Peter Blatchford

Rob Webster

Anthony Russell

Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants: Guidance for school leaders and teachers

"This highly relevant handbook addresses and discusses a key period of change to the educational landscape with regard to the increased use of support staff. By highlighting the central problems found in every day classrooms, the authors argue that it is not individual Teaching Assistants who are at fault, but systemic school and classroom factors within which Teaching Assistants operate and over which they have little or no control. Based on results from the authors' pioneering research project, the 'Deployment and Impact of Support Staff' (DISS) which for the first time ever, studied in detail the impact of Teaching Assistants on pupils and teachers, this handbook provides essential, practical information and tools to allow schools to conduct a fundamental review of current practice and provide a framework for reforming methods of support staff deployment. As a pressing need emerges for clear, well-informed guidance on effective ways of deploying and preparing Teaching Assistants and teachers, current methods are also re-evaluated in order for school managers to realise and unleash the huge potential of Teaching Assistants working in mainstream schools"--

Guidance for School Leaders and Teachers

Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants

Sonia Sharp

Breaktime in the school is a period when pupils learn social skills they will need in the world outside. But it can also be an occasion for aggression, harassment and bullying. Breaktime and the School gives an accessible account of the latest research into children's play and behaviour. The contributors show how an understanding of the area can inform practical action in designing an environment which encourages positive behaviour, in effective management and supervision, and in involving the children themselves in decision-making and conflict resolution. Staff in primary and secondary schools, school governors deciding on budget allocations, as well as local education authority advisers will find the book essential reading.

Understanding and Changing Playground Behaviour

Breaktime and the School

Teaching assistants are an integral part of classroom life, yet pioneering research by the authors has shown schools are not making the most of this valued resource. Evidence shows the more support pupils receive from TAs, the less academic progress they made. Yet the reason for this has little to do with TAs. It is decisions made about them by school leaders and teachers that best explain this provocative finding. The fully updated second edition of this book draws on the experiences of schools that have put this guidance into action via the Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants programme. Revised to reflect the latest research evidence and changes within education, including the 2014 SEND Code of Practice, this book will help school leaders and teachers in primary and secondary settings to rethink the role, purpose and contribution of TAs, and add real value to what can be achieved in classrooms. Setting out a field-tested process, structured around a coherent and empirically sound conceptual framework, this book: helps school leaders review, reform and reenergise their TA workforce provides practical strategies to implement in the classroom illustrates key points with new case studies provides photocopiable templates and resources to support decision-making and action. Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants provides much-needed and evidence-informed guidance on how to unleash the huge potential of TAs, and is essential reading for all school leaders.

Guidance for school leaders and teachers

Teaching assistants have become an integral part of classroom life, yet pioneering research by the authors has shown that school leaders and teachers are not making the most of this valued resource. Results from the Deployment and Impact of Support Staff (DISS) project showed that the more support pupils received from teaching assistants, the less academic progress they made. Yet it is not decisions made by the teaching assistants themselves, but decisions made by school leaders and teachers about how their support staff are used and prepared, which explains these provocative results. Prompted by the wake-up call the DISS project findings provided, this timely book of guidance will help school leaders and teachers in primary and secondary schools improve the way they use teaching assistants, and will add real value to what can be achieved in the classroom. Based on the authors’ collaborative work with schools in the Effective Deployment of Teaching Assistants (EDTA) project, this book provides essential, practical tools and classroom-tested strategies that will allow schools to conduct a fundamental review of current practice and provides a framework for reforming teaching assistant deployment and preparation, and the way they interact with pupils. Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants provides much-needed and well-informed guidance on how to unleash the huge potential of teaching assistants working in schools and is essential reading for all school leaders.

Peter Kutnick

Ed Baines

Promoting Effective Group Work in the Primary Classroom, 2nd ed. is designed to enhance teachers’ and teaching assistants’ confidence in engaging their children in effective group work, allowing for more active participation, more on-task focus and higher levels of achievement. This accessible second edition is packed full of valuable strategies for teachers and fun activities for children, offering guidance on how to create an inclusive and supportive classroom by developing the social, communicative and group working skills of all pupils. It has been thoroughly updated and includes new material on whole school approaches to group work, the risks and challenges involved, and how to involve Teaching Assistants and other support staff in undertaking inclusive and effective group work in classrooms. A tried-and-tested, step-by-step approach encourages both children and their teachers to develop supportive relationships that have been found to facilitate academic performance, positive social behaviour and motivation. Since the first edition the authors have found that this handbook can be used successfully in many different countries around the world. With ideas to help resolve problems that might arise and suggested training activities to support pupils, this text is a one-stop resource to ensure effective group work in the classroom. It is an essential guide for both trainee and practising teachers, as well as TAs and support staff, and a valuable basis for school action.

A handbook for teachers and practitioners

Promoting Effective Group Work in the Primary Classroom

Over the last decade, teaching assistants (TAs) have become an established part of everyday classroom life. TAs are often used by schools to help low-attaining pupils and those with special educational needs. Yet despite the huge rise in the number of TAs working in UK classrooms, very little is known about their impact on pupils. This key and timely text examines the impact of TAs on pupils’ learning and behaviour, and on teachers and teaching. The authors present the provocative findings from the ground-breaking and seminal Deployment and Impact of Support Staff (DISS) project. This was the largest, most in-depth study ever to be carried out in this field. It critically examined the effect of TA support on the academic progress of 8,200 pupils, made extensive observations of nearly 700 pupils and over 100 TAs, and collected data from over 17,800 questionnaire responses and interviews with over 470 school staff and pupils. This book reveals the extent to which the pupils in most need are let down by current classroom practice. The authors present a robust challenge to the current widespread practices concerning TA preparation, deployment and practice, structured around a conceptually and empirically strong explanatory framework. The authors go on to show how schools need to change if they are to realise the potential of TAs. With serious implications not just for classroom practice, but also whole-school, local authority and government policy, this will be an indispensable text for primary, secondary and special schools, senior management teams, those involved in teacher training and professional development, policy-makers and academics.

How research challenges practice and policy

Reassessing the Impact of Teaching Assistants

Anthony Russell 

The debate over whether class size matters for teaching and learning is one of the most enduring, and aggressive, in education research. Teachers often insist that small classes benefit their work. But many experts argue that evidence from research shows class size has little impact on pupil outcomes, so does not matter, and this dominant view has informed policymaking internationally. Here, the lead researchers on the world’s biggest study into class size effects present a counter-argument. Through detailed analysis of the complex relations involved in the classroom they reveal the mechanisms that support teachers’ experience, and conclude that class size matters very much indeed. Drawing on 20 years of systematic classroom observations, surveys of practitioners, detailed case studies and extensive reviews of research, Peter Blatchford and Anthony Russell contend that common ways of researching the impact of class size are limited and sometimes misguided. While class size may have no direct effect on pupil outcomes, it has, they say, significant force through interconnections with classroom processes. In describing these connections, the book opens up the everyday world of the classroom and shows that the influence of class size is everywhere. It impacts on teaching, grouping practices and classroom management, the quality of peer relations, tasks given to pupils, and on the time teachers have for marking, assessments and understanding the strengths and challenges for individual pupils. From their analysis, the authors develop a new social pedagogical model of how class size influences work, and identify policy conclusions and implications for teachers and schools.

Peter Blatchford

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