Characterizing the feedback that learning assistants give to faculty

Abstract

Learning assistants are undergraduate peer educators that help facilitate learning in a university classroom environment. Jardine (2019) found that learning assistant feedback to faculty roughly fell into three categories: course logistics, student behavior, and student understanding. We built from this previous work by further characterizing the feedback given to faculty by learning assistants and found the following categories: student experience, classroom content, classroom structure, accessibility, empathy, and broad feedback. Using interview data with learning assistants and faculty working with learning assistants, we created a preliminary framework for the types of feedback and examples by learning assistants. This framework may be useful for both learning assistants and faculty members as they provide and elicit feedback.