New Perspectives in Science Education

In this research, we conducted an empirical study on the effects of undergraduate learning assistants installed in the first-year education courses of the Japanese university. In a recent decade, Japanese universities have made an effort to qualitatively shift from education that teaches knowledge to education that focuses on competency. With this shift, Japan's first-year education is changing, aimed not only at an academic skill but also generic skills through active learning such as group work, discussion, project-based learning. Traditional college professors are not good at teaching this type of classes. Therefore, some universities have started to hire high competent undergraduate students as learning assistants (LA) for first-year courses, especially at departments that don't have a graduate course. The learning assistants have brought various benefits to students, faculties, departments, and themselves. We first identified the benefits of the LA program from a freshmen student survey. The Results of the survey showed that the introduction of the LA program has made it easier for students to ask questions and to participate in activities during class hours. Second, by combining this survey result with institutional research data, such as grades, course evaluation questionnaire, and competency evaluation, we showed that LA students had grown more than other students with controlling over these covariates.

Keywords: Learning Assistant, First-Year Education, Multilevel Analysis.

References:
[1] Jardine, H. E. & Friedman, L. A.: “Using Undergraduate Facilitators for Active Learning in Organic Chemistry: A Preparation Course and Outcomes of the Experience”, Journal of Chemical Education, 94, 703-709, 2017
[2] Otero, V.: “A physics department’s role in preparing physics teachers: The Colorado learning assistant model”, American Journal of Physics, 78, 1218-1224, 2010