The Teaching Assistant's Guide to Effective Interaction

How to maximise your practice

Paula Bosanquet, Julie Radford, Rob Webster

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317517177
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The Teaching Assistant's Guide to Effective Interaction is the definitive guide to teaching assistant-pupil interaction and an invaluable professional development tool for classroom support staff and the teachers who work with them. The authors' research and development work with schools has highlighted the need for specific, practical guidance on the role of the teaching assistant.

This highly practical and accessible book sets out a role for teaching assistants that focuses on developing pupils' independence and ownership of learning. Based on a classroom-tested framework, and covering the main contexts in which teaching assistants work, it includes practical strategies and reflective activities to help you improve the support you provide to pupils in everyday settings. This book will help you to:

• Improve your interactions with pupils
• Understand the principles behind effective classroom talk
• Carefully scaffold pupils' learning
• Work effectively in collaboration with teachers
• Support the Assessment for Learning process
• Support group work and collaborative tasks
• Deliver intervention programmes.

This book is an essential read for all teaching assistants. It will also be of interest to school leaders, SENCos and teachers, in both primary and secondary schools, who wish to improve their use of teaching assistants and their own interactions with pupils.

Chapter 1

The teaching assistant as scaffolder

Introduction

In this first chapter, we would like you to complete a short self-evaluation on your current understanding of some of the key concepts covered in this book. We then give some context on the TA role and outline the particular teaching and learning role for TAs we have developed through our research, our work with schools and the training programmes we run. This makes clear what we think the roles and responsibilities of the TA and the teacher should be in relation to the pupils in their class – a point often overlooked both in theory and in practice. Finally, we introduce the scaffolding framework that structures the material in the rest of this book.

Self-evaluation

Before we continue, we would like you to audit your current level of understanding and skills in the areas that we cover in this book. This will help you to identify which parts of the book will be particularly helpful to you. It will also help you to track and record your learning and understanding of key concepts and issues. This will be useful not only as you work your way through the book, but when you reflect on your practice as part of your wider and on-going professional development.

In the table below, we have listed the learning outcomes this book is designed to meet. Use the key below to give yourself a score from 1 to 5 to describe your current understanding in each area and enter it in the ‘before’ column. This score is intended for your own use only, although you might choose to share it with your mentor or line manager when discussing the training and support that you need. It does not matter if your initial score is low.

Key to scoring:

1 - I do not understand this

2 - I am not very sure about this

3 - I have a fair idea of this

4 - I have a good understanding of this

5 - I fully understand this.

Your continuing professional development

After you have read this book and had the opportunity to put some of the ideas into practice, revisit the table and score yourself again in the ‘after’ column. The intention is that you will score higher than your initial score as a result of engaging with this book. Or it might be that your perception of certain areas on which you feel secure are challenged and your understanding is reshaped by what we have to say. The self-evaluation table is a simple way of recording your assessment of your learning.

Once you have completed both columns, use the CPD form in Appendix 1 to identify and plan a way forward for your on-going development. Using the form, you can first locate the general area in which you want to improve, which you can split into specific targets. This follows a process we will talk much about in this book, called setting process success criteria. You can enlist the support of other TAs and teachers in identifying areas for improvement and how your needs might be met (e.g. via training or in-school mentoring). You will find a worked example of the CPD form in Appendix 2 to help you.

Introducing the pedagogical teaching assistant role

This book is about TAs in pedagogical roles. We conceptualise the pedagogical role of the TA in a very specific way, which we outline here. Before we do, it is important to recognise and accept that the TA role is not the same as that of a teacher. This might be an obvious statement, but both the DISS and MAST projects found that schools can and do use TAs, and place demands on them, as if they were teachers. A key aim of the MITA approach described in the previous chapter is to encourage school leaders to ensure that the roles and responsibilities of teachers and TAs are clarified, clear, consistently applied and understood by all staff. Expectations and demands placed on TAs, especially in relation to learning outcomes, must also be properly calibrated.

This distinction between roles is important and recognised in the SEN Code of Practice (DfE/DoH, 2015). The Code makes it clear that the teacher is ‘responsible and accountable for the progress and development of the pupils in their class, including where pupils access support from teaching assistants or specialist staff’ (p. 99). It is the teacher’s responsibility to know the levels of development of all of their pupils, to assess their progress and to ensure that the curriculum is accessible to pupils with SEN and disabilities by appropriately differentiating tasks and putting in place an alternative where pupils’ needs demand (for example, a booster intervention programme). This work should be done with support from the special educational needs coordinator (SENCO) who is the school’s senior lead on matters relating to SEN and inclusion.

