Exploring the Underlying Factors in Learning Assistant - Faculty Partnerships

Abstract

An effective Learning Assistant (LA) Program provides benefits for both Learning Assistants (LAs) and faculty, in addition to benefits for students. By analyzing LA and faculty reflections, weekly preparation sessions, and interviews with LAs and faculty, we can better understand the partnerships that develop between faculty and their LAs. We leverage a combination of qualitative and quantitative data to investigate the types of LA expertise and skills faculty value and how this affects the formation of these partnerships. The Preparation Session Observation Tool (PSOT), developed from this work, can be used by LAs, LA Program Coordinators, and faculty to reflect on the types of LA partnerships that emerge, and how these partnerships can be used in constructing effective learning environments. We anticipate that this tool can then be used to help LAs, coordinators, and faculty modify their working relationship to develop the type of partnerships that are best for their particular instructional setting. PSOT provides a finer-grained analysis to three broad partnership classifications that exist along a continuum: mentor-mentee, facultydriven collaboration, and collaborative.

Designing for institutional transformation: Six principles for department-level interventions

“…In addition, others have argued that students have a deep understanding of what it is like to learn subject matter. This has led to instructors partnering with students to better design classrooms and curricula to meet students' needs [65][66][67]. Student-faculty partnership has been especially beneficial when instructors have different backgrounds than the students [66].…”

A scoping review of literature assessing the impact of the learning assistant model

“…Beyond the four original goals of the LA model, researchers have studied other benefits of the LA model (Table 2). For example, LAs often work closely with TAs or teaching staff other than faculty, and multiple studies have aimed to characterize those partnerships (Becker, Goldberg, & Jariwala, 2016;Davenport, Amezcua, Sabella, & Van Duzor, 2017). Others have looked more deeply at LA perceptions to assess the reflective practice that is often part of LA pedagogical training (Cao, Smith, Lutz, & Koretsky, 2018;Cochran, Brookes, & Kramer, 2013).…”

“…Additionally, the LA model can be a source of student networks that improve the connection of underrepresented minority students to a STEM department (Goertzen, Brewe, & Kramer, 2013). Furthermore, some studies have used the LA model to generate and validate new teaching methods and assessments (Chini, Straub, & Thomas, 2016;Cochran et al, 2016;Davenport et al, 2017;Talbot, 2013). The LA model can also facilitate the implementation of other evidence-based methods, which has been demonstrated by a number of studies (Table 3).…”

Leveraging Undergraduate Learning Assistants to Engage Students during Remote Instruction: Strategies and Lessons Learned from Four Institutions

“…LAs, themselves, have had positive shifts in content understanding, overall attitudes about science, and personal interest in science content . The LA Model facilitates the LAs’ growth in identity as scientists, inclusion in the scientific community of practice, and facilitates their roles as partners in instructional reform. , In addition, the LA Model provides an environment where the “like me” role model of a fellow student, especially an underrepresented minority or first-generation student, is effective for student success and for the vital work in continuing to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion in STEM especially for historically marginalized students …”

“…11 The LA Model facilitates the LAs' growth in identity as scientists, inclusion in the scientific community of practice, and facilitates their roles as partners in instructional reform. 12,13 In addition, the LA Model provides an environment where the "like me" role model of a fellow student, especially an underrepresented minority or firstgeneration student, is effective for student success and for the vital work in continuing to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion in STEM especially for historically marginalized students. 14 Prior to the global pandemic that forced campuses to transition to remote instruction, the terms asynchronous and synchronous were unfamiliar to many faculty who had not previously taught online or hybrid courses.…”