Developing an understanding of how LAs and faculty collaborate to promote effective learning

Collaborative relationships between faculty members and LAs can enhance the effectiveness of the LA model by leveraging the expertise of LAs and placing them in positions where they can co-think and co-design activities and lessons for the STEM classroom. Interviews with LAs and faculty members, in addition to video from weekly preparation sessions, illustrate the different types of partnerships that can evolve between LAs and faculty and help us understand the roles different factors play in these partnerships. We describe three types of partnerships that exist along a continuum: mentor-mentee, faculty driven collaboration, and collaborative. This data highlights the importance of student voice and weekly meetings between LAs and faculty members in an LA Program.