14 New experience

To complete the experiential learning cycle, it is important that the students are immersed in an Active experimentation phase (Kolb, 1984) to have the opportunity to test their reviewed mental models in new experiences before a long time pass by (Zigmont et al., 2011b). This will not only allow them to ensure that they are more prepared to face the clinical situation explored during the VGS, but also will prevent them from going back to their original mental models instead of maintaining the new refined ones.

This new experience of the clinical scenario is also supported by Ausubel (1976), which states that spatial repetition is an essential step of the learning process, that in order to be effective needs to be done once the learners have begun to forget the contents. At this time, a superior learning stage can be achieved by detecting the gaps and reinforcing their knowledge. This spatial repetition also helps students to relate the contents being recalled with related contents in their cognoscitive structure, consolidating this knowledge in their long-term memory.

Based on this pedagogical support, we recommend encouraging students to practice the VGS again, e.g. between 24h and 2 weeks after they participate in the debriefing session. Also, this new experience can be a real situation in a clinical scenario, or other kind of simulation activity that helps the students to practice their new mental models in a similar situation.