Center for Teaching and Learning
Focused Inquiry Groups (FIGs) - Title
III
Learning Assistants
Area of Inquiry
The Learning Connection’s support programs are initiated by instructors
who have considered - often with the support of various grants and the Center
for Teaching and Learning - new pedagogical approaches and effective learning
support interventions. Also, our focus is on very closely linking learning
support interventions with classroom instruction. One of the learning support
programs initiated by instructors is the Learning Assistant pilot program, which
places trained
peer tutors, selected by the instructors, in classrooms to work directly with
students in the classroom setting, as well as outside of class. Trained by the
tutor trainer and mentored by the instructor, the Learning Assistants are in
unique positions: While tutoring the students, facilitating student study
groups, or serving as model students, they bring additional eyes and ears to the
student learning occurring in the classroom. As a result, the Learning
Assistants are able to share with the instructor important information about
what and how the students are learning.
Our questions are:
- How does the Learning Assistant intervention impact students’
retention, persistence, and success?
- In what ways, if any, do instructors who
work with Learning Assistants reconsider or “tweak” their pedagogical
approaches?
- How might the training of Learning Assistants best serve these peer
tutors as they attempt to “integrate what to learn with how to learn”?
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