The Teaching Assistant’s Guide to Effective Interaction

Bosanquet, Paula; Radford, Julie; Webster, Rob

doi:10.4324/9781003020639

“…Yet the consequences of over-relying on TAs to carry inclusion are clearly evident in the findings from both the present study and the DISS project. Elsewhere, colleagues and I have written extensively on what schools can do to repurpose the everyday opportunities TAs have for extended interaction with pupils (Bosanquet et al, 2021;Webster et al, 2016. To summarise, instead of replacing the teacher in an instructional capacity, TAs should be recast as scaffolding experts, supporting pupils to engage in learning and develop the skills to manage their own learning independently.…”

Section: Broadening the Palette Of Provisions And Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Inclusion Illusion. How children with special educational needs experience mainstream schools

Webster,

Echeita,

Weiss

et al. 2023

European Journal of Special Needs Education

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The Inclusion Illusion'This timely book presents clear challenges to the limits placed on progress for children with SEND in mainstream schools. It stands alongside calls, back to Warnock's vision of every teacher being a teacher of SEN, for an end to "exclusion within inclusion". It urges us to develop all staff to fulfil their roles with pupils with SEND. Acknowledging the value of TAs, it urges schools to ensure children who most need a teacher, get the teacher. Based on rigorous research, it rightly calls for bravery. For honesty. For action.' Professor Maggie Atkinson, safeguarding consultant, adviser and leader, and Children's Commissioner for England (2009-15) 'This is an important and valuable book which . . . has the potential to improve the educational experiences of pupils with significant learning and related difficulties. It combines an insightful account of the many issues and difficulties surrounding inclusion with a rigorous analysis of the outcomes and implications of large-scale empirical work.' Professor Paul Croll, University of Reading 'I love this book! It tackles the structural challenges of inclusion head on and sets out what must change to create a fairer future for children with SEND. This is essential reading for all evidence-led school leaders, teachers and policymakers who believe in better.' Margaret Mulholland, SEND and inclusion policy specialist, Association of School and College Leaders'Rob Webster has deepened our understanding of how mainstream schools fail to address the needs of children with SEND. Distilling the crucial insights from years of work, he has thrown down a challenge to policymakers that for many children with SEND, simply having a mainstream placement is not the same as inclusion. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in what needs to change to ensure better futures for children with SEND in mainstream schools.' Brian Lamb OBE, Visiting Professor of Special Educational Needs and Disability, Derby University 'This book brilliantly demonstrates the kind of education children with special educational needs in mainstream classrooms, with the legal entitlement to an Education, Health and Care Plan, actually experience. Despite talk of inclusion, the classroom settings and organisation ensure that the children are excluded and marginalised from actual mainstream teaching. The over-use of teaching assistants, however well intentioned, is no substitute for the attention of qualified teachers. There is a separation in mainstream classes that ensures that inclusion is indeed an illusion. The book should be read by all teachers, parents and policymakers who care about the education of all children, not just those who are regarded as "typical" or non-problematic.'

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“…Yet the consequences of over-relying on TAs to carry inclusion are clearly evident in the findings from both the present study and the DISS project. Elsewhere, colleagues and I have written extensively on what schools can do to repurpose the everyday opportunities TAs have for extended interaction with pupils (Bosanquet et al, 2021;Webster et al, 2016. To summarise, instead of replacing the teacher in an instructional capacity, TAs should be recast as scaffolding experts, supporting pupils to engage in learning and develop the skills to manage their own learning independently.…”

Section: Broadening the Palette Of Provisions And Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Inclusion Illusion: How children with special educational needs experience mainstream schools

