Shawn Simonson, professor and director of the Human Performance Laboratory in the Department of Kinesiology and faculty associate in the Center for Teaching and Learning, was recently named a senior fellow in the Higher Education Academy.
Through his work with The Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning Project, Team-Based Learning and the Center for Teaching and Learning, his scholarly interests have moved from exercise and environmental physiology to the study of teaching and learning.
These interested led Simonson to create a research project focused on student course evaluations.
“I became interested in the use of student course evaluations to measure teaching performance.” he said. “I was concerned that they are not a representative portrayal of teaching and sought alternative approaches.”
Simonson found an alternative approach with Megan Frary, associate professor with the Micron School of Material Sciences and Engineering in 2017. They started collaborating and received a National Science Foundation grant. With the support of the grant, they developed a framework for assessing teaching effectiveness, also known as FATE. They have continued to use grant funding to implement and study the framework.
“The Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy is recognition and validation of the teaching and learning work that I have done from an unbiased external review,” Simonson said. “It is also my motivation to keep developing and move my efforts beyond my own teaching and other individual teachers to influence and inform teaching policy and preparation at the institutional and national levels.”
“This is a significant international honor and we are so pleased that Shawn is being recognized for his outstanding work in the classroom,” Lynda Ransdell, chair of the Department of Kinesiology, said.