Reconceptualizing Mediation in Simulation-Based Learning: Instructional Teams as the Locus of Mediation

This study examines how instructional teams are enacted in clinical simulation-based learning (SBL) in teacher education and how their functioning is shaped by organizational conditions. While prior research has focused on discrete components of SBL, such as facilitation or acting, less is known about how these elements are coordinated. The study adopts a qualitative embedded case study design, drawing on data from 19 simulation center directors, including written reflections, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups. Data were analyzed thematically from a cognitive perspective on meaning-making. The findings address two interrelated dimensions. First, instructional teams were enacted through three core processes: coordinated alignment of roles, relational coordination and trust, and distributed mediation of learning. Across cases, learning was not attributed to individual roles but to the extent to which facilitation and acting were mutually responsive and sustained across interaction and interpretation. Second, the functioning of instructional teams was shaped by organizational conditions, including stability of collaboration, opportunities for joint professional development, and ongoing managerial mediation, which enabled or constrained the coordination of roles over time. The study contributes to a system-level conceptualization of mediation in teacher education, positioning instructional teams as the primary unit through which professional learning is produced in SBL.