Sandra Monteiro, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Education and Innovation
Scientist, McMaster University Faculty of Health Sciences Program for Education Research, Innovation, & Theory (MERIT)
Director, Scholarship, Centre for Simulation Based Learning (CSBL)
Date of Visit: September 21 – October 9, 2026
Purpose of Visit
During this visit, Dr. Monteiro aims to learn from and about the scholars of CHES, develop new collaborations and strengthen existing research relationships.
Biography
Dr. Sandra Monteiro is a Faculty of Health Sciences MERIT Scientist appointed to the Department of Medicine, Division of Education and Innovation. She has a second appointment to the Centre for Simulation Based Learning as the Director of Simulation Scholarship. Sandra’s program of research incorporates innovations in simulation-based education to improve clinical reasoning. In 2021, she was awarded the McMaster Health Sciences Graduate Student Federation Excellence in Graduate Student Supervision Award and in 2021, she was awarded the Meridith Marks New Educator Award by the Canadian Association of Medical Educators. In 2023 she was awarded a KIPRIME fellowship as recognition of her contribution to medical education.
In her research, she confronts misinformation and flawed assumptions in medical education, aiming to clarify theory, expose inequities, and disrupt harmful power dynamics. She draws on theories and evidence from across psychology—neuroscience, behavioural, cognitive, developmental, and social—to define education challenges and design interventions that address them. Applying theories of measurement and human behaviour, she has created knowledge to inform the design of high-stakes assessments that measure clinical competence. She also plans to expand her research focus to generate knowledge about the design of educational approaches that recognize learning as a lifelong, effortful process, reducing unnecessary barriers and promoting more equitable opportunities for developing clinical expertise. She also plans to explore the factors that influence health professions education researchers’ ethics, values and decisions.