- Year 2024
- NSF Noyce Award # 2243323
- First Name Susie
- Last Name Brooks
- Institution Western Illinois University
- Role/Position Co-PI
- Proposal Type Workshop
- Workshop Category Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends
- Workshop Disciplines Audience Chemistry, Mathematics, Other:biology, Physics
- Target Audience Co-PIs, Other Faculty/Staff, Project PIs
- Topics Developing Teacher Leaders, Recruiting with Retention in Mind
Goals
1. Learn what a Learning Assistant (LA) Program is and how it can be incorporated in STEM courses to increase retention.2. Discuss how to use a Learning Assistant Program to recruit Noyce Scholars.
Evidence
1. Persistence and completion data for students enrolled in LA-supported courses2. Pre/post student assessments for undergraduate students serving as LAs
Proposal
Every math professor has heard students exclaim, “I’m terrible at math,” or “I put this class off for years because I didn’t want to take it.” All too often, students dread enrolling in mathematics or science courses because they view math and science as “a bag of tricks” or they solve problems in a mechanical fashion “because their teacher told them to”. How do we address this issue?Although one overarching fix has yet to be determined (and probably doesn’t exist), creating a welcoming active learning environment is a great way to start, and learning assistants (LAs) can help instructors do just that! Learning assistants, which were first introduced in physics courses at the University of Colorado in Boulder, are undergraduate students that facilitate learning and problem solving skills within university courses. They receive instruction in teaching pedagogy and work directly with instructors and their peers to help students succeed.At Western Illinois University (WIU), we have been using LAs since the fall of 2017. More recently, WIU is using its Learning Assistant Program within its NSF Noyce Track I Grant as a means to recruit STEM education majors. In this presentation, we will discuss how LAs are utilized in some of our STEM courses, how they have impacted retention, and how the program is being used to recruit Noyce Scholars.
