Simulated Trauma in the Classroom

Simulations and role-plays can play an important role in helping journalism students become more sensitive and sophisticated interviewers of trauma victims, but it takes considerable planning. The following suggestions come from educators who have used this powerful pedagogical tool in their classrooms:

1. Find out whether an acting group exists on campus (the drama or speech communication departments are best bets) and schedule a classroom performance. If none exists, improvise! Find a group of students who like to act and will dedicate sufficient time to preparing for an interactive drama.

2. Work closely with the student actors on developing a scene for presentation in the classroom. Remember, this is not theater or television. The scene should lend itself to interaction with the audience (i.e., the students in the class). Actors can "freeze" the scene and engage students' comments or suggestions before continuing on, or wait and give their feedback at the end. Developing a scene also requires deciding how much and what kind of audience participation is desirable or feasible. Will audience members be incorporated into the scene, or will they simply be engaged observers? With careful planning and guidance, audience members may even create and act out scenes.

3. Clearly explain the purpose and nature of the exercise to students. Because interactive drama is not a commonly used pedagogical tool, most students are not accustomed to this learning format and may feel self-conscious and uncertain at first, even with some orientation. They need to know that in some instances, such as interviewing trauma victims, entering into a simulation is a highly effective way of learning the relevant course material. Students may need to be encouraged to think "outside of the box"- i.e., to be open to new ways of learning and to be actively engaged in the process.

4. Before heading into a simulated traumatic event, students should be armed with traditional classroom knowledge about how best to enter these situations as a journalist. For example, at UW, Randal Beam instructs students to read Chapter 1 of Covering Violence (Simpson & Coté, 2006) and then assigns Classroom Study Questions prior to the simulated interviews in his advanced reporting class. Professor Migael Scherer offers another set of Training Sessions to prepare students.

5. Feedback is essential. When possible, have students critique each other, have a coach or facilitator critique students in small groups (see sample Faculty Coaching Reminders), and have the actors (in their roles as interviewees) critique the students (in their role as interviewers). Focus on what was done well as well as what needs improvement. Some students will forget everything they've learned about taking notes, asking follow-up questions and probing for details. If you can, point out to these students after round one that they will have to write a story from their notes, and if they failed to get correct spellings of names, ages and other identifying information, they won't be able to. This is a great teaching moment, says Cindy Simmons, UW journalism lecturer. “The reality of reporting is that you can't just be empathetic. You must make sure you get the information you need to write your story.”

6. Allow sufficient time after the exercise for debriefing and for students to talk. This is especially important for sensitive topics such as sexual assault or a hate crime. Some students in class may have direct experience with the traumatic event being depicted, and their discomfort or re-traumatization should be acknowledged in a general way. A statement like this might be helpful: "What you observe and experience might be especially difficult for some of you because of your own exposure to trauma. Come see me if you would like to talk about this or about the effect that today's exercise has had on you." Know where students can get professional mental health counseling on campus should it come to this. Make sure you have free time immediately after the trauma training to talk to students who may be upset. Debriefing may take half or all of your next class. Some students will have strong emotional responses to this exercise. Although you can prepare them for that, they only really understand the role of the journalist in reporting on trauma after they've done the exercise.

7. Don't be surprised if, as a result of the training, a student decides that he or she doesn't want to be a reporter, or only wants to do entertainment or sports writing. That’s okay. In fact, it’s a good thing for them to figure out early. However, they should know that in a true emergency, such as a school shooting or other large-scale event, everyone ends up doing trauma duty.

Simulations and role-plays can be both informative and memorable. It is hoped that after going through the process even once, students will be better equipped to interact with trauma victims in the course of their professional careers.