The Most Comprehensive Research Article about the LA Model
This article is my go-to resource when colleagues ask about the research supporting LA programs—it provides a thorough summary of the model’s impacts on students, LAs, and teacher preparation, offers practical recommendations for new programs, and highlights important areas for future research. It's an essential read for anyone implementing or expanding an LA program.
Initially, the implementation of the LA model was developed with four goals in mind (Otero, 2015; Otero, Pollock, & Finkelstein, 2010): (1) transforming undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) curriculum, (2) recruiting and preparing future STEM teachers, (3) engaging faculty in discipline-based educational research literature, and (4) changing departmental and institutional culture to value evidence-base teaching.
The model was developed and first implemented at the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder campus in 2001 when Drs. Valerie Otero and Dick McCray introduced LAs in the Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences department. Since then, the program has expanded throughout CU Boulder, and other programs have been introduced at institutions around the world (Otero, 2015; Otero, Finkelstein, McCray, & Pollock, 2006). In 2009, an International Learning Assistant Alliance was established, and as of August 10, 2020, it has 2228 members from 456 institutions, 97 of which report having an LA program (Learning Assistant Alliance, 2020). The growth of these programs has stimulated interest in the model as a topic for study, and the founders of the model were recently recognized by the American Physical Society for excellence in physics education (American Physical Society, 2020).
[...]
This review was guided by the goals of the LA model described by Otero et al. (2010) and Otero (2015). We thus ask the question “Does implementation of the LA model improve undergraduate courses and curricula, facilitate teacher recruitment and preparation, encourage faculty to study discipline-based education research, and promote departmental and institutional change?”