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A look inside the CSU LA Program ...

 

Learning Assistants (LAs) at CSU typically assist faculty in the classroom to support students in our Chemistry, Physics, and Physical Science classes. Communicating difficult concepts in STEM and supporting students with diverse strengths, needs, and resources, and fostering a friendly learning enviroment is challenging. To support our LAs in taking on this role they engage in a course on effective pedagogy (our teaching immersion course), sessions on content preparation, and work alongside Chicago area High School Teachers and Faculty Mentors.  This page provides a glimpse into these essential components of the CSU LA Program.

 

Content Preparation session

Dawyne (Physics LA) and Drs. Peters and Sabella meet before students engage in a laboratory on Balancing and Equilibrium of Rigid Bodies and discuss how best to help students develop a model that allows them to predict whether an object is in equilibrium.  Content preparation sessions are import for LAs to review material, practice guided inquiry, and think about how they will support students in their LA assignments in thinking about these challenging ideas.  

In this clip, we review the topic of balancing before the LA works with students in the introductory course.  In addition to reviewing content, we model inquiry instruction and discuss methods and questions we might use when we work students in the introducotry course.  Concepts in these courses are quite challenging and in order for the LA to be able to both diagnose where students are in their understanding and be effective in supporting students, they need to have a very deep understaning of the material and best practices..

Equilibrium of Rigid Bodies follows up on the ideas from Balancing.  In this clip the three of us talk about these ideas and anticipate issues that might come up when students engage in this activity.  We discuss types of questions we might ask to support students and also articulate the key ideas we want students to come away with.  Content and pedagogy are discussed together and are closley intertwined in these discussions. 

Pedagogy Session: The Teacher Immersion Course

LAs who support students in Chemistry, Physics, and Physical Science Courses at CSU meet each week as part of a two credit course led by two Chicago Area Teachers.  In the course, we discuss best practices in teaching, the role of the teacher as a diagnositian, think about how we might best support our students and also reflect on the specific LA assignments.  At the end of the course, LAs develop a STEM lesson based on research into student learning and assessment of student ideas and then implement this lesson in the HS class or in a college setting.

 

In this clip, students in the pedagogy course discuss inquiry and student engagement specifically discussing (1) whether students should know what they are "suppose" to get beforehand, (2) whether questions and steps should be predetermined, and (3) whether the teacher or the students are working "harder" than one another during an inquiry lesson.

 

The final project for students in the pedagogy course is an activity that they implement in either a HS class or a college setting.  In this clip, Tiara (lower right) explains how she has developed a POGIL worksheet to support students in the college Organic Chemistry course.  She describes how she used interviews with students to target specific ideas and meet the students where they are in their understanding.

LAs in the STEM Classroom

LA work in the pedagogy course and the content sessions prepare them for their LA assignments where they work alongside faculty mentors to assist students in our CSU STEM courses.  The three videos below show examples of LAs in Chemistry and Physics courses in the department. 

Dwayne (LA) works with two students in Physics to develop an understanding of equilibrium.

Anthony (LA) works with a group of Chemistry students in the laboratory.

Dr. Coble and Kiara (LA) help students develop and apply the ray model for light.  

Student Comments on LA Program

CSU students comment on the Learning Assistant Program and how it has helped support them in their introductory Physics Course.  

  • If a student had a question, she did not give us the answer right away, she would give a chance to figure it out on our own and that's what I like about her..." Physical Science Student
     

  • "[LA] breaks things down into simpler terms ... and ... students who are behind can start to understand."  Physics Student
     

  • "The learning assistant helped me by taking the time out of his schedule to go over several practice problems with me. By having the learning assistant I was able to have someone who understood the chapters we were on and was able to get the guidance that I needed to succeed in this class." Chemistry Student
     

  • "I think my experience in this class would not have been as successful if this program was not available."  Chemistry Student
     

  • "I believe that having learning assistants in the class made a huge difference in the class as far as keeping me afloat to the information that was being taught at that moment." Physics Student

     

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