Theoretically Framing a Complex Phenomenon: Student Success in Large Enrollment Active Learning Courses

Talbot, Robert M.; Doughty, Leanne; Nasim, Amreen; Hartley, Laurel; Le, Paul; Kramer, L. H.; Kornreich-Leshem, Hagit; Boyer, Jeff

doi:10.1119/perc.2016.pr.081

Cited by 16 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Based on our positive experiences, we advocate for integration of sociocultural frameworks such as CHAT in assessment and evaluation. This systems approach has proven useful for studying other complex educational phenomena by helping derive meaning from seemingly contradictory information (Daniels, Edwards, Engeström, Gallagher, & Ludvigsen, 2013; van Oers, Wardekker, Elbers, Veer, & eds., 2008; Talbot et al, 2016). As with most scientific inquiry, the research questions ultimately should drive the types of data that are collected.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons and recommendations from three decades as an NSF REU site: A call for systems‐based assessment

McDevitt

Patel

Ellison

2020

Ecology and Evolution

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For more than 30 years, the US National Science Foundation's Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program has supported thousands of undergraduate researchers annually and provides many students with their first research experiences in field ecology or evolution. REUs embed students in scientific communities where they apprentice with experienced researchers, build networks with their peers, and help students understand research cultures and how to work within them. REUs are thought to provide formative experiences for developing researchers that differ from experiences in a college classrooms, laboratories, or field trips. REU assessments have improved through time but they are largely ungrounded in educational theory. Thus, evaluation of long‐term impacts of REUs remains limited and best practices for using REUs to enhance student learning are repeatedly re‐invented. We describe how one sociocultural learning framework, cultural–historical activity theory (CHAT), could be used to guide data collection to characterize the effects of REU programs on participant's learning in an educationally meaningful context. CHAT embodies a systems approach to assessment that accounts for social and cultural factors that influence learning. We illustrate how CHAT has guided assessment of the Harvard Forest Summer Research Program in Ecology (HF‐SRPE), one of the longest‐running REU sites in the United States. Characterizing HF‐SRPE using CHAT helped formalize thoughts and language for the program evaluation, reflect on potential barriers to success, identify assessment priorities, and revealed important oversights in data collection.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons and recommendations from three decades as an NSF REU site: A call for systems‐based assessment

McDevitt

Patel

Ellison

2020

Ecology and Evolution

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“…The LA program has been found to be effective in multiple ways. There is strong evidence, for example, that LA-supported courses lead to greater learning outcomes among students enrolled in the course (Pollock 2009; Nelson 2011; Talbot et al 2016), that LAs develop content understanding and identities (Close, Conn, Close 2016), and that LAs recruited to K-12 teaching exhibit more reform-based teaching practices than their peers (Gray, Webb, and Otero 2016). Recent work shows that having one LA-supported course increases the likelihood of graduating by 6% for all students and by 15% for first-generation college students (Alzen, Langdon, and Otero, in press).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of pedagogical knowledge among learning assistants

2018

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Background: Successful outcomes of the Learning Assistant (LA) model include increased learning outcomes in STEM gateway courses and increased persistence to graduation among LAs and the students they serve. While there are many possible reasons that the LA program is effective, the pedagogical development of the LAs themselves has not yet been systematically studied. The research reported here investigated how deeply first-time LAs enrolled in a one-semester pedagogy course took up the language associated with the course's essential pedagogical principles. By reviewing prior research as well as assessing our target population and our pedagogy course learning goals, we developed a set of three essential pedagogical principles that are critical for effective classroom instruction and developed a coding scheme for identifying these principles in LAs' written work. We then looked at LA's development of language with respect to these principles by analyzing weekly teaching reflections submitted by LAs during five iterations of our pedagogy course. Results: Our research indicated that the language used to introduce particular pedagogical principles might play an important role in initiating LAs' uptake of these concepts. We found that LAs began to develop an understanding of the language that values students' prior ideas in learning, but the depth of this understanding varied. In addition, LAs did not demonstrate as much growth in their language with respect to the formative assessment or to the idea that students play a role in constructing knowledge. Conclusions: In developing a pedagogy course for LAs, relating to their prior backgrounds in STEM appears to be critical. Using language that is accessible seems to increase LAs' ability to develop pedagogical principles. Although LAs' development of language related to the essential pedagogical principles is small, it may be enough to allow them to create contexts that facilitate learning.

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“…Using an item-level approach to assess concept inventory results as opposed to a student-level approach can provide more detailed insight into student learning gains. Talbot et al (2016) The CHAT framework serves a model to measure and describe student success associated with LA course transformation.…”

Section: Talbot (2013)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The LA model can also facilitate the implementation of other evidence-based methods, which has been demonstrated by a number of studies (Table 3). Lastly, a recent study focused on developing a better method to measure student success and outcomes in LAsupported, large enrollments courses using the Cultural Historical Activity Theory framework (Talbot et al, 2016).…”

Section: Additional Outcomes Of the La Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Barrasso

Spilios

2021

IJ STEM Ed

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Much of modern education reform is focused on implementation of evidenced-based teaching, but these techniques are sometimes met with trepidation from faculty, due to inexperience or lack of necessary resources. One near-peer teaching model designed to facilitate evidenced-based teaching in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics classrooms is the Learning Assistant (LA) model. Here, we describe the details of the LA model, present a scoping review of literature using the four original goals of the LA model as a framework, and suggest future areas of research that would deepen our understanding of the impact that the LA model may have on education. We summarize how the LA model improves student outcomes and teacher preparation and identify a relative deficiency of literature that addresses how the LA model impacts faculty and departmental/institutional change. Additionally, of the 39 papers reviewed, 11 are strictly pre-experimental study designs, 28 use quasi-experimental designs or a combination of quasi and pre-experimental, and none of them included a true experimental design. Thus, we conclude that current studies suggest that LA model positively impacts education, but more refined assessment would improve our understanding of the model. Furthermore, despite the encouraging research on the impact of the LA model and the proliferation of LA programs at institutions across the world, the study of the LA model has been, for the most part, limited to a small group of education researchers. Therefore, a major objective of this review is to introduce the LA model to a new group of instructors and researchers who can further our understanding of this promising model.

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Theoretically Framing a Complex Phenomenon: Student Success in Large Enrollment Active Learning Courses

Cited by 16 publications

References 10 publications

Lessons and recommendations from three decades as an NSF REU site: A call for systems‐based assessment

Lessons and recommendations from three decades as an NSF REU site: A call for systems‐based assessment

Development of pedagogical knowledge among learning assistants

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

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