Clinical Simulations as Signature Pedagogy Educator Preparation Across the Disciplines

Benjamin Dotger, PhD, is a professor in the Teaching & Leadership Department at Syracuse University. He teaches education foundations courses to secondary and K–12 teacher candidates, coordinates the teaching and curriculum master’s program, and directs clinical simulation design and implementation efforts between the School of Education and SUNY Upstate Medical University’s Clinical Skills Center. His scholarship centers on the design and study of clinical simulations within and across educator preparation disciplines, with emphasis on identity formation, discipline-specific practices, and physiological responses. This work has been supported by numerous federal and private foundations, including the Spencer Foundation, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, the National Science Foundation, and the Institute for Educational Sciences.

Kelly Chandler-Olcott, EdD, is Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence in the Reading & Language Arts Department, and the interim dean of the School of Education, at Syracuse University. She teaches literacy methods courses to secondary and K–12 education majors and coordinates undergraduate and master’s programs in English education. Her design-based research focuses on teaching literacy across the disciplines in diverse, inclusive classrooms, and she has coedited the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy since 2015. Her awareness of the potential for clinical simulations in teacher education was heightened by cofacilitating a faculty study group on that topic for several years with Benjamin Dotger.