Evidence-Based Teaching Practices

We believe that student success is the result of faculty success. That’s why we’ve rounded up resources to help you explore and implement elements of Lumen’s Framework for Evidence-Based Teaching Practices. This framework – built from research and the experiences of faculty like you – details practices that help increase student learning and sense of belonging.

This page links to resources for each component of the framework (from research to practical tools to use in your classroom) and suggested reflection prompts.

Supportive: Creating a Supportive Classroom Environment

Educators strive to create a supportive learning environment in order to help students develop the relationships, confidence, and trust necessary to take the risks that result in deeper engagement and learning.

Caring

Educators show students that they care about their success in the class and as humans by seeking to create a personal connection with individual students. This could manifest itself through appropriate self-disclosure, informal conversations, offering guidance, email communication, and sharing stories from the educators’ own personal experiences. Educators get to know their students holistically, taking into consideration students’ life experiences, personal challenges, self-concepts, and cultural differences. Educators take action to stay connected with students both inside and outside of class.

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Community-Building

Educators encourage students to build relationships with one another in order to establish peer networks of support, encouragement, and help that persist beyond a single course or term. They use “get to know you” activities, story sharing, small group work, and other exercises to help build community through differences – not despite differences. These activities are generally low-stakes or non-graded. Educators help students learn to productively address conflicts.

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Success Skills

Educators help students develop a sense of self-efficacy about being a college student, thereby supporting their success in college. Examples include encouraging regular attendance and completion of assigned work, participation in-class activities as well as lessons on study skills, and familiarization with college services (such as advisement and counseling). Educators lead the students to an understanding of choice and the inevitable consequences of choices.

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Curiosity

Educators foster students’ curiosity by helping them understand that asking questions and making mistakes are necessary parts of learning, and creating a learning environment where students feel safe and supported asking questions and making mistakes. Educators also cultivate their own curiosity about how they can help students be more successful. This might include tracking students’ progress, reaching out to individual students who are struggling, and talking with students to provide support and encouragement regarding both academic issues and life challenges outside the class.

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Enjoyment

Educators engage students in enjoyable learning activities such as games, debates, virtual field trips, and other activities to create a fun environment that is conducive to learning.

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Mini-Reflection

This is an opportunity for you to reflect on the Supportive Evidence-Based Teaching Practices and how you currently use them, what you have accomplished by applying them in your classroom, and where you would like to incorporate additional Supportive techniques in future planning. We encourage you to write down your responses so that you can look back on them and make adjustments the next time you teach this course! Ask yourself the following:

  • What opportunities do I currently provide for students to get to know each other in my class? How can I expand upon this to create more of a community?
  • What do I think students find to be the most exciting and enjoyable aspect of my class? If I ask them, do their responses match my assumptions?
  • How can I better encourage the use of important skills that lead to college success? Do my students even know about the services offered through our institution, how impactful certain study habits can be, or the value of regular attendance?
  • How can I make my own curiosity, as well as my students’ curiosity, a more powerful tool in my teaching practice?
  • What is one small change I can make to a future lesson or interaction with students to be more supportive?

Challenging: Creating a Challenging Classroom Environment

Educators create challenging learning environments in order to motivate students and help them reach their full potential as learners.

Prior Knowledge

Educators evaluate what students know at the beginning of the learning unit to create a baseline measure. This information can be compared to what students know as they progress through the learning unit, allowing the educator to monitor progress and focus on activities where students have less prior knowledge. Baseline measures can also be used to evaluate growth at the end of the learning unit.

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Assessment

Educators use assessment tools and techniques to measure student progress. They are explicit about the criteria for success on assessments (e.g., by sharing a rubric with students), creating clarity that improves students’ confidence and sense of self-efficacy. They share the results of assessments with students to help them understand how well they are mastering the material.

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Formative Feedback

Educators provide formative feedback that validates each student’s effort and progress while highlighting next steps toward mastery. Educators review student work and provide timely, constructive, low stakes or ungraded feedback in conversation or writing. This feedback resembles coaching.

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Self-Reflection

Educators create opportunities for students to assess their own work and engage in metacognitive reflection, including identifying their strengths, growth opportunities, and ways to adjust their approach to learning the course material.