Webster¹

2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Inclusion Illusion'This timely book presents clear challenges to the limits placed on progress for children with SEND in mainstream schools. It stands alongside calls, back to Warnock's vision of every teacher being a teacher of SEN, for an end to "exclusion within inclusion". It urges us to develop all staff to fulfil their roles with pupils with SEND. Acknowledging the value of TAs, it urges schools to ensure children who most need a teacher, get the teacher. Based on rigorous research, it rightly calls for bravery. For honesty. For action.' Professor Maggie Atkinson, safeguarding consultant, adviser and leader, and Children's Commissioner for England (2009-15) 'This is an important and valuable book which . . . has the potential to improve the educational experiences of pupils with significant learning and related difficulties. It combines an insightful account of the many issues and difficulties surrounding inclusion with a rigorous analysis of the outcomes and implications of large-scale empirical work.' Professor Paul Croll, University of Reading 'I love this book! It tackles the structural challenges of inclusion head on and sets out what must change to create a fairer future for children with SEND. This is essential reading for all evidence-led school leaders, teachers and policymakers who believe in better.' Margaret Mulholland, SEND and inclusion policy specialist, Association of School and College Leaders'Rob Webster has deepened our understanding of how mainstream schools fail to address the needs of children with SEND. Distilling the crucial insights from years of work, he has thrown down a challenge to policymakers that for many children with SEND, simply having a mainstream placement is not the same as inclusion. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in what needs to change to ensure better futures for children with SEND in mainstream schools.' Brian Lamb OBE, Visiting Professor of Special Educational Needs and Disability, Derby University 'This book brilliantly demonstrates the kind of education children with special educational needs in mainstream classrooms, with the legal entitlement to an Education, Health and Care Plan, actually experience. Despite talk of inclusion, the classroom settings and organisation ensure that the children are excluded and marginalised from actual mainstream teaching. The over-use of teaching assistants, however well intentioned, is no substitute for the attention of qualified teachers. There is a separation in mainstream classes that ensures that inclusion is indeed an illusion. The book should be read by all teachers, parents and policymakers who care about the education of all children, not just those who are regarded as "typical" or non-problematic.'

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“…(Bosanquet et al, 2016):PRINTED FROM the OXFORD RESEARCH ENCYCLOPEDIA, EDUCATION (oxfordre.com/education). (c) Oxford University Press USA, 2020.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Preparing Teaching Assistants for Including All Learners

Webster¹,

Bosanquet²,

Blatchford³

2020

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education

Self Cite

0

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The early 21st century has seen a considerable increase in both the number and presence of teaching assistants (TAs) and learning support staff in classrooms. In the United Kingdom and elsewhere, TAs have assumed responsibility for teaching lower-attaining pupils and especially those with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND). This drift has occurred in a largely uncritical way and has attracted little attention because of the attendant benefits additional adult support has for teachers. However, evidence from research in the United Kingdom and the United States have revealed troubling and unintended consequences of this arrangement in terms of impeding pupil progress and increasing the likelihood of pupils’ dependency on adult support. Of particular concern are research findings that show how a high amount of support from TAs for pupils with high-level SEND leads to a qualitatively different experience of schooling compared to pupils without SEND, particularly in terms of having fewer interactions with teachers and peers. Heavy reliance on the employment and deployment of TAs to facilitate the inclusion of pupils with often complex learning difficulties in mainstream settings can be seen as a proxy for long-standing and unresolved questions about how teachers are prepared and trained to meet the learning needs of those with SEND and the priority school leaders give to SEND. Future efforts to meaningfully educate pupils with SEND in mainstream schools must attend to teachers’ confidence and competence in respect of this aim. In addition, extensive and collaborative work with schools in the United Kingdom is offering a more hopeful model of how TAs can supplement this endeavor. Improving how teachers deploy TAs and how TAs interact with pupils, together with addressing persistent problems relating to the way TAs are trained and prepared for their roles in classrooms, schools can unlock the potential of the TA workforce as part of a wider, more inclusive approach for disadvantaged pupils.

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The Teaching Assistant’s Guide to Effective Interaction

Cited by 5 publications

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The Inclusion Illusion. How children with special educational needs experience mainstream schools

The Inclusion Illusion. How children with special educational needs experience mainstream schools

The Inclusion Illusion: How children with special educational needs experience mainstream schools

Preparing Teaching Assistants for Including All Learners

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