RIDER UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
The conceptual framework of the School of Education establishes the shared vision for our efforts in preparing educators to work effectively in P-12 schools. It provides direction for programs, courses, teaching, candidate performance, scholarship, service, and unit accountability. Our conceptual framework is knowledge-based, articulated, coherent, and consistent with our School of Education, College of Liberal Arts, Education and Science, and University missions. Shared and owned by all stakeholders, it is continuously evaluated at all levels.
Our conceptual framework informs the process by which we develop and articulate our goals, ensure that administrators, faculty, P-12 partners, and candidates work toward the same set of articulated goals, and encourage professionally sound commitments and dispositions. Implemented in a variety of ways, the conceptual framework is evident in all parts of the professional education unit.
The conceptual framework consists of five distinct elements: (1) vision and mission; (2) philosophies, purpose and goals; (3) knowledge bases, including theories, research, and wisdom of practice; (4) candidate proficiencies aligned with professional, state, and institutional standards; and (5) candidate assessment. Evidence of integration of our conceptual framework includes articulation of our shared vision, coherence, professional commitments and dispositions, and alignment of candidate proficiencies with standards.
Integrated throughout the unit are standards that reflect commitment to acquisition of high-level content knowledge, diversity, technology, teaching competence and student learning, and curriculum and instruction methods.
Vision and Mission
In creating our vision, we asked these questions: (1) What do we see as our ideal? (2) What do we hope to achieve? (3) What do we strive to do? (4) What kind of educators do we want to produce? In creating our mission we asked: (1) What is the mission of the University? (2) What is the mission of the College? (3) What actions do we plan to put in place?
Rider University Vision
Rider University will be a leader in American higher education celebrated for educating talented students for citizenship, life and career success in a diverse and interdependent world. Rider will achieve distinctiveness by focusing on students first, by cultivating leadership skills, by affirming teaching and learning that bridges the theoretical and the practical and by fostering a culture of academic excellence.
Rider University Mission
Rider attracts and graduates talented and motivated students with diverse backgrounds from across the nation and around the world and puts them at the center of our learning and living community.
As a learner-centered University dedicated to the education of the whole student, Rider provides students the intellectual resources and breadth of student life opportunities of a comprehensive university with the personal attention and close student-faculty interactions of a liberal arts college.
Through a commitment to high quality teaching, scholarship and experiential opportunities, faculty on both campuses provide undergraduate and graduate students rigorous and relevant programs of study to expand their intellectual, cultural and personal horizons and develop their leadership skills. Our highly regarded programs in the arts, social sciences, sciences, music, business and education challenge students to become active learners who can acquire, interpret, communicate and apply knowledge within and across disciplines to foster the integrative thinking required in a complex and rapidly changing world.
Rider attracts highly qualified faculty, staff and administrators with diverse backgrounds who create an environment which inspires intellectual and social engagement, stimulates innovation and service and encourages personal and professional development. As key members of our University community, it is their commitment to our values, vision and mission that will ensure Rider’s success.
The University’s institutional identity will continue to reflect the strengths of its people, history, location and shared values, among which are a commitment to diversity, social and ethical responsibility and community.
The success of our graduates will be demonstrated by their personal and career achievements and by their contributions to the cultural, social and economic life of their communities, the nation and the world.
Rider University Strategic Plan 6 January 1, 2007
Rider University Philosophy
The University philosophy contains four elements: (1) commitment to student-centeredness; (2) commitment to academic achievement and leadership; (3) enhancing connections among the liberal arts, education for the professions, and community; and (4) fostering diverse perspectives and social responsibility
Commitment to Student-Centeredness
As a student-centered university, Rider is committed to providing an academically challenging and supportive learning environment that motivates students to be actively engaged in their own learning. Our purpose is to develop in each student a sense of responsibility for learning and its outcomes. Among these are the capacity to learn self-reliantly, to think critically, to contribute meaningfully to discussion and action, to raise questions confidently, and to test assumptions and assess established and controversial ideas with assurance and objectivity.
A student-centered focus ensures that different teaching pedagogies are encouraged and practiced, that diverse learning styles are recognized and supported, and that programs and services are responsive to the intellectual, emotional, and developmental needs of students. It recognizes that learning occurs not only in the classroom but also through a variety of life, work and other experiences, including scholarship, all of which build on and enhance classroom instruction.
Dedicated to the education of the whole student, Rider’s student-centered focus also instills in students an appreciation for life-long learning and prepares them for the personal and professional opportunities and challenges they will encounter throughout their lives.
