Enhancing learning? A comparison of teacher and teaching assistant interactions with pupils

Abstract

In many countries, teaching assistants are working in schools in increasing numbers. While they formerly supported teachers by completing low-level administrative tasks, they are increasingly playing a pedagogical role and working directly with pupils, particularly those with special educational needs. However, little is known about the quality of the support that teaching assistants provide to these pupils. This paper systematically examines differences in the types and quality of interactions teaching assistants have with pupils compared with the interactions of teachers in the same classrooms. Differences were found, particularly in relation to the development of pupil thinking, and examples of the differential interactions are provided in the paper. Recommendations are made related to the need to examine existing models of teaching effectiveness to take account of the role of teaching assistants in classrooms and the role of teachers managing teaching assistants.

Teaching Assistants in Inclusive Classrooms: A Systematic Analysis of the International Research

“…The most frequently used data collection strategies were interviews (n=35/57%), observations (n=22/36%), surveys (n=19/31%), standardized assessment (n=12/20%), artifacts (n=5/8%), audio recordings (n=4/7%), journal/diaries (n=2/3%), timelogs (n=1/2%), and case studies (n=1/2%), with 31 (51%) of the studies using multiple data collection strategies. Nine of the studies were based on larger data sets (Radford, Blatchford & Webster, 2011;Rubie-Davies, Blatchford, Webster, Koutsoubou, & Bassett, 2010;Rutherford, 2011;2012;Symes & Humphrey, 2011;2012;Webster & Blatchford, 2013;Webster, Blatchford, Bassett, Brown, Martin, & Russell, 2010) and one article reported on two studies (Vadasy, Sanders, & Peyton, 2006a). The number of participants in the studies ranged from 3 to 1867, with 49 (80%) studies composed of TAs, 31 (51%) studies composed of students, 29 (48%) studies composed of teachers (i.e., general education, mainstream, special education, and head teachers), 13 (21%) studies composed of administrators (i.e., school principals, line managers), and 7 (11%) studies composed of parents/carers.…”

Fostering learner independence through heuristic scaffolding: A valuable role for teaching assistants

“…Whilst TAs are ideally placed to provide optimum, contingent support for the learner, all too often, their interactions with pupils tend to focus on task completion rather than developing understanding (Rubie-Davies et al, 2010). TAs do not know how to make the best use of the extended, more frequent interactions they have with pupils and this could have longer-term implications for creating passive learners (Radford et al, 2011).…”

“…Forty-two recordings were made in 15 schools (8 primary, 7 secondary) of the teacher and the TA during the same lessons. 16 teacher-TA pairs were chosen for transcription and selected for further study (see Radford et al, 2011;Rubie-Davies et al, 2010). The selection was purposive in so far as there were two primary (year 5) and two secondary classes (year 8) but, otherwise, it was random.…”

Opening up and closing down: How teachers and TAs manage turn-taking, topic and repair in mathematics lessons

“…Using a coding frame drawn from Berliner's (1987) instructional model it was found that teachers engaged in significantly more explanations of concepts and feedback whereas TAs used more prompts and questions. Overall, it was concluded that TAs compared to teachers tended to be concerned with task completion, not learning, and tended to be reactive rather than proactive in interactions with pupils (Rubie-Davies, Blatchford, Webster, Koutsoubou, & Bassett, 2010).…”