Talk moves, argumentation, and questioning patterns in LA-supported group problem solving

Пак, А. М.; Mangini, Marissa; Green, Clare; Sikorski, Tiffany‐Rose

doi:10.1119/perc.2018.pr.pak

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 3 publications

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“…LAs are undergraduate students who help increase the quantity and quality of peer interaction in STEM courses [6]. They attend class and facilitate group discussions and problem solving, host office hours and review sessions, and meet with the instructor weekly to discuss patterns in student reasoning and engagement, and plan for class.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What makes a person a physicist? Learning Assistant and physics major views

Starita¹,

White²,

Sikorski³

2020

2020 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings

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Using the theoretical framework of community of practice and physics identity, we investigate student perceptions of the physics community and competency among undergraduates at George Washington University, a mid-sized private research university. We analyze fifteen interviews of students belonging to three different populations: physics majors who are not Learning Assistants (LAs), physics majors who are LAs, and LAs who are not physics majors. By analyzing themes in participants' interview responses, we hope to better understand student perceptions of community. In general, physics majors report that they do not perceive themselves as physicists because they do not yet have, in their view, the competencies of professional physicists, yet the rigidity with which they hold onto this perspective is somewhat setting dependent.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What makes a person a physicist? Learning Assistant and physics major views

Starita¹,

White²,

Sikorski³

2020

2020 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Expansive learning in the learning assistant model: how instructors’ goals lead to differences in implementation and development of LAs’ practices

Karch,

Mashhour,

Koss

et al. 2024

IJ STEM Ed

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Background The learning assistant (LA) model supports student success in undergraduate science courses; however, variation in outcomes has led to a call for more work investigating how the LA model is implemented. In this research, we used cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) to characterize how three different instructors set up LA-facilitated classrooms and how LAs’ understanding and development of their practices was shaped by the classroom activity. CHAT is a sociocultural framework that provides a structured approach to studying complex activity systems directed toward specific objects. It conceptualizes change within these systems as expansive learning, in which experiencing a contradiction leads to internalization and critical self-reflection, and then externalization and a search for solutions and change. Results Through analyzing two semi-structured retrospective interviews from three professors and eleven LAs, we found that how the LA model was implemented differed based on STEM instructors’ pedagogical practices and goals. Each instructor leveraged LA-facilitated interactions to further learning and tasked LAs with emotionally supporting students to grapple with content and confusions in a safe environment; however, all three had different rules and divisions of labor that were influenced by their perspectives on learning and their objects for the class. For LAs, we found that they had multiple, sometimes conflicting, motives that can be described as either practical, what they described as their day-to-day job, or sense-making, how they made sense of the reason for their work. How these motives were integrated/separated or aligned/misaligned with the collective course object influenced LAs’ learning in practice through either a mechanism of consonance or contradiction. We found that each LA developed unique practices that reciprocally shaped and were shaped by the activity system in which they worked. Conclusions This study helps bridge the bodies of research that focus on outcomes from the LA model and LA learning and development by describing how LA learning mechanisms are shaped by their context. We also show that variation in the LA model can be described both by classroom objects and by LAs’ development in dialogue with those objects. This work can be used to start to develop a deeper understanding of how students, instructors, and LAs experience the LA model.

show abstract

Talk moves, argumentation, and questioning patterns in LA-supported group problem solving

Cited by 2 publications

References 3 publications

What makes a person a physicist? Learning Assistant and physics major views

What makes a person a physicist? Learning Assistant and physics major views

Expansive learning in the learning assistant model: how instructors’ goals lead to differences in implementation and development of LAs’ practices

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