How Engineering Learning Assistants Learn to Support Student Learning: The Pedagogy Seminar as a Community of Practice

Abstract

Background: As they work to shift to student-centered instructional approaches, an increasing number of undergraduate engineering programs have adopted the Learning Assistant model, originally developed by the physics education community and now widespread across disciplines. Learning Assistants (LAs) are near-peer instructional assistants focused on facilitating student interaction, sensemaking, and belonging during class and lab sessions. While empirical research has shown that courses with LAs have higher student outcomes than those without, little is known within the engineering education community about the mechanisms behind these outcomes, including mechanisms through which LAs engage in pedagogical learning. Purpose: In this study, we use a communities of practice framework to investigate how engineering LAs come to develop their pedagogical competencies. Specifically, we characterize the mechanisms through which LAs’ pedagogical learning occurs in the weekly pedagogy seminar, a key component of the LA model. Method: This interpretive case study focuses on a multi-year group of LAs (n = 18) supporting a range of mechanical engineering courses. Data sources semi-structured interviews with LAs and field notes from the mechanical engineering department’s LA pedagogy seminar. Results: We identified eleven mechanisms of LA pedagogical learning and depicted these on a data-based concept map of the LA community of practice. The engineering LAs jointly constructed pedagogical knowledge by engaging in collective and mutually supportive reflection on their classroom experiences as LAs. Experienced LAs made important contributions by transmitting program culture, normalizing the challenges of supporting students in engineering courses, and offering existing knowledge for troubleshooting challenges. Conclusions: This study expands the research base on transforming undergraduate engineering courses toward student-centered instruction. It suggests that near-peer instructional assistants develop pedagogical competencies through repeated collective reflection in a supportive cohort of both novice and experienced fellow assistants.