Search

Simulations and games for learning require expert management drawing on specialist skills and knowledge. Dick Duke’s 1969 [1] invitation to a ‘conversation about simulation’, initiated a process that has generated 50 years of thoughtful analysis of the design and use of simulations. In the early stages, facilitation was not high on agendas for discussion or research. However, the role of the facilitator has been receiving more attention, as the importance of effective management of simulation events receives more recognition. Awareness of the complexity of human interactions, and the ways in which simulation can both replicate and unsettle them, is leading to more research and attention being paid to the role of the facilitator. Using a trajectory of personal experiences beginning in 1969, this paper uses an auto-ethnographic approach [2] to review our own development as facilitators of simulations and games, alongside an exploration of the broader, evolving understanding of the role, and the increasing complexity involved in ensuring facilitators contribute effectively to current learning contexts.

When human beings congregate – whether in meetings, public places, urban environments or learning contexts – there is a need for management of the emotional content of the milieu. In many situations this is a personal and private task and its enactment does not intrude on others. In simulations this task is – to varying degrees – deferred to the facilitator. When simulations and game-based activities are used for social change purposes a specific set of (usually) unspoken assumptions must be identified and controlled for. This paper explores the role of the facilitator in regard to the knowledge and capabilities required to successfully engage the diversity of interests and embedded assumptions which shape and inform the actions of all those present (including themselves).

When human beings congregate – whether in meetings, public places, urban environments or learning contexts – there is a need for management of the emotional content of the milieu. In many situations this is a personal and private task and its enactment does not intrude on others. In simulations this task is – to varying degrees – deferred to the facilitator. When simulations and game-based activities are used for social change purposes a specific set of (usually) unspoken assumptions must be identified and controlled for. This paper explores the role of the facilitator in regard to the knowledge and capabilities required to successfully engage the diversity of interests and embedded assumptions which shape and inform the actions of all those present (including themselves).