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High Expectations

Educators clearly set and express high expectations for students to achieve the learning objectives together with confidence that all students can achieve these high standards. Instructors develop ways to push students beyond their self-perceived limits, which can be influenced by race, ethnicity, gender, ability, religion, and a range other factors.

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Higher Order Thinking

Educators engage students in activities specifically designed to cultivate level-appropriate critical thinking, complex problem solving, analytical reasoning, abstract reasoning, and creative thinking. Examples of these activities include challenging students to find multiple solutions to a problem, differentiate fact from opinion, and researching evidence to substantiate a claim.

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Mini-Reflection

This is an opportunity for you to reflect on the Challenging Evidence-Based Teaching Practices and how you currently use them, what you have accomplished by applying them in your classroom, and where you would like to incorporate additional Challenging techniques in future planning. We encourage you to write down your responses so that you can look back on them and make adjustments the next time you teach this course! Ask yourself the following:

  • What preformed beliefs do I have about the tags in the Challenging category? How does this affect which ones I practice regularly?
  • When was a recent time that I tried to challenge my students? How do I think they felt—both during and after the challenge? Does my analysis match their actual experience?
  • How am I assessing or taking into account students’ prior knowledge? Does this impact the way that I teach?
  • Am I giving students feedback in a way that helps them improve? Are there low-stakes opportunities for students be graded or receive feedback? Where can I do more of this?
  • Do I have scheduled times for self-reflection built into the course? How can I implement pause points in my teaching to help students engage in metacognitive reflection?

Varied: Creating a Varied Classroom Environment

Educators create varied learning environments in order to make learning relevant and meaningful for a diverse group of students.

Engagement

Educators engage students in activities that require them to do more than passively listen to a live or recorded lecture. These activities include discussions, small group work, debates, hands-on activities, games, and other activities that are designed to get students actively engaged in their learning. Educators use a variety of active learning approaches in order to meet the needs of all students.

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Multimedia Learning

Educators present the same information in a variety of media, including text, images, videos, podcasts, interactive exercises, and simulations in order to increase students’ interest and engagement.

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Contextualization

Educators help students make sense of theoretical material by demonstrating how it applies it to relevant “real world” situations. These explanations integrate the lived experiences of their students – especially their marginalized students – and make explicit links to their prior knowledge. Examples of this practice include calculating grades, budgeting, using maps, writing formal letters, and writing research papers, as well as encouraging students to offer examples from their own lives.

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Collaboration

Educators design group projects that require students to work together in order to help them master both core content and critical skills related to collaboration and teamwork. These skills include communicating effectively, group planning, individual accountability, group coordination, and follow up. These projects can be short or long and occur inside or outside the class learning environment.

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Adaptability

Educators regularly reflect on how well their teaching practices are meeting their students’ needs. When they perceive that their current approach is not working for all students, they change or adapt their teaching practices in order to better meet their students’ needs.

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Mini-Reflection

This is an opportunity for you to reflect on the Varied Evidence-Based Teaching Practices and how you currently use them, what you have accomplished by applying them in your classroom, and where you would like to incorporate additional Varied techniques in future planning. We encourage you to write down your responses so that you can look back on them and make adjustments the next time you teach this course! Ask yourself the following:

  • When was the last time I learned something new that I felt was relevant to my life? Why did it feel meaningful to me? Was it how it was presented, the topic, the entertainment value, the connection to my passions and values, etc.?
  • How do I currently engage my students in activities that require more than passive listening? What strategies are working well?
  • How can I incorporate more examples from my students’ own lived experiences and prior knowledge in order to make explanations more relevant and meaningful to them?
  • What is something current that I could learn more about in an effort to connect with my students?
  • Is there something I could adjust in my class structure to provide more opportunities for student collaboration?

Organized: Creating an Organized Classroom Environment

Educators create organized learning environments in order to help students stay focused on what matters.

Structured Lessons

Educators break down complex ideas to make them understandable and present ideas in a logical progression. They step back and look at the content of their course through the eyes of someone new to the discipline, and thoughtfully structure lectures and other course activities in ways that will foster students’ growth and development into the discipline.

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Connections

Educators help students understand the relationships between the topics and ideas in the course, including those covered in previous and future weeks. These connections may include cause-effect relationships, prerequisite relationships, and correlational relationships. Examples of ways to make these connections explicit include making concept maps, explanatory timelines, and Venn diagrams.

