Considering Contexts

What is the program size?

A single section of the LA pedagogy course is usually sufficient up to 25 LAs. Once the program is larger than this, it is usually necessary to make multiple session to accommodate the number of students and conflicting schedules.

Who will teach the pedagogy course?

Instructors should have familiarity with pedagogical knowledge and ideally pedagogical content knowledge. Possibilities for pedagogy course instructors include:

• Faculty in School of Education

• Discipline-Based Research Education (DBER) faculty within department(s)

• High School Teachers working as Teachers in Residence or Consultants

• Teaching teams (for instance a discipline-based faculty member and an education faculty member)

Several examples of pedagogy course curricula and activities are available in the Resource site. Instructors looking to create a modify the pedagogy course at their institution have access to activities that have successfully been used in LA development across the nation. However, instructors are free to create and implement lessons that are tailored to their contexts.

Will the course be for a single discipline or multidisciplinary?

Single discipline courses in large programs can be beneficial since they allow a deeper introduction to pedagogical content knowledge, common students mental models, and content specific bridging techniques. However, multidisciplinary courses can highlight how pedagogical techniques can be effective in a many contents and discipline areas. They can also help LAs forge connections outside of their discipline. By necessity, most small programs offer multidisciplinary pedagogy courses.

Will the course be offered face-to-face, online, or a hybrid?

While face-to-face courses allow for rich, synchronous discussion of teaching and learning, online and hybrid courses are increasingly popular and curricula has been modified to make these learning environments effective. Online and hybrid models have been particularly useful in contexts where multidisciplinary schedule conflicts preclude all LAs from meeting at the same time. While class activities are more difficult online, analysis of videos of LA/student interactions and discussion of the literature are still very effective.