Kara E. Gray

Analysis of Former Learning Assistants’ Views on Cooperative Learning

The University of Colorado Learning Assistant (LA) program integrates a weekly education seminar, meetings with science faculty to review content, and a semester‐long teaching experience that hires undergraduates to work with groups of students in university science courses. Following this three‐pronged learning experience, some of the LAs continue into the teacher certification program. While previous research has shown that this model has more than doubled the number of science and math majors graduating with a teaching certification, the question remains whether these teachers are better prepared to teach. The analysis presented here addresses this question by comparing the views of former LAs to the views of comparable teachers on the issue of cooperative learning. Interviews were conducted with ten middle school and high school science teachers throughout their first year of teaching. Results suggest differences in former LAs views toward group work and their purposes for using group work.

Learning to Think Like Scientists with the PET Curriculum

Instructional techniques based on research in cognitive science and physics education have been used in physics courses to enhance student learning. While dramatic increases in conceptual understanding have been observed, students enrolled in these courses tend to shift away from scientist‐like views of the discipline (and views of learning within the discipline) and toward novice‐like views. Shifts toward scientist‐like views are found when course materials and instruction explicitly address epistemology, the nature of science, and the nature of learning. The Physics and Everyday Thinking (PET) curriculum has specific goals for helping non‐science majors explicitly reflect on the nature of science and the nature of science learning. We show that in PET courses with small and large enrollments, shifts toward scientist‐like thinking ranged from +4% to +16.5% on the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey. These results are compared to results from other studies using a variety of similar assessmen...

Analysis of Learning Assistants’ Views of Teaching and Learning

For several years the University of Colorado has been using undergraduate Learning Assistants (LAs) in their introductory science and math courses. While the LAs have teaching duties very similar to graduate Teaching Assistants (TAs), first year LAs are also required to take an education course focused on teaching methods. The purpose of this course is to first help LAs improve their teaching in the university classrooms and to encourage some of the LAs to consider careers as K‐12 science teachers. Throughout the semester LAs are asked to reflect on their learning about teaching and on the applications of these concepts to their current teaching experience. This paper will present an analysis of this learning experience from the perspective of the LAs. The paper will also present how LAs evolve as teachers and as learners throughout this experience.

Are Learning Assistants Better K‐12 Science Teachers?

This study investigates how the undergraduate Learning Assistant (LA) experience affects teachers’ first year of teaching. The LA Program provides interested science majors with the opportunity to explore teaching through weekly teaching responsibilities, an introduction to physics education research, and a learning community within the university. Some of these LAs are recruited to secondary science teacher certification programs. We hypothesized that the LA experience would enhance the teaching practices of the LAs who ultimately become teachers. To test this hypothesis, LAs were compared to a matched sample of teachers who completed the same teacher certification program as the LAs but did not have the LA “treatment.” LAs and “non‐LAs” were compared through interviews, classroom observations, artifact packages, and observations made with Reformed Teacher Observation Protocol (RTOP) collected within the first year of teaching. Some differences were found; these findings and their implications are discussed.

Drawing energy: Evidence of Next Generation Science Standards for energy in diagrams

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) promote a model of energy that includes the ideas that energy is conserved, that energy can be tracked as a flow through a system, that energy transfer occurs through a variety of mechanisms, and other ideas. The NGSS also promotes the practice of developing and using representations of scientific concepts such as energy. We articulate the NGSS model of mechanical energy and translate it into a rubric for assessing energy diagrams. We assess the alignment of both professional and learner energy diagrams with the NGSS, and assess a class’s increased facility with NGSS-aligned energy diagrams. The purpose of this research is to develop a tool for assessing students’ ideas about energy and the effectiveness of energy instruction.