Commitment to Academic Achievement and Leadership
Academic achievement is advanced by a student-centered learning environment, which challenges, motivates, and guides students to be actively engaged in their own learning. It is evidenced by students’ motivation and their mastery of specific knowledge, skills, and abilities. Rider seeks to strengthen its commitment to the academic achievement of our students by coordinating honors programs across the institution, further extending learning beyond the traditional classroom, fostering additional student-faculty research and collaboration, and ensuring students’ success in their chosen programs, disciplines, and professions and in admission to top graduate and professional schools.
Our students’ achievement both in and beyond the classroom is an indication of the excellence and distinctiveness within each of our colleges, and in our various departments and programs. Rider has a rich history of offering high-quality curricula in the humanities, social sciences, sciences, music, the fine and performing arts, and various professional programs such as accounting, business and education. We will continue to build on that history as we celebrate and promote the academic achievement of our students and advance the academic stature of the institution.
Enhancing connections among the liberal arts, education for the professions, and community
Rider has had a rich history of offering high-quality curricula that make purposeful connections within and among the liberal arts and sciences and education for the professions, particularly business, education, and increasingly, the performing arts. The need for such connections is made apparent by the increasing complexity and interconnectedness of knowledge that both university faculty and graduates in the workplace are called upon to address.
Fostering diverse perspectives and social responsibility
We live in a rapidly shrinking world. The forward rush of trade, technology and communications is fast increasing global interdependence. Nevertheless, many people here and abroad still retain attitudes and values more appropriate to a past age when different cultures existed within self-contained nations. To contend with our multicultural and global realities, our students need to develop global and multicultural perspectives to better understand and manage the opportunities and challenges of an interdependent yet conflicted world. Developing such perspectives means expanding international and multicultural curricula, facilitating study of foreign cultures through the study of different languages, literature, history, sociology and politics, among others. It also means study abroad opportunities and more international faculty and students on our campuses.
We will also engage our students more fully as integral members of our local communities by embracing diversity and social responsibility as important institutional values and by connecting the classroom with civic and other service to the community. Promoting an understanding of diversity in all its many forms provides students with increased awareness and an appreciation of the diversity of ideas and cultures. This is crucial to helping our students develop the insights necessary to function as active members of an inclusive democracy.
Building resources for the future
Through its strategic planning process and each of the four strategic directions previously discussed, Rider enhances its distinctiveness, academic stature and prominence. The institution will be prepared for the opportunities and challenges it faces today and in the years ahead. Implementing the goals and actions plans associated with those strategic directions will require Rider to strengthen its resource, operating and infrastructure base. This involves enrollment management, marketing, fundraising, facilities, human resources, finances and technology.
With a strong commitment to the University philosophy, the members of the School of Education community hold these values.
College of Liberal Arts, Education, and Sciences Vision
By providing a disciplinary and interdisciplinary student-centered education, we prepare our students to think critically and creatively in a mature, sustained, and reflective manner to develop a commitment to life-long learning; understand the historical, cultural, and global interconnections of our world; appreciate diversity in society; and use technologies ethically and effectively. These four vision elements become our four goals.
College of Liberal Arts, Education, and Sciences Mission
The College of Liberal Arts, Education, and Sciences is the academic heart of Rider University. It is central to the University’s mission to educate “talented students for citizenship, life, and career success in a diverse and interdependent world.”
Like other liberal arts colleges, the College of Liberal Arts, Education, and Sciences cultivates intellectual creativity, maturity, reflection, and autonomy. It aims to develop academic breadth and specialized knowledge, an understanding of our democratic heritage and the ability to look towards the future, and an appreciation of the diversity of our society and our world. It also fosters ethical and effective communication and technological skills.
Rider University’s College of Liberal Arts, Education, and Sciences is distinct in a number of ways. Its faculty provides individual attention to students throughout a college experience that encourages the free exploration of ideas and the examination of difficult problems. Students can participate in expert and deep academic research, collaborate with faculty and other students, engage in interdisciplinary programs of study, and explore the world beyond the boundaries of our nation. The College inspires students to appreciate the value of a liberal education while remaining aware of graduate school and employment opportunities. It also cultivates a desire for, interest in, and enjoyment of, life-long learning in the arts and sciences.
Philosophies, purpose and goals
The philosophies of the University, College and School of Education articulate an overarching belief system. The purposes and goals describe the broad goals and outcomes, explain how they are connected to the philosophy and mission, and explain how diversity and technology are addressed.
University Strategic Directions and College Goals
The goals for the College of Liberal Arts, Education, and Sciences match the philosophical stance, strategic directions and goals of the University. By providing a disciplinary and interdisciplinary student-centered education, our goals are to prepare our students to:
- think critically and creatively in a mature, sustained, and reflective manner, to develop a commitment to life-long learning;
- understand the historical, cultural, and global interconnections of our world;
- appreciate diversity in society;
- use technologies ethically and effectively.
