Abstract
In higher education, Learning Assistants (LAs)—a relatively recent evolution grounded in peer mentorship models—are gaining popularity in classrooms as universities strive to meet the needs of undergraduate learners. Unlike Teaching Assistants, LAs are undergraduate students who receive continuous training from faculty mentors in content-area coaching and pedagogical skills. As near-peers, they assist assigned groups of undergraduates (students) during class. Research on LAs suggests that they are significant in mitigating high Drop-Fail-Withdrawal rates of large enrollment undergraduate science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medical (STEMM) courses. However, there is a dearth of description regarding the learning between LAs and STEMM faculty mentors. This paper reports on perspectives of faculty mentors and their cooperating LAs in regard to their learning relationships during a Calculus II at a research-oriented university during Spring of 2020. Using an exploratory-descriptive qualitative design, faculty (oral responses) and LAs (written responses) reflected on their relationship. Content analysis (coding) resulted in four salient categories (by faculty and LA percentages, respectively) in: Showing Care and Fostering Relationships (47%, 23%); Honing Pedagogical Skills (27%, 36%); Being Prepared for Class and Students (23%, 28%); and Developing Content Knowledge in Calculus (3%, 13%). Benefits of LAs to faculty and ways to commence LA programs at institutions are also discussed.
Highlights
Introduction published maps and institutional affilThere has been a shift in higher education to identify and implement improved supports for faculty teaching introductory-level, large enrollment courses for undergraduates, especially within the science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medical (STEMM)disciplines [1]
Each table is replete with frequency, percentage, and representative statements (Table 1), responses (Table 2), and passages (Table 3) to highlight the nature of the relationships and learning that occurred between sampled groups
This study sought to explore the perceptions of learning that occurred between Learning Assistants (LAs) and their STEMM faculty mentors from their professional working relationship and situated to a university-level mathematics course
Summary
Introduction published maps and institutional affilThere has been a shift in higher education to identify and implement improved supports for faculty teaching introductory-level, large enrollment courses for undergraduates, especially within the science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medical (STEMM)disciplines [1]. The initial credit-bearing college-level courses for degrees in STEMM are colloquially known as ‘gateway’ courses These foundational classes often bar students from progressing into future STEMM coursework or completing their STEMM degrees [2,3,4]. These gateway or barrier STEMM courses have had historically and persistently high Drop-Fail-Withdrawal (DFW) rates [5], which often dissuade undergraduates from continuing in their STEM majors or collegiate studies [6]. One such STEMM-based gateway course is calculus, in which up to one fourth of undergraduates fail and are unable to matriculate into further STEMM coursework, often leading them to longer degree completion [7] or causing to change majors and forgo their pursuit of a STEMM future [8,9]. iations.
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