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

Abstract

Teaching assistants currently play a key pedagogical role in supporting learners with special educational needs. Their practice is primarily oral, involving verbal differentiation of teacher talk or printed materials. In order to help students think for themselves, this paper argues that their practice should be informed by heuristic scaffolding. A substantial dataset from three teaching assistant projects was scrutinised for examples of heuristics. Using conversation analysis, the paper shows how assistance is negotiated and adjusted over a sequence of discourse. Four patterns of heuristic scaffolding are shown: heuristic modelling represents the highest level of support; heuristic questioning and prompting are jointly negotiated with the student. Self-scaffolding by students shows them taking responsibility for their own learning strategies. Implications for the school system are explored.

Teaching assistant and pupil interactions: The role of repair and topic management in scaffolding learning

“…This suggests caution against the use of TAs as the default provision for pupils with SEND. A strong case has been made by research that TAs who have a classroom support role need to understand scaffolding as a concept (Radford, Bosanquet, Blatchford, & Webster, ; Radford, Bosanquet, Webster, Blatchford, & Rubie‐Davies, ), which this research supports. This might be provided at a school, school cluster, or local authority level to TAs and those who manage their work.…”

Scaffolding learning for independence: Clarifying teacher and teaching assistant roles for children with special educational needs

“…The purpose is to empower students by encouraging them to develop their own approaches to problem-solving (Holton & Clarke, 2006). The ultimate aim of heuristic scaffolding is internalisation which is manifest when pupils are able to 'self-scaffold' (Radford et al, 2014).…”

“…There is evidence, through a purposive 'listening to the teacher' method, that TAs can build and use a repertoire of heuristic scaffolding questions in mathematics lessons (Radford et al, 2014). Webster et al (2013a) demonstrate how informal training and on-going support from teachers are essential components of enabling TAs' to develop their questioning skills.…”

Diagnostic CALL tool for Arabic learners

“…Scaffolding features have been applied widely in general education, such as direction maintenance, marking of critical features, demonstration (Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1976), step-by-step directions, sortation of information (McKenzie, 2000), alignment, experiential value, collaboration, multiplicity (McLoughlin, 2002), channeling and focusing, modeling (Pea, 2004), occurrences in a collaborative context (Tuckman, 2007), and heuristic modelling (Radford, Bosanquet, Webster, Blatchford, & Rubie-Davies, 2014). With a view to pinpointing features which facilitate developing instructional interaction, this paper highlights the features of continuity (see McKenzie, 2000;McLoughlin, 2002), contextual support (see McLoughlin, 2002), collaboration (see McLoughlin, 2002;Tuckman, 2007), modeling (see Wood et al, 1976;Pea, 2004), channeling and focusing (see Pea, 2004), and multiplicity (see McLoughlin, 2002).…”