enjoyable
absorption in a situation or task, and related to Stephen Heppell’s research on “best learning moments”
(Heppell 2013), for Schneider et al (2016, 415), OLMs are times when students are “most receptive to
learning and instruction”. They are triggered by “situational engagement” in which students experience
heightened levels of interest, skill and challenge simultaneously. This supports findings from Heppell’s
summary of “best learning moments” drawn from a large-scale survey in the 1990s. Heppell identifies a
set of common features that characterize these events including active engagement, the presence of a
guide or teacher (suggesting scaffolded learning), and the achievement of something difficult. Building on
work in the field of positive psychology, the pedagogy of best or optimal learning moments is premised
on the common-sense notion that people tend to learn more effectively when their interest in and
enjoyment of a task is heightened; that is, when they approach learning in a positive mental state.
Schneider et al (2016) characterize enjoyment as a ‘learning enhancer’, one of a set of subjective, affective
experiences that occur in an optimal learning state that are positively correlated to learning. By contrast
‘learning detractors’ - confusion, boredom – have the effect of discouraging a student’s entry to an
optimal learning moment, while ‘learning accelerants’ - principally anxiety and stress – can have positive
effects on learning by stimulating interest and challenge-seeking when present at limited or manageable
levels, but can also have negative effects on learning. While these findings may encourage educators to
design learning experiences that limit learning detractors and accelerants and to focus on enhancers, this
may not be appropriate in programmes leading to professional qualification for roles in which decision-
making (or application of learning) needs to be made in situations of confusion and stress. With this in
mind, the ‘Godzilla’ (project name of a mass casualty evacuation simulation ran Spring 2022 and Spring
2023) simulation discussed in this session was deliberately designed to test paramedic science, nursing
and midwifery students’ abilities to manage chaotic and stressful situations precisely because they will
routinely experience similar circumstances in professional life.
In his work on flow and “optimal experience”, Csikszentmihalyi notes that “Contrary to what we usually
believe... the best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times.... The best moments
usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish
something difficult and worthwhile” (Csikszentmihalyi 2002, p.3). He labels activities designed to achieve
such optimal experience as “flow activities” (ibid, p.72). Flow activities “have rules that require the
learning of skills, they set up goals, they provide feedback, they make control possible” leading to “a higher
level of performance” (ibid). The concepts of flow and flow activities have seeded subsequent research
on “cognitive absorption”, initially defined as “a state of deep involvement with software” that is
characterized by a loss of sense of time, focused immersion or “total engagement”, heightened

2. enjoyment, a perception of control of the experience, and a sense of curiosity (Agarwhal and Karahanna
2000, 673). Like flow, cognitive absorption combines cognitive and affective elements. Research on
cognitive absorption also has roots in work on technology acceptance and intrinsic motivation, and the
concept has been applied and explored in multiple settings involving human-technology interactions.
Heightened engagement in a task is characteristic of cognitive absorption that can prompt deep learning
and skill development, and in simulations greater engagement can enhance the potential for transfer of
learning to actual work situations in the future.
Storytelling strategies can be valuable framing devices that can intensify engagement in simulations, as
narrative fiction in various forms facilitates a student’s “transportation”, or immersion in the story world
(Green 2021), which in turn can enhance learning. In simulations framed by stories, the student becomes
a character in a narrative that unfolds in part in response to their inputs and actions. The student-
character's goal – the object of their quest in the simulation – aligns with the goal of the simulation, which
is to develop professional skills and capabilities. The general affordance of a simulation – the provision of
a ‘safe space’ for active, inductive learning – can be enhanced by narrative framing; in the Godzilla
simulation discussed in our workshop, aspiring emergency health professionals were tasked with
responding to a range of trauma situations that were consistent with a monster attack but which
otherwise might have been difficult or impossible to assimilate and manage in a ‘real-world’ situation. The
narrative framing and the mechanism of transportation both assist in creating the conditions for flow
activities and optimal learning moments and reduce any cognitive dissonance caused by any divergence
from ‘real-world’ expectations.
Carefully planned, structured, and scaffolded simulations can be understood as ‘flow activities’ that
encourage experiential, inductive learning and can enable students to traverse their “zone of proximal
development” or ZPD, defined as “the distance between the [student’s] actual developmental level as
determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined
through problem-solving under … guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers” (Vygotsky 1978,
86). Further, simulations that stage situations that resemble challenges students may face as future
professionals can illuminate students’ “Zone of Professional Development”, that is the distance between
their actual knowledge, skills and capabilities and those required in their chosen professional role that can
be achieved with guidance from a skilled peer or tutor.
References
Agarwal, R. and Karahanna, E., 2000. Time flies when you're having fun: Cognitive absorption and beliefs
about information technology usage. MIS quarterly, pp.665-694.
Csikszentmihalyi, M., 2002. Flow: The classic work on how to achieve happiness. London: Rider.
Green, M.C., (2021). Transportation into Narrative Worlds. In: Frank, L.B., Falzone, P. (eds)
Entertainment-Education Behind the Scenes. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-
030-63614-2_6
Hepple, S., 2013. Best Learning Moments. [Online] Available at:
https://rubble.heppell.net/archive/best_learning/ (Accessed: 7 June 2023).

3. Schneider, B., Krajcik, J., Lavonen, J., Salmela-Aro, K., Broda, M., Spicer, J., Bruner, J., Moeller, J.,
Linnansaari, J., Juuti, K. and Viljaranta, J., 2016. Investigating optimal learning moments in U.S. and
Finnish science classes. J Res Sci Teach, 53, 400-421. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21306.
Vygotsky, L., 1978. Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Edited by M.
Cole. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.