Collaborative Research: Scaling Undergraduate STEM Transformation and Institutional Networks for Engaged Dissemination (SUSTAINED)

该项目正在促进高等教育的STEM系越来越多地使用STEM学习助理，并改进这一方法的实施。学习助理(LAS)是训练有素的STEM本科生，他们受雇于大学和两年制STEM教师，帮助将课程转变为基于证据的方法，并帮助在校学生充分发挥积极学习方法的影响。助学模式在过去的几年里迅速推广到实践中。为了应对日益增长的使用和援助请求，创建LA模式的团队最近开发了一个国际学习助手联盟--一个由88个机构组成的合作网络，这些机构使用学习助手来催化数学、科学和工程课程的教育变革。LA联盟的成员还与对制定和使用改进的成果衡量标准感兴趣的同行机构开展合作研究。项目资源正在支持开发和实施一个基于网络的进程，以传播以研究为基础的远程学习教学做法，包括一个数据库，为新用户提供资源和信息，这将有助于有效地实施远程学习模式。项目资源还支持一项关于50,000多名使用LA模式注册课程的本科生的学习成果和留存情况的大规模研究。在该奖项提供的初步支持下，洛杉矶联盟正在制定一种管理结构和一项在拨款之后的年份可持续资助的计划。学习助理模式是本科STEM教育中社会和结构性组织的模型，与彼得·圣吉关于学习型组织的工作有关并建立在彼得·圣吉关于学习型组织的工作以及让·拉夫和艾蒂安·温格关于实践社区的工作基础上。这是一种支持越来越多地使用循证教学策略的方法。然而，它不是一种具体的教学策略，而是一种培养和使用高级本科生作为课程助理的方法，以及教师和参加STEM课程的学生之间的联系。模型中包含了一个基本预期，即参与机构正在努力改变本科课程的教学方式，并研究这些改变的有效性。

This project is facilitating the growing use of STEM Learning Assistants in STEM departments in institutions of higher education and improving implementations of this approach. Learning Assistants (LAs) are talented highly-trained STEM undergraduates who are hired by university and two-year college STEM instructors to help transform courses to evidence-based approaches and assist enrolled students to get the full impact of active learning methods. The Learning Assistant model has spread rapidly into practice in the last few years. In response to growing use and requests for assistance, the team that created the LA model has recently developed an international Learning Assistant Alliance - a collaborative network of 88 institutions that use Learning Assistants to catalyze education transformation in mathematics, science, and engineering courses. Members of the LA Alliance also engage in collaborative research with peer institutions interested in developing and using improved outcome measures. Project resources are supporting the development and implementation of a web-based process for disseminating research-based LA instructional practices, including a database to provide resources and information for new users that will contribute to the efficient implementation of the LA model. Project resources are also supporting a large-scale research study of the learning outcomes and retention of over 50,000 undergraduates who have enrolled in courses using the LA model. With the initial support provided in this award, the LA Alliance is developing a governing structure and a plan for sustainable funding in years beyond the grant.The Learning Assistant model is a model for social and structural organization in undergraduate STEM education that is related to and builds on the work of Peter Senge on learning organizations and on the work of Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger on communities of practice. It is an approach to supporting the growing use of evidence-based instructional strategies. However, it is not a specific instructional strategy but rather a method of training and using advanced undergraduate students as course assistants and liaisons between instructors and students enrolled in a STEM course. Built into the model is the baseline expectation that participating institutions are working to bring about change in the way undergraduate courses are taught and to study the effectiveness of these changes.