Introduction
First-year students pursuing degrees in the natural or physical sciences are required to take a course in General Chemistry along with a laboratory component. With over 1000 students enrolling General Chemistry every quarter, the demand for extra assistance in the laboratory portion of this course is indisputable.
Having an experienced member in the lab working alongside the graduate student teaching assistant may prove to be beneficial to the students by increasing teacher/student ratio and facilitating peer education. It’s possible that utilizing Learning Assistants in the General Chemistry laboratories improves the overall quality of education, so it’s imperative to assess the efficacy of the Learning Assistant Program in terms of educational outcome. Studying the positive or negative effects of the program on
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learning outcome can provide valuable information about where to lead the program. The teacher to student ratio is a number that is often reported on university informational packets and websites as well as on websites that rank school on national and global levels. Schools will often boast of their low student-to-teacher ratios. The rationale for assessing the quality of a particular university based on this ratio is that a higher teacher to student ratio offers more individualized attention for the students and therefore better access to education. This ratio usually refers to lecturers and students, however the principle can be extended to teaching assistants and students. Based on numbers alone, introducing a Learning Assistant to the General Chemistry laboratory increases the teacher to student ratio, thus offering each individual student more access to resources such as answers and explanations to their questions. In theory, this should improve the quality of education that students in the laboratory receive by decreasing the wait time for getting questions answered and increasing educational resources overall. Another factor that will be considered is the effectiveness of peer-to-peer education. The teaching assistant – doctoral candidates – almost certainly has more knowledge about the subject matter, but students may not feel as comfortable asking questions to someone who will be assessing them in the near future. Students may also feel more able to form relationships with a student Learning Assistant and therefore feel more comfortable making mistakes. Having Learning Assistant could not only increase teacher-to-student ratio but also improve student satisfaction and promote interactive learning in the laboratory. In these aspects, the Learning Assistant could truly be a priceless asset to the General Chemistry labs. Both of these factors could contribute to the educational outcomes of the students taking any course, especially in a hands-on laboratory course such as General Chemistry laboratory. Therefore, conducting this study will likely provide results on the efficacy of the Learning Assistant program. Research Methods To acquire information about the efficacy of the General Chemistry Learning Assistant Program at UC Santa Barbara, I broke the research into four distinct phases: Phase 1. Literature Review A. Research the effect of teacher-to-student ratio B. Research the effect of peer-to-peer education Phase 2. Interview Phase 3. Analysis of Interview and Literature Review Phase 4. Prepare Recommendation Report Using Acquired Data In the following discussion of how I executed these four phases, I will explain the reasoning for how and why I conducted my research. Phase 1. Literature Review For this phase of my research, I studied and reviewed scholarly sources containing analysis of experimental and non-experimental data on class size, teacher-to-student ratio, and peer-to-peer education on educational outcomes in higher education. I relied mostly on scholarly articles containing a mixture of quantitative and qualitative data. Phase 2. Interview I conducted an interview with Senior Lecturer and Head of the Learning Assistant Program, Dr. Petra van Koppen, regarding the results of the program in terms of learning outcome. I chose Dr. van Koppen not only because she is the Head of the Learning Assistant Program but also because she has access to more than two year’s worth of feedback from students and teaching assistants. I asked her a short series of flexible questions about the program and its learning outcomes. I also asked about the factors that she has observed to be the most integral in the program’s overall success. The main goal in conducting this interview was to establish a baseline from which I will make my recommendations for improvement. Phase 3. Analysis of Interview and Literature Review This phase consisted of summarizing the findings of the literature review and comparing and/or contrasting them to the interview responses given by Dr. van Koppen. I used this step to locate areas of the Learning Assistant Program for improvement based on the interview with Dr. van Koppen and compared them to findings presented in the scholarly articles I reviewed. Phase 4. Prepare Recommendation Report Using Acquired Data I drafted this report summarizing my research methods, findings, and final recommendation for the Learning Assistant Program. I made recommendations for the program based on gathered data from my literature review and interview processes. Results In this section, I will summarize and present the results of my research. For each of the phases, excluding Phase 4, I present the most important findings. Phase 1. Literature Review The information I acquired about teacher-to-student ratio and peer-to-peer education contained both unidirectional and conditional evidence about the effect of these two factors on educational outcome. Studies on class size and performance demonstrate a negative relationship between class size and grades, even when other factors such as environment and academic ability are controlled (Kokkelenberg et al. 16). One possibility is that an increase in class size results in a decrease in teacher/student ratio, which results in less time for the instructor to spend with each student. Another possibility is that the number of students in a class can affect levels of social engagement and instructors’ choice in teaching methods (Ehrenberg et al. 1). If an instructor has to manage a large enough class, they may be force to take on the role of manager rather than instructor, which would subtract educational impact from students. The results of my investigation on peer-education and educational outcome were less conclusive and contained a considerable number of confounders. According to Janet W. Colvin and, peer tutoring is becoming more prevalent, but administrators cannot assume that tutors will automatically become an asset to the classroom (“Peer Tutoring” 178). Tutors must be adequately trained in order to function effectively in the classroom setting. Like professors, they must not only be well versed in the course material, but also flexible and skilled in the ways they can teach it to their students. As Chen et al. said in his research article, “when tutors and tutees are organized to help each other in structured ways, the probability increases that both groups will improve their skills and knowledge” (“A Case