Large Classroom Setting
(Varies from minimal use in lecture setting to maximum use in fully-flipped classrooms)
Typical Learning Environment
In lecture settings that use personal response systems (“clickers”), Learning Assistants assist with facilitation of peer instruction. They circulate around the class (as does the instructor), making sure all students are engaged in discussion, promoting useful dialogue, answering student questions, and providing feedback to the instructor on student understanding.
What Do Students Do?
After the instructors pose a question, students either respond on their own, or discuss with neighboring students before responding. Typical discussions for challenging conceptual questions last 2-3 minutes.
What do LAs Do?
LAs circulate among groups of students, asking them to share their reasoning and probing their responses. Their role is not to confirm answers but to help students articulate their ideas and justify their reasoning to themselves and other students.
Materials Needed
Challenging conceptual questions; 4-5 per 50-minute class session
There are many ways to encourage peer response from holding up notecards to clickers.
For a guide on how to effectively use clickers, go to: http://www.cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/clickers.htm
The Numbers
LA to Student Ratio
1 LA to 40 - 50 students for minimal LA use; 1 LA to 20 for flipped class
Hiring Needs
1 LA per 40 - 50 students in the course
Coordination with Other Course Components
Courses that use LAs in lecture often also have either required or optional recitation-like sessions that run throughout the week. In many cases, the same LAs who facilitate clicker discussion in lecture also facilitate small-group discussions in recitation.
Variations and Suggestions
Leave empty rows between every two rows of students for LAs and instructors to circulate among students.
Assign LAs to “regions” within the lecture hall so they can alter their placement among a smaller group of 50 students
Have students work in teams of 3-4 and choose a name for their “clicker group.” Instructors can then use group names to solicit feedback as in, “Would someone from the Quantum Dots group share what you selected and why?”