DISSERTATION PROPOSAL ANNOUNCEMENT Ed.D. Program: Ruth Perez “Medical Laboratory Science Simulation Learning Environment: Designed Through a Cognitive Apprenticeship Approach”

Simulations in healthcare education have grown at an astronomical rate and have become an important educational tool. However, its implementation and incorporation into a learning environment have been inconsistent within the different healthcare professions. While traditional apprenticeship has been the most common form of teaching, a cognitive apprenticeship framework can offer educators the opportunity to help students with disciplinary strategies and evidence-based reasoning skills.

The purpose of the sequential mixed methods study is to intentionally design a learning environment that scaffolds Medical Laboratory Science students’ learning with the use of simulation through a cognitive apprenticeship framework. The simulation is a web-based, case-based simulator from MediaLab Inc. that helps in preparing students for the analytical and post-analytical phases of laboratory testing, specifically in Clinical Microbiology. This study aims to evaluate the ways the scaffolds support students’ disciplinary knowledge and reasoning strategies and identify the challenges students face in bacterial identification.

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