Summary: Otero, et al.Summary of “A physics department’s role in preparing physics teachers:
The Colorado learning assistant model,” Valerie Otero, Steven Pollock, and
Noah Finkelstein, pp. 84–90.U.S. science education faces serious challenges: under-
graduates are inadequately prepared in science and mathemat-
ics, and there is a critical shortage of K-12 teachers in these
key areas. The Colorado Learning Assistant (LA) model helps
address these intertwined problems: it provides an easy-to-
adapt program that both enhances university-level science
instruction and improves teacher preparation. The LA pro-
gram builds on and contributes to efforts based on discipline-
based education research (DBER) that are departmentally
based. This paper documents some of the evidence that the
Colorado Learning Assistant model positively impacts under-
graduate student performance while at the same time sig-
nifi cantly increasing the number and quality of science and
mathematics K-12 teachers. It also engages research faculty
in improving undergraduate courses as well as in taking some
responsibility for recruiting and preparing their majors for all
careers, including K-12 math and science teaching.
This paper reports on the Colorado Learning Assistant pro-
gram as it is implemented in the physics and astronomy depart-
ments at the University of Colorado, Boulder (CU Boulder).
Learning Assistants (LAs) are talented students, typically
math, science, and engineering majors, who are hired to help
transform large-enrollment undergraduate courses so that these
courses are more closely aligned with instructional methods
supported by educational research, such as interactive tech-
niques that build on student prior knowledge. The LA program
is composed of three key elements: 1) use of LAs in transformed
instructional settings, in which students engage with each other
in small-groups supported by LAs, 2) weekly meetings around
disciplinary content that support LAs, TAs, and instructors, and
3) a multi-disciplinary science education course that provides
practical and theoretical grounding in methods for instruc-
tional transformation. Currently, each year the physics and
astronomy departments at CU Boulder hire 50 LAs to help run
approximately 6 transformed courses. This paper describes in
detail one of the transformed instructional models in the phys-
ics department: LAs are used to implement the research-based
Tutorials in Introductory Physics^1 that replace the traditional
recitation sections of the introductory sequence.
Since the program’s beginning in 2003 through Spring
2010, over 300 LA positions have been fi lled in the physics
and astronomy departments, and 16 physics and astronomy
majors were recruited to teaching careers through the LA pro-
gram. This more than doubled the annual number of physics
and astronomy majors going into teaching at CU Boulder in
comparison to the period before the LA program began. TheLA program impacts roughly 2,000 introductory physics stu-
dents per year and is still growing. Over 25 physics faculty
have been involved in transforming a course or in sustaining
previous transformations. Transformed physics courses that
are supported by LAs show learning outcomes that are far
superior to those in traditional courses as measured by con-
ceptual content surveys. For example, student learning gains
on the Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation are two to
three times higher than those of students enrolled in tradi-
tional courses. The LAs themselves greatly outperform their
peers on these same assessments, posting scores similar to our
high-level graduate students.
At CU Boulder the Learning Assistant program, which
began in a single department with four learning assistants,
has grown to become a university-wide effort. Because
teacher recruitment and preparation are tied to improved
education for all students through the transformation of
undergraduate courses, many members of the university
community at CU have a vested interest in the success of
the LA program. The program brings together interested
faculty members, department heads, deans, and senior
administrators, each of whom has a stake in, and ben-
efi ts from, increasing the number of high-quality teach-
ers, improving undergraduate education, and increasing
the number of math and science majors. The LA program
has demonstrated success throughout campus and has been
emulated by dozens of universities throughout the nation.
In 2010, 85% of the LAs hired in 9 different departments
were supported by CU Boulder’s administration and pri-
vate donations. It is anticipated that by 2012 the program
will be fully integrated into the standard operations of the
university and not dependent upon grant funding.
This paper suggests how the commitment of physics and
astronomy departments to the enhanced education of all stu-
dents and to the recruitment and preparation of future teach-
ers can collectively enhance the status of education, both for
the students considering teaching careers and for the faculty
teaching these students. It implies that scientists can take
action to address the critical shortfall of science teachers by
improving undergraduate programs and by engaging more
substantively in evidence-based solutions in undergraduate
physics education and in teacher preparation.(^1) Lillian C. McDermott, Peter S. Shaffer, and the Physics Education Group,
Tutorials in Introductory Physics, 1st ed. (Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River,
NJ, 2002).
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