Strategic Direction 1: “Strengthening student-centeredness” aligns with our four Goals and the Student-centered actions outlined below.
Strategic Direction 2: “Advancing academic achievements and leadership skills” aligns with our four Goals and the Curriculum-centered and Faculty-centered actions outlined below.
Strategic Direction 3: “Enhancing connections among the liberal arts, education for the profession and the community” aligns with our four Goals and the Curriculum-centered and Student-centered actions outlined below.
Strategic Direction 4: “Fostering diverse perspectives and social responsibility” aligns with our Goals 2 and 3 and many of our Curriculum-centered and Student-centered actions outlined below.
Strategic Direction 5: “Building resources for the future” aligns with our four Goals and our actions outlined below.
Actions
In the College of Liberal Arts, Education, and Sciences we have created fifteen actions and, although they are interlinked, we have divided them into three main areas: Curriculum-Centered, Student-Centered, and Faculty-Centered.
Figure 1. Graphic organization of the fifteen actions
The School of Education
School of Education Vision
The School of Education prepares undergraduate and graduate students for professional careers in education, organizations, and agencies in the diverse American society. It fosters the intellectual, personal, and social development of each student for a changing world by creating and providing programs that embody the highest academic and professional standards. The School of Education develops students who are committed, knowledgeable and reflective and who value service, ethical behavior, and the improvement of one’s self and profession. The School of Education provides a climate of scholarly inquiry and high expectations.
School of Education Mission
The Rider University School of Education develops committed, reflective practitioners who create an environment where knowledge and diversity are valued. We foster the growth of actively engaged students who take responsibility for learning the foundations of their future practice. We perceive 21st century challenges – Globalization, Technology, Diversity, Environmental Awareness, Exponential Knowledge Growth and prepare students who are aware of social and individual complexity and are able to thrive in an evolving, shifting and interactive society.
School of Education Philosophy
We foster continuous growth in our students by providing an environment in which it is safe to experiment, take risks, and make mistakes without sacrificing professional or academic rigor. Our goal is to foster this growth by faculty modeling of desirable behaviors; by providing a balance of classroom learning and supervised field experience; by providing opportunities for on-going independent and supported reflection on practice; and by encouraging novice and experienced educators to develop attitudes and behaviors that will support their professional growth.
We foster committed, knowledgeable, reflective professionals through carefully developed, expertly taught programs for its graduate and undergraduate students. To this end, course work and field experience offer multiple opportunities for beginning and experienced teachers and other school personnel-in-training to learn new skills while strengthening existing ones, to build habits of professional thought that enhance practice, to seek and understand the theoretical underpinnings of such practice, and to apply new learning in a variety of field-based experiences. Through this process, we develop in our students the behaviors of committed teachers, school and organizational leaders, counselors and school psychologists the sound knowledge base which informs expert practice, and the habits of reflection which encourage professional growth, all leading to the development of the qualities of professionals.
School of Education Goals
The School of Education recognizes that teaching is complex and challenging work, which requires many years of active, thoughtful practice for mastery. Expert teachers, leaders and other professionalsare flexible, analytical, knowledgeable, committed individuals who spend decades acquiring their expertise. But they all begin with the need for tools and maps to help them on their career-long journeys. It is our goal to help each student develop tools and create personal maps for this journey. Commitment, knowledge, reflective practice, and professionalism are milestones along the road.
The guiding principle of Rider University’s School of Education is “Fostering committed, knowledgeable, reflective professionals.” It is significant that – commitment, knowledge, reflection, and professionalism – are introduced by the word fostering. It is our intention to produce expert teachers, leaders and other professionals with comprehensive understandings and fully developed skills. However, we acknowledge that these result from many years, even decades, of thoughtful practice, self-analysis, and constant formal and informal study. It is the faculty’sintention to send forth noviceswho have a beginning understanding of the processes required to grow into expert professionals. The acquisition of such understanding is evolutionary. At Rider University, the goal of the School of Education is to foster incremental growth by providing an environment in which it is safe to experiment, take risks, and make mistakes without sacrificing professional or academic rigor. How may this be done?
The Old English root of foster means “to nourish.” The School of Education nourishes its students by supporting their individual intellectual and personal development as they grow toward professional maturity. Undergraduates will begin to make the transition from students to teachers. Other students will make the same transition, although they may bring a variety of life and workplace experiences to Rider University’s classrooms. Graduate students may bring years of teaching experience to those same classrooms. Each group needs fostering, each in different ways. A clear strand in each of our goals is the emphasis on staff modeling of behaviors, which reflect commitment, knowledge, reflection in practice, and professionalism. The deliberate and overt modeling of such behaviors is a highly effective means of fostering unique student growth.