Our CSI Faculty
We witness excellence frequently in our work with CSI faculty! We see your dedication to your students, and your subject expertise. The evidence of your impact is apparent in the faces of your students and their learning outcomes. Thank you for approaching education with creativity, adaptability, responsiveness, and personal effort. We see you!
Dr. Randy Simonson
As a Distingished Professor of Psychology, Dr. Simonson is a well-known and respected instructor who teaches hundreds of students each semester. He volunteers as a participant in CSI's Title V Grant process, where multiple general education faculty are working collaboratively to incorporate culturally responsive pedagogical practices into their courses.
As a member of CSI's Culturally Responsive Pegagogy Learning Community, Dr. Simonson and others have studied the work of Dr. Kelly Hogan and Dr. Viji Sathay in their book, "Inclusive Teaching". An early takeaway for this group was the value of structure in instruction. Drs. Hogan and Sathy teach, "when structure is in place around course design, as well as expectations like participation, students learn what it takes to succeed".
Dr. Simonson notes he has applied this principle to his psychology courses by requiring student participation in activities he previously recommended as helpful to them, such as practice quizzing. Since applying this simple change, Dr. Simonson reports that students who would otherwise deprioritize the importance of the support he offers through practice quizzing now participate in it since it is a requirement. The result has been an increase in testing performance for all students.
Thank you, Dr. Simonson, for your adaptability and forward-thinking approach to teaching our CSI students!
Additionally, Dr. Simonson welcomes faculty visitors to his classroom. Please contact him at rsimonson@csi.edu.
Further Recognition
It is our hope to recognize you in this space. As we feature the contributions of our CSI faculty, we believe we can inspire community, collaboration, and growth. If you are willing to share the details of a teaching method, feedback strategy, student interaction, or other positive effort with us, please use the Suggestion Box on the right to let us know. We'll be in touch for further details, and of course, a photo!
If you'd rather refer a friend, that's good too!