Leveraging the expertise of the urban STEM student in developing an effective LA Program: LA and Instructor Partnerships

Abstract

A key component to the success of the Learning Assistant (LA) Model is the relationship that forms between LAs and faculty members. These relationships can enhance the effectiveness of the model by leveraging the expertise of the LAs and placing LAs in leadership roles where they can co-think and codesign activities and lessons with faculty, as well as provide insights to faculty about the students in the class and the learning environment. Interviews with LAs and faculty members, in addition to video from weekly preparation sessions, illustrate the different types of partnerships that can evolve between LAs and faculty and help us understand the roles different factors play in these partnerships. We contrast three different types of partnerships between LAs and faculty that exist along a continuum: mentor-mentee, faculty-driven collaboration, and collaborative. This data highlights the importance and the benefits of being attentive to these partnerships in developing a robust and effective LA Program.

Managing teams for instructional change: Understanding three types of diversity

“…In efforts to improve STEM instruction to better support students who belong to historically marginalized groups, leaders may assume that team members who share certain characteristics with those students can provide key insights. Sabella et al [11] provide a well-justified example of this in describing the Learning Assistant (LA) program at Chicago State University (CSU). They argue that students at CSU can provide critical input for instructional decisions because they have rich knowledge of their peers' cultural backgrounds that is not readily accessible to faculty.…”

“…For example, Redish & Cooke [10] argue that they were able to design authentic interdisciplinary tasks for students because the physicists and biologists on their team contributed unique disciplinary knowledge. Authors also suggest that team members' social networks, such as their connections to education communities [8] or current students [11], may enable them to contribute useful information.…”

“…Diversity may also refer to other key team member differences [5][6][7]. For example, differences in team members' pedagogical knowledge, disciplinary training, and their roles within their institutions could all influence the outcomes of instructional change work [1,[8][9][10][11]. Thus, it is important to clarify what "diversity" means and under what circumstances it is likely to lead to improved outcomes.…”

Designing a Course for Peer Educators in Undergraduate Engineering Design Courses

“…As such, LAs are critical to beginning and sustaining course transformation efforts. 16,20 As part of the LA experience, LAs participate in three coordinated activities: (1) Practice -LAs facilitate in-class discussion amongst students while students work through group-worthy activities, (2) Content -LAs have regular instructional team meetings with the STEM faculty teaching LA-supported courses where they work through upcoming in-class activities, reflect on the past week, and prepare for the coming week, (3) Pedagogy -LAs participate in a weekly 3-credit pedagogy seminar where LAs learn about questioning strategies, promoting discussion, formative assessment, and learning theories. 8 These three activities happen concurrently during the LAs' first semester of participation in the program.…”

“…15 Additionally, university faculty in LA-supported courses become better teachers and begin to recognize their role in educational change. [16][17][18] Preliminary evidence suggests that LA programs contribute to the sustainability of course transformation efforts. [17][18][19] As we know of no research or publications addressing the use of LAs within engineering design courses, we begin by describing the program adaptation we developed.…”