Implementing the learning assistant model in European higher education

Abstract The learning assistant (LA) model is a widely used and researched model for institutional and course transformation towards research-based instructional strategies (RBIS). The LA model leverages learning assistants, pedagogically trained students, to facilitate student learning in active learning environments. However, although the LA model has shown significant results when implemented in university contexts in the United States, there has as yet been little documentation of similar implementation or results in European higher education. In this study, we present the results of a three-semester design-based research project to implement the LA Model in a Scandinavian physics department. The three core elements of the LA model (pedagogical training, course content meetings, and teaching in active learning environments) were implemented and iteratively refined, with necessary adjustments due to the specific institutional and cultural contexts documented. Throughout all three semesters, data was collected on how participation in the LA model affected LAs’ buy-in to RBIS using focus groups, pre/post surveys, and teaching observations. A thematic analysis of these data showed that participation in the LA model helped ensure LA buy-in to both the interactive engagement methods and goal of cultivating conceptual understanding that underlie most RBIS, and that the combination of teaching practice and pedagogical training seminars were key to this buy-in. We argue that these results demonstrate the potential usefulness of the LA model for creating institutional and cultural change in European higher education.