This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. EPS-1003907.
Department of Physics
West Virginia University
Morgantown, WV 26506-6315
Phone: (304) 293-4939
Fax: (304) 293-5732
Congratulations to our LAs for Fall 2014! Good Luck!
Learning Assistants (LA) Program—Overview
The Learning Assistant (LA) Program at West Virginia University uses talented undergraduate students to help promote active learning in our large-enrollment calculus-based general physics courses.
- Learning Assistants improve student learning. Universities who have implemented LA programs have published peer-reviewed studies demonstrating improvements in learning gains by students enrolled in LA-supported courses.
- Learning Assistants have early teaching experiences. While being a teacher is not a requirement for being a learning assistant, some learning assistants choose to pursue teaching as a result of their experience and thus choose a career in a high-need area.
- Learning Assistants are mentored and trained in both physics content and science education pedagogy. As LAs begin to take on the challenges of teaching groups of peers, they enroll in a pedagogy course and meet regularly with a physics faculty member so that the skills they develop are informed by current educational research.