Designing courses and creating classroom cultures that elevate student learning.
The RISE Project aims to enhance the culture of teaching and learning at Lindenwood such that all faculty are working to design courses and create classroom cultures characterized by rigor, inclusiveness, support, and engagement. These pillars provide a framework for effective teaching that can help faculty to elevate learning for a diverse student body. Read more about the framework below.
The multi-year project officially launched in August 2021 with the following goals:
- Establish a shared framework for effective teaching that will serve faculty from all disciplines and students from all groups.
- Provide faculty with practical course design and instructional strategies for introducing or enhancing the presence of the framework pillars in their courses.
- Increase faculty insight into Lindenwood students’ backgrounds and academic experiences.
The RISE Framework for Effective Teaching
The RISE framework was created to describe characteristics of good teaching that are relevant in all disciplines and courses. The pillars of rigor, inclusiveness, support, and engagement were chosen based on research findings that demonstrate their broad benefits for student learning and their benefits for specific students who are part of underrepresented or marginalized groups. RISE Project definitions (which are based on definitions in the research literature as well as on themes collected from Lindenwood faculty) are provided below.
Rigor
Courses can be rigorously designed and designed for rigor, and both are characteristic of effective teaching.
Rigorous course design involves thoughtfully planning a learning experience that aligns with program and institutional expectations, the traditions and trends of the field, and proven methods for learning.
Courses that are designed for rigor are those in which an instructor sets appropriately high expectations for student learning, engage students in deep learning of meaningful content, assesses learning at levels of cognitive complexity beyond recall and understanding, and challenges students to develop new habits of mind that transfer across concepts and contexts.
At Lindenwood, we want students to feel challenged in their coursework and to experience intellectual growth. We want our graduates to be analytical thinkers, adaptable problem solvers, and ethical decision makers, and rigorous academic experiences can help them to develop these attributes.
Inclusiveness
Inclusive teaching involves ongoing reflection and actions to mitigate biases, value difference, enhance accessibility, encourage meaningful dialogue, and increase feelings of belonging among students.
At Lindenwood, we want our students to feel that they belong, that they are valued, and that their experiences matter. We want them to feel that their diversity of experience, ability, identity, and opinion are appreciated and won’t prove to be barriers to their learning. We want them to feel that they have the ability to succeed not only in a given course, but in the discipline being taught in that course. We want our graduates to become responsible citizens, global advocates, and effective communicators, and being a part of a diverse and inclusive learning community can help them to develop these attributes.
Support
Instructional support refers to course design, organization, guidance, interactions, or resources that aid student learning or success and/or enhance students’ self-efficacy.
At Lindenwood, we want our students to feel that they have the guidance and resources they need to rise to the high expectations we set. We want our graduates to head into their futures with confidence that they can achieve the goals they set for themselves, and that they built the foundation for their future success here at Lindenwood.
Engagement
Engagement refers to course design or instructional strategies designed to stimulate student interest, motivation, and involvement in learning.
At Lindenwood, we want students to feel a sense of curiosity, excitement, and ownership in their learning experiences, and engaging teaching is an important way to motivate these things. We want our graduates to become lifelong learners and being engaged in their learning here at Lindenwood will help them to develop this attribute.
