Using Learning Assistants to Make Physics Teaching More Effective, Equitable, and Engaging

该项目旨在通过改善大型物理入门课程的教与学，为国家利益服务。该合作项目涉及西雅图太平洋大学（奖励DUE-2235760）、华盛顿大学博塞尔分校（奖励DUE-2235744）和西华盛顿大学（次级奖励）的研究人员。物理入门课程对STEM教育和劳动力准备很重要。积极的、以学生为中心的教学有助于学生更好地学习。然而，在大班中，教师很难有效地提供这种指导。学习助理（LAs）可以帮助教师使他们的课程更加活跃和以学生为中心，如果他们准备回应学生对科学的不同看法。学生们需要每周准备内容，还需要一门教育学课程来教授他们教学和学习的主要理论和实践。洛杉矶有很多节目。它们已被证明支持主动学习，但它们并不一定使学生们准备好回应学生们多样化的科学思想。本项目将开发一种模式，以训练助理教师有效地激发和建立学生的科学观念。以这种方式培训的学生将通过帮助学生更好地学习物理并将物理与他们的生活经验联系起来，从而促进公平。很多STEM专业都需要物理入门课程。这些课程是利用LAs可以提供的好处的理想环境，因为这些课程通常很大，需要LA支持主动学习，并且课程注册通常反映了边缘化群体的严重代表性不足。为了提高洛杉矶专业发展的目标，该项目将追求三个目标。首先，是调查学习助理用来思考教学和学习的富有成效的想法，并通过一组学习助理的“角色”来交流这些想法，这些角色描述了教学助理的共同资产、目标、关注点和价值观。第二，为LA教学法课程开发和测试有效的教学材料（例如，阅读作业、反思提示、课堂活动、项目）。第三，也是最后一点，是通过招募和支持来自不同背景的洛杉矶大学参与该项目开发和研究的洛杉矶大学项目，扩大洛杉矶大学的不同声音。研究人员将他们对物理学院培训的改进方法称为“TRELLIS：引出和利用科学思想的培训”，基于这种培训促进的知识、技能和观点成为一个“网格”的概念，使物理学院能够支持物理学生关于科学的富有成效的想法。该项目将开发的物理特定教学准备将立即与全国范围内的许多洛杉矶项目相关，并应作为扩展到其他学科背景的典范。NSF IUSE: EDU项目支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过其参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving teaching and learning in large introductory physics courses. This collaborative project involves investigators at Seattle Pacific University (Award DUE-2235760), the University of Washington Bothell (Award DUE-2235744), and Western Washington University (subaward). Introductory physics courses are important for STEM education and workforce preparation. Active, student-centered instruction results in better student learning. However, in large classes, it can be difficult for instructors to provide this kind of instruction effectively. Learning Assistants (LAs) can help instructors make their courses more active and student-centered if the LAs are prepared to respond to students' diverse ideas about science. LAs need both weekly content preparation and a pedagogy course to teach them the main theories and practices in teaching and learning. There are many LA programs. They have been shown to support active learning, but they do not necessarily prepare LAs to respond to students' diverse science ideas. This project will develop a model for training LAs to effectively elicit and build on students' science ideas. LAs trained in this way will promote equity by helping students learn physics better and connect physics to their life experiences.Introductory physics courses are often required for a broad range of STEM majors. These courses are ideal environments for leveraging the benefits that LAs can offer, because the courses are typically large and need LA support for active learning, and the course enrollment typically reflects significant underrepresentation of marginalized groups. Towards the goal of improving LA professional development the project will pursue three objectives. First, is to investigate the fruitful ideas that LAs use to think about teaching and learning, and communicate these through a set of LA "personas" that characterize the common assets, goals, concerns, and values that LAs have for teaching. Second, is to develop and test effective instructional materials for LA pedagogy courses (e.g., reading assignments, reflection prompts, in-class activities, projects). Third, and finally, is to amplify diverse LA voices by recruiting and supporting LAs from diverse backgrounds to participate in the LA programs that the project develops and studies. The investigators refer to their enhanced approach to LA training as "TRELLIS: Training to Elicit and Leverage Ideas about Science," based on the notion that the knowledge, skills, and perspectives that this kind of training promotes become a "trellis" that enables LAs to support physics students' fruitful ideas about science. The physics-specific pedagogical preparation that this project will develop will be immediately relevant to many LA programs nationwide and should serve as a model for extension to other disciplinary contexts. The NSF IUSE: EDU program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through its Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.