Research Interests:
Dr. Simonds research interests have focused on three areas: instructional communication theory, the relationship between teacher clarity and challenge behavior in the classroom, and the effective use of video in the classroom. In doing so, she has examined the current status of instructional communication theory as it relates to three methodological perspectives: empirical, interpretive, and critical. She has also developed two instruments to measure teacher clarity and challenge behavior in the college classroom. She is planning to extend this research to other grade levels. Dr. Simonds has also served as a producer and host to several instructional videos. She has written and published several leaders' guides, which accompany these videos that help instructors to incorporate video effectively in the classroom.

Dr. Simonds considers herself an integrative perspectivist. It is her contention that each methodological perspective has its relative merits and there are no inherent conflicts; each tradition has the potential to compliment the others. An alternative to this approach would be for scholars to collaborate with one another (imagine that!) to emphasize their traditional strengths and develop well-rounded programs of research. Such approaches would give scholars a better appreciation of the process of theory building and testing.

Teaching Interests:
Dr. Simonds is currently the Co-Director of Communication 110. As such, she supervises the graduate assistants in teaching this course, serves as mentor, and teaches the course as well. She is also interested in teaching courses in Communication Education, Applied Instructional Communication, and Communication Theory.