Dr. Aaron S. Richmond is a professor of educational psychology and human development at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He started out his post-secondary education at a vocational school—Oklahoma State Horseshoeing School where he learned to become a Ferrier. With a trade in hand, he then started at San Joaquin Delta Community College (Delta) in Stockton, California while working full-time. At Delta, he focused on general studies and animal science courses. Because he was interested in animal science, he spent most of his time on the college’s animal science farm studying animal behavior, biology, and nutrition. While at Delta, Aaron—although not intentionally set on a college career—found his teachers passionate with a love for learning and teaching. Accordingly, Aaron then decided he wanted to pursue a bachelor’s degree. After a year at Delta, he then transferred to the University of Montana-Western in Dillon Montana. There he received his bachelor’s in social science in 1999. In his year between undergrad and graduate school, Aaron and his now wife Amanda, spent a year in AmeriCorps conducting environmental restoration of riparian areas, working on trails on Mount Rainer, and working in elementary schools teaching environmental science. After which, he was accepted and completed his Master’s in Applied Cognitive Science at Montana State University in 2002. Aaron then transferred to the University of Nevada, Reno where he completed his Ph.D. in Human Development and Educational Psychology in 2006.
After graduation, Dr. Richmond then accepted a position at Metropolitan State University of Denver teaching human development, educational psychology, and research methods courses. He loves to teach and loves getting to know his students, helping them become better students and citizens. Because of his dedication and passion with which he teaches. Dr. Richmond has garnered several awards for excellence in teaching from organizations such as Psi Chi the International Honor Society in Psychology, the Society of Teaching of Psychology, and the Metropolitan State University of Denver. Dr. Richmond focuses on student-centered active learning and engagement with a specific interest in building higher-level thinking skills that students can apply in other classes. He also focuses on teaching students’ skills that they learn from psychology that apply to workforce readiness skills that they may use in their chosen profession.
In more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles, books, and book chapters he has explored effective pedagogical approaches to instruction in both k-12 and higher education. Specifically, he investigates cognitive and elaborative processes, model teaching competencies, the efficacy of instructional strategies, and various other topics in the scholarship of teaching and learning. For example, he has investigated the use of social media platforms (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) in classroom instruction, the use of cognitive style in online instructional design, and the efficacy of flipped and blended classrooms. Because of his quality and productivity, he has garnered several research awards from the likes of the Northern Rocky Mountain Educational Research Association and the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association. Furthermore, as evident by publishing and presenting research with over 25 undergraduate and graduate students, he strongly believes in mentoring students through the research process in hopes to help shape future leaders in psychology and SoTL research.
He is a member of several professional associations and served as the Vice President for Programming for the Society of the Teaching of Psychology and as past president of the Northern Rocky Mountain Educational research association. He currently holds several positions on editorial boards including the journals Journal of Educational Psychology, Journal of Experimental Education, Computers in the Schools, and the International Journal of Technology in Teaching and Learning, and he is the incoming Editor-in-Chief of the journal Teaching of Psychology.
In the end, Dr. Richmond has dedicated his academic career to studying the improvement of classroom practices and learning in order to better serve his students. In large part, his early experience at a community college help codify is passion for learning and teaching. He is internally indebted to his community college experience in helping him find one of the loves of his life.