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Time on Task

Educators maximize the amount of learning time students spend actively engaged in practice (as opposed to more passive activities, like listening to live or recorded lectures). In face-to-face classes, educators set aside in-class time for students to practice and receive support from the educator and other students as they practice. In online or hybrid classes, educators set aside synchronous class time for students to practice and receive support from the educator and other students as they practice.

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Scaffolding

Educators provide extra supports to students as they begin learning new ideas and practicing new skills. They slowly remove these extra supports as students grow in their understanding and capability. Think of these scaffolds as “training wheels.” For example, as math students are learning a new problem solving technique, an educator might provide them with partially worked problems to practice solving. As the students get better at solving these kinds of problems, the educator will stop providing the extra support of partially worked problems and begin assigning normal problems for students to solve from start to finish.

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Mini-Reflection

This is an opportunity for you to reflect on the Organized Evidence-Based Teaching Practices and how you currently use them, what you have accomplished by applying them in your classroom, and where you would like to incorporate additional Organized techniques in future planning. We encourage you to write down your responses so that you can look back on them and make adjustments the next time you teach this course! Ask yourself the following:

  • What does the general flow of one unit, one week, one class period, or one lesson look like in my class? Would someone describe it as consistent and well-organized? How might I explain the setup and structure to a first-year first-generation college student?
  • Is my syllabus actually useful to students? How could I change it to be more helpful or connected to my students’ lives?
  • What is a skill that I have learned through a scaffolded approach? When I describe that learning process, what stands out as most effective from that approach?
  • Am I currently providing extra supports for students as they begin learning new ideas and practicing new skills?
  • How can I better implement one aspect of the Organized evidence-based teaching practice to help my students better focus on what matters most in my class?

Belonging: Creating a Nurturing, Curious, and Mutually Respectful Learning Environment

Educators help students feel like they are a meaningful part of the course by encouraging participation, listening to their ideas, and showing that their contributions matter. When students feel respected and connected to their instructor, peers, and course material, they become more motivated, collaborative, and successful. Belonging thrives on mutual curiosity, open dialogue, and shared academic responsibility.

Reflecting Student Experiences

Educators choose course materials and examples that reflect a range of backgrounds, experiences, and ways of thinking. When students see familiar perspectives or people like them in the content, they feel more connected and confident in the learning environment. Faculty also help students appreciate what they can learn from others, using stories, visuals, case studies, or example problems that reflect different life experiences and viewpoints.

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Engaging the Whole Learner

Educators recognize that students are shaped by many different experiences, roles, and perspectives—many of which may not be immediately apparent. They design learning experiences that acknowledge this complexity by offering multiple ways for students to engage, contribute, and connect with the material. Examples of activities include flexible participation options, varied assignments, or reflection activities that help students draw from their own experiences in meaningful ways.

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Challenging Assumptions

Educators openly examine their assumptions and guide students in recognizing and reflecting on the assumptions they bring to the learning environment, many of which are shaped by past experiences, habits of thinking, or unconscious mental shortcuts. These assumptions can influence how students process new ideas, engage with others, and respond to course content. Examples of activities include designing learning environments that encourage critical thinking by sharing different points of view, intentionally structuring group work, encouraging respectful discussions, and thoughtful group interactions.

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Pedagogical Partnerships

Educators view students as active collaborators in the teaching and learning process. They value the student-faculty relationship as a two-way exchange and invite students to help shape the learning experience. This might include gathering feedback on course content, making adjustments based on student input, or co-designing lessons and activities that align with students’ goals, interests, or needs.

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Mini-Reflection

This is an opportunity for you to reflect on the Belonging Evidence-Based Teaching Practices and how you currently use them, what you have accomplished by applying them in your classroom, and where you would like to incorporate additional Belonging techniques in future planning. We encourage you to write down your responses so that you can look back on them and make adjustments the next time you teach this course! Ask yourself the following:

  • Thinking through my various academic and professional experiences, when have I felt the most sense of belonging? What factors do I think played into this?
  • What are the various identities of my students? How might those identities shape their experience in my class?
  • If I were a student in this class, would I feel comfortable being myself or approaching the instructor with concerns? Is my class a brave space for all students?
  • Do students have opportunities to share their personal stories or life experiences in my class?
  • What is one lesson, assignment, or activity I could ask students about in order to make improvements to the learning experience based on their feedback?