Study” 10). In order to form this mutualistic relationship between tutors and tutee, tutors must be trained in how to interact with tutees; tutors may not be as effective without proper training. Likewise, an argument can be mounted for the benefits of grounding graduate student teaching assistants in the same principles. The study done by Janet Colvin also briefly investigated the relationship between the teaching assistant and tutor and found their relationship to be an important factor in educational outcome. Colvin concludes her study by stating that “instructors, tutors, and students all need to find a common ground about what it means to be, or use, a tutor in a particular classroom […] Findings demonstrate that students, instructors, and tutors respond to peer tutoring according to previous experiences and expectations” (“Peer Tutoring” 178). Her results show that the level of preparedness and priming on the part of all parties in the classroom all affect the efficacy of a classroom tutor. In summary both peer-education and teacher-to-student ratio are factors that have great potential to affect educational outcome. Although the studies on peer education provided a more conditional set of conclusions, the information and data still carry much utility for the purposes of this study. Phase 2. Interview I learned that the aim of the program is to not only promote the learning of the students enrolled in the general chemistry labs but also the learning assistants – teaching may be one of the best ways to learn, according to Dr. van Koppen. The crutch of the Learning Assistant Program is the peer education as well as the increased instructor-to-student ratio. Because the learning assistants have successfully completed the same laboratory protocols within their last three years, at most, learning assistants are well equipped to guide first-year students in their learning. Also, according to the student feedback shared by Dr. van Koppen, students often feel more comfortable making mistakes and troubleshooting their thinking and problem solving processes in front of a learning assistant as opposed to the graduate student teaching assistant. Also emphasized were the factors of academic challenge and rigor as the main determinants of student success. Learning assistants are trained to ask probing analytical thinking questions that are meant to promote learning, rather than simply give answers and explanations. She asserted that teaching by way of questioning is not only effective but also addresses the deficiencies inherent in a class with a smaller teacher-to-student ratio. This is what allows the learning assistant program to succeed in its current state. Phase 3. Analysis of Interview and Literature Review While the Learning Assistant Program does incorporate a significant amount of the positive factors evidenced in the scholarly articles, it could also use improvement in these same areas as well at others. In the realm of teacher-to-student ratio, the Learning Assistant Program adds to the classroom environment because of not only their presence but also the skillset that learning assistants bring to the classroom. While class size research offers strong evidence that lowering student/teacher ratios is linked to higher achievement, there are other factors in effect (Mitchell et al., 23). As Dr. van Koppen emphasized, learning assistants are not trained to give explanations and provide didactic education, but rather, to to ask probing analytical thinking questions to promote learning. This combination of training and lowering of student/teacher ratio likely plays a key role in the efficacy of the Learning Assistant Program. There are, however, several deficiencies inherent at the current stage of the Learning Assistant Program that could be improved upon.
For example, not every laboratory section has a learning assistant currently, which may call for greater or more novel outreach efforts. Also, based on my interview with Dr. van Koppen, teaching assistants undergo teaching assistant training but the session does not include any priming on how to interact with learning assistants. To reiterate, studies done by Colvin show that “instructors, tutors, and students all need to find a common ground about what it means to be, or use, a tutor in a particular classroom” (“Peer Tutoring” 178). Teaching assistant training could prove to be useful in improving the efficacy of the learning assistants in the laboratory and therefore the success of the program as a whole.
In conclusion, the Learning Assistant Program has already taken steps in the right direction, especially by training the learning assistants in a specific methodology of teaching students in the sciences. However, both positive and negative aspects of the program can be improved upon.
Conclusions In this section I present my conclusions on the overall efficacy of the Learning Assistant Program based on my research and the factors I investigated. Teacher-to-student ratio Based on information gathered from the review of literature, teacher/student ratio is an important metric when determining educational outcome. This could be due to students having more access to instructors, instructors using different teaching methods, or a variety of other possibilities that would need to be explored in further research. However, many authors in the field of education have found that “the evidence […] suggests class size influences the likelihood of getting good grades” (Kokkelenberg et al., 14). While this study does not vary the size of the laboratory class, it does vary the teacher/student ratio, which is a metric that is directly affected by lowing the class size. Therefore, the studies on class size were suitable for the purposes of this study. Figure 1 Peer-to-peer education From my research on peer education I learned that peer education isn’t automatically effective. According to Janet Colvin, “it is apparent that the use of peer tutors is not something that can be grafted onto a standard classroom configuration with automatic success—the system must be designed specifically with peer tutors in mind. It is a whole system of training and support concerning the socialization of students, teachers, and instructors in the interaction” ("Peer Tutoring” 165). Both learning assistants and teaching assistants must be trained and familiarized with the role and scope of practice that a tutor has in the classroom. Learning Assistant efficacy Dr. van Koppen attributed program success to both increased teacher/student ratio and increased academic challenge and rigor without increased risk of poor assessment. Learning assistants are trained to ask probing analytical thinking questions that are meant to promote learning, rather than simply give answers and explanations. Teaching in this manner is effectively addresses the deficiencies inherent in a class with a smaller teacher/student ratio. She also found that students often feel more comfortable making mistakes and troubleshooting their thinking processes in front of a learning assistant as opposed to the graduate student teaching assistant, who is grading all student assessments and lab reports.
2. Cooper, M. M., Cooperative Chemistry Laboratory Manual, McGraw-Hill: New York, NY, 2009, p. 60.
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