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Work In Progress: Intersections between mentoring attributes and outcomes among Learning Assistants

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Conference

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Publication Date

August 23, 2022

Start Date

June 26, 2022

End Date

June 29, 2022

Conference Session

ERM: Mentoring for Everyone! And Let's talk about Graduate Students

Page Count

8

DOI

10.18260/1-2--40711

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/40711

Download Count

308

Paper Authors

biography

Angela Bielefeldt University of Colorado Boulder

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Angela Bielefeldt, Ph.D., P.E., is a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU) in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering (CEAE). She is also the Director for the Engineering Plus program, which is in the process of being renamed to Integrated Design Engineering. Bielefeldt also serves as the co-director for the Engineering Education and AI-Augmented Learning Integrated Research Theme (IRT) at CU. She has been a faculty member at CU since 1996, serving in various roles including Faculty Director of the Sustainable By Design Residential Academic Program (2014-2017), Director of the Environmental Engineering program (2006-2010), and ABET Assessment Coordinator for the CEAE Department (2008-2018). Bielefeldt is active in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), serving on the Civil Engineering Program Criteria Task Committee (2019-2022) and the Body of Knowledge 3 Task Committee (2016-2018). She is the Senior Editor for the International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering (IJSLE) and a Deputy Editor for the ASCE Journal of Civil Engineering Education. Her research focuses on engineering education, including ethics, social responsibility, sustainable engineering, and community engagement. Bielefeldt is also a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education.

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biography

Sabina Schill University of Colorado Boulder

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Dr. Sabina Schill is a postdoctoral scholar at Florida International University working with Dr. Bruk Berhane on Engineering For US All (e4usa), a high school curriculum that aims to democratize engineering. Sabina received her BS in Physics from Westminster College in Salt Lake City, UT, and her PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder. Sabina has research interests in the areas of K-12 engineering education, mentoring, and identity development.

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Haley Passov

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Abstract

Learning Assistants (LAs) are undergraduate students that serve as course assistants in STEM courses to facilitate the learning of their near-peers. This paper explored the perspectives of LAs at four institutions with respect to mentoring and their personal outcomes. Interviews with program coordinators revealed different goals and implementation of the LA programs at each institution. Survey responses from the LAs revealed differences by school in the percentage who felt that they had been mentored as well as how the LA’s perceived that they had mentored others. The most common outcomes from serving as an LA were teaching skills, communication skills, confidence, and satisfaction from giving back. Statistically significant correlations were found between some mentoring attributes and outcomes, such as perceiving that their mentoring included listening was correlated with the outcomes of satisfaction from giving back (phi 0.323) and communication skills (phi 0.134). The results may be impacted by COVID-related online instruction. This preliminary study is laying the groundwork for a larger study to examine the ties between different LA program characteristics and the outcomes for LAs.

Bielefeldt, A., & Schill, S., & Passov, H. (2022, August), Work In Progress: Intersections between mentoring attributes and outcomes among Learning Assistants Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40711

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