LEARNING ASSISTANT-STUDENT INTERACTION IN CALCULUS: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS.

Learning Assistants (LAs) are undergraduate peer-tutors who, having successfully passed a particular course, return to assist with teaching that course. Through their work across many STEM courses, LAs have been shown to have positive effects on several student outcomes, but little is known about why LAs' presence in classrooms is positively associated with these outcomes. This study provides a novel perspective on this issue by critically analyzing a portion of classroom dialog between an LA and a student in a Calculus I course. The language used by these interlocutors was analyzed with attention to the social and informational aspects of the dialog, examining both the relationship between the student and the LA, and the ways they frame mathematical content. These findings have implications for the future study of LAs' practice and bear relevance to the improvement of LA educational programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Conference Papers -- Psychology of Mathematics & Education of North America is the property of Psychology of Mathematics & Education of North America and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)