Maximizing the impact of LAs

This project, funded by an NSF IUSE (Improving Undergraduate Science Education) grant, builds on our prior work showing that the incorporation of LAs into introductory science courses increases students' sense of belonging in the class and in STEM more broadly.  Co-PI Heather Johnson, co-PI Cristina Zepeda, collaborating faculty member Thomas Clements and I are asking several related questions:

1) Does the incorporation of LAs have different impacts on belonging, science self-efficacy, and science identity in well-served and underserved student populations (specifically, women, students in racially and ethnically marginalized groups, and first-generation students)?

2) How do LAs, or the classroom characteristics that they make possible, benefit students from underserved populations? 

3) What modifications to our LA program would systematically enhance those mechanisms? 

To answer question 3, we'll be working closely with Vanderbilt's new director of the LA program, Sabriya Rosemond, as well as the team who teaches the LA pedagogy seminar (Jess Watkins, Amy Palmeri, Taylor McNeill, plus Heather and me) and the LA instructor learning community (led by Thomas Clements and Amy Palmeri in 2023-2024). 

The project is kicking off in Fall 2023. We'll be looking for a graduate student and to work with us in Spring 2024, as well as two undergraduates to collaborate in Spring and Summer 2024. If you are interested, email cynthia.brame@vanderbilt.edu! We'd love to talk to you. And if you'd like to learn more about Vanderbilt's (relatively new) LA program, see our website.