Learning Assistants as a pedagogical model to improve teaching practices and student outcomes in post-secondary statistics classrooms
Abstract
A Learning Assistant (LA) program is a “near peer” pedagogical model originating in physics education where a student who recently succeeded in a course is hired to collaborate with faculty as part of the instructional team. LAs attend all class sessions and help instructors facilitate evidence-based active learning pedagogies and foster an inclusive learning environment. As part of a U.S. National Science Foundation-funded study, we employed LAs in over 50 STEM courses, including 18 sections of introductory and calculus-based statistics, with results showing reduced DFW rates for students in sections with an LA. This paper shares best practices, implementation strategies, and sample in-class activities to demonstrate how to utilize an LA program to improve statistics pedagogy and learning environments in university classrooms.
