Learning Assistants (LAs) are undergraduate students who through the guidance of weekly preparation sessions and a pedagogy course, facilitate discussions among groups of students in a variety of classroom settings that encourage active engagement. The FIU LA Program is now the largest in the nation. The Learning Assistant (LA) Program was pioneered at FIU in the Physics Department through the FIU PhysTEC project. PhysTEC is a joint effort at improving teacher preparation that is facilitated by three of the most prominent national physics societies, the American Physical Society, American Institute of Physics, and American Association of Physics Teachers. Since then, the program has grown to be the largest LA program in the nation and has serviced 9 different departments across FIU. In Fall 2015, the Provost announced a university wide initiative and positioned the LA Program to play a vital role in the transformation of undergraduate STEM courses. In Spring 2017, about 330 LAs worked in 9 departments and impacted over 10,000 student enrollments. The LA Program originated at the University of Colorado in Boulder and the FIU LA Program is an active participant with the Learning Assistant Alliance.
- Focus: Undergraduate course reform / pre-service teacher preparation / faculty professional development / institutional change
- Contact: Hagit Kornreich Leshem (hkornrei@fiu.edu), STEM Transformation Institute
- Website: laprogram.fiu.edu