Benefits

The LA Program benefits everyone in the classroom: faculty, graduate student teaching fellows, undergraduates, and the LAs themselves.

Faculty and teaching fellows often intimidate undergraduate students, especially in introductory courses, where students are still learning the ropes and might be afraid to ask questions to people grading their abilities. LAs can act as an intermediate authority in the classroom; students are often more comfortable approaching a peer than a faculty member. LAs can also act as resources for teaching fellows, who may not be familiar with the particulars of undergraduate life at Boston University.

LAs discuss what it’s like to work with teaching fellows

Because LAs assist in courses that they’ve already taken, they are familiar with the challenges of the course and can more adequately address student questions and concerns. They are invaluable resources, especially with regards to learning how to study and can provide anecdotal advice about upper level courses.

LAs themselves benefit greatly from the program. Our philosophy, “Learn to teach; teach to learn” exemplifies the primary benefit of the program to our LAs: through learning how to teach, LAs become better learners. This benefit goes beyond simply understanding material well enough to teach it to others; by understanding how learning works, and why certain methods of teaching are more effective than others. LAs can apply their new learning skills to the courses they’re taking to finish their undergraduate degrees, to standardized testing for graduate and professional schools (e.g. GRE, MCAT, LSAT), and to the coursework for those degree programs.

Finally, the teaching skills that LAs master will help them in any future careers, especially if they choose to work in education. But even students who pursue careers in other fields will use their teaching skills regularly, since the ability to convey information in an engaging and effective way is crucial in any career, especially medicine and research.