Mastering the artful practice of navigation: The situated endorsement of professional competence in post-simulation evaluations

Abstract

In this study, the ambition is to explore in situ which aspects of professional performance students are made accountable for in evaluations carried out by means of simulator-based competence tests. Methodologically, the study draws on video materials collected through ethnographic fieldwork. Analytically, the study focuses on a part of the data corpus capturing authentic instructor-student dialogues after simulator-based competence tests. Using a socio-cultural perspective, and the notion of accountable talk, the study reports interaction analyses of the dialogues under scrutiny. The results illustrate that simulator-based evaluation practices inevitably introduce interactional sequences that involve both learning and grading. The evaluative situation thus becomes a setting where assessors share professional judgement and endorse specific initiatives on the part of the students as signs of skills of competent seafarers ready for taking on the responsibilities as officer of the watch.