Challenging and changing how schools use teaching assistants: findings from the Effective Deployment of Teaching Assistants project

Abstract

Following research on the negative impact of support from teaching assistants (TAs) on pupils' academic progress, there was a clear need for schools to fundamentally reassess the way they use TAs. This article reports on findings from a collaborative project aimed at developing and evaluating alternative strategies to using TAs. Practitioner-led development trials were structured using a coherent and empirically sound model. Over the year of the intervention, schools made marked improvements to the ways TAs were deployed in classrooms, prepared for lessons and interacted with pupils. The study led to much-needed guidance on how to review current practice and make substantive changes to TA use, as part of wider school improvement.

Keywords:

• teaching assistants
• school improvement
• classroom organisation
• special educational needs
• collaborative research

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the staff of the participating schools for their engagement and support, and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, who funded the EDTA project. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the funders.

Notes

1. In line with common usage, we use the term ‘teaching assistant’ to cover equivalent classroom-based paraprofessional roles, such as learning support assistant, special needs assistant and classroom assistant. This definition also includes higher level teaching assistants.

2. Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants: Guidance for School Leaders and Teachers by Russell, Webster, and Blatchford will be published by Routledge in February 2013.