The Learning Assistant Model for Building Equitable Learning Environments

The Learning Assistant (LA) model began at CU Boulder in 2001, with 4 LAs to support one section of Introductory Astronomy. Since then, the program has grown, with 100+ faculty members each year working with 410 LAs in 14 departments in 4 colleges and schools, impacting approximately 20,000 students on campus annually. Through a brief, peer-reviewed application process, professors are awarded LAs to help them make small to large changes to their courses. LAs encourage active student engagement in the classroom, guide students in navigating large amounts of material, provide feedback to students as they work through complex problems, offer study tips, and help motivate students to persist. They also take a pedagogy course that offers practical techniques and research on learning and instruction. Through this process, students, their professors, and the LAs become more attuned to research-based strategies for teaching physics and to the complexities of building equitable learning environments that lead to student success. We will discuss the history of the LA program on campus and in the physics department specifically, providing data to support claims about its impacts on student learning, DWF rates, teacher preparation, and students from groups traditionally underrepresented in physics. We will conclude with conjectures about mechanisms that lead to these impacts.