Presentation description

Inclusive teaching practices have been examined by researchers in hopes of discovering a way to support students from a wide range of backgrounds. Peer mentoring can overcome traditional student instructor interactions by making students feel welcome and involved. The Learning Assistant(LA) Model, developed by the University of Colorado Boulder in the early 2000's provides students with peer assistance in ways that diversifies instructions and reveals support systems. Previous studies have been aimed at examining how students observe inclusivity in a classroom environment. This study evaluates how LAs perceive inclusivity whilst mentoring students. Surveys were administered to 79 STEM LAs in the Spring and Fall semesters of 2021 for introductory biology, chemistry, physics, and math courses at the University of Utah. The surveys consisted of four open-ended questions in which LAs were instructed to respond based on their unique perspectives as LAs and former undergraduate STEM students. Inductive qualitative content analysis (IQCA) was used to code the responses of LAs and differentiate them by common themes. The IQCA has three phases; initial code development and refinement, obtaining feedback from professional communities, and further refinement and final coding by undergraduate researchers. These three phases were used to analyze four prompts in the following order: 1 (what is an inclusive classroom), 2 (how can instructors promote inclusivity), 3 (how can LAs promote inclusivity), and 4 (how can students promote inclusivity). The IQCA of these surveys led to the emergence of defining themes that LAs felt that the following themes were the most influential: Course Structure, Classroom Environment, Academic Assistance, and Academic Responsibility. These themes were constructed based upon the survey responses of the participants, and reflect the suggestions LAs provided for instructors, LAs, and students. These findings are aimed at providing instructional/educational institutions with a roadmap for the most effective practices leading to inclusive learning.