We can use the stipulations set out in the Code of Practice relating to teachers’ responsibilities to help us define the space in which we can identify a clear and consistent role for TAs. We argue that the TA role should be complementary to that of the teacher, with each being very clear about where their own and each other’s responsibilities lie. In this way, the TA role must be seen as making a distinct contribution to teaching and learning. This is why, throughout this book, we discuss the role of the teacher as well as the TA, in order to clarify what we consider to be the most effective role for each during episodes of teaching and learning.

As a result of the way that the TA role has developed in schools over the years, it is not unusual to find TAs who have taken on significant responsibility for the planning and assessment of pupils with SEN. However, we are clear that the TA role should not include planning for groups or individuals. It is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure that the curriculum is accessible to all pupils through appropriately differentiated tasks. However, we think that TAs should be encouraged to contribute to the assessment for learning cycle through recording information about how pupils work towards specific task outcomes, and offering their thoughts and observations (see Chapter 5). To be clear, TAs should not have overall responsibility for the assessment of, or planning for, the pupils they work with.

So what should the role of the TA be? Since TAs work with small groups and individuals, they are in the unique position of being able to constantly monitor the step-by-step progress pupils make towards achieving learning goals. From this vantage point, TAs can provide immediate feedback and give targeted support with parts of the task that pupils find difficult. This is called scaffolding and it is the key to ensuring that pupils become able to work more independently. Effective scaffolding ensures that pupils are fully engaged in the task, and that potential learning is maximised. It also ensures that, over time, pupils develop the capability to carry out tasks without support and have the confidence in themselves to attempt more challenging tasks.

In our most recent studies, we have set out a very clear role for the TA as the scaffolder of pupils’ learning (Radford, Bosanquet, Webster, Blatchford and Rubie-Davies, 2014; Radford, Bosanquet, Blatchford and Webster, 2015). We have found that, given a good understanding of scaffolding and its importance, TAs can be highly effective in many distinctive ways. Most of the children that TAs work with have a range of needs related to language, learning, self-esteem and the confidence to participate in the busy life of the classroom. As a result, they may not readily contribute to class or group discussions and often find it difficult to answer the teacher’s questions. Our work has shown that, because TAs know the children very well (and sit near them), they are in a prime position to support them emotionally, keep them motivated, boost their self-esteem and keep them on-task. This is what we call the support role of the TA and it is crucial for getting children ready to learn. When children make mistakes (which inevitably is common, regardless of their learning needs), TAs can provide the reassurance that this is a healthy part of learning and encourage them to think for themselves to work out what to do next. This is what we call the repair role of the TA. Finally, we have outlined a third scaffolding responsibility (called the heuristic role) that is associated with helping children to think about learning strategies. This is essential if the TA’s aim is to help children to become more autonomous and independent.

Teachers do not have the same opportunities as TAs to scaffold for all of the pupils in the class, as it is not possible to closely monitor and engage with large numbers of learners in the way that TAs do. So we argue that the TA has a clear role in providing scaffolded support during tasks and providing the teacher with accurate feedback on the extent and type of support needed for pupils to be able to complete tasks successfully. For teachers, this type of feedback is essential for ensuring that tasks for the next lesson are appropriately targeted and build on what pupils have learned and achieved.

The role we set out for TAs in this book seeks to capitalise on the greater availability for ‘quality talk time’ TAs have with pupils, compared with teachers. In our conceptualisation, the TA’s role is defined by the interactions they ought to have with learners. The specific types of interaction we cover are distinct, but complementary, to the types of interactions teachers have with pupils. We argue the guidance set out in this book could potentially transform TAs’ practice.

Transforming the role, purpose and contribution of TAs

We believe that it is high-time for a nationally joined-up picture in relation to the various roles and responsibilities of TAs, which is needed to provide a clear basis for job descriptions for both TAs and teachers. Schools need to address the wider issues of organisational change, and more needs to be done by local authorities, academy chains and school clusters, alliances and partnerships to provide professional development opportunities and to facilitate the sharing of good practice. There should also be an entitlement to on-going high-quality training for TAs, which is targeted to the needs of individuals and the specifics of their role. For TAs with a pedagogical role, this means opportunities to learn and practise specific scaffolding strategies.

We are of the view that improving the way TAs interact with pupils will help to create for them a new professional identity. The basis for this identity will come from evidence that their specific contribution to learning can be directly associated with improved pupil outcomes. A clear role and purpose underpinning TAs’ contributions will also raise their status and value in schools.

The aim of this book is to give TAs the tools to begin to improve their own practice as part of this vision. However, as we indicated earlier, action is required at all levels of the education system to fully transform the role, purpose and contribution of TAs. This is the focus of Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants (Webster, Russell and Blatchford, 2016), which is designed to maximise the overall effectiveness and sustainability of the practices we discuss in this book, by improving the ways in which school leaders and teachers use TAs.

Of course, change on this scale will take time, but this does not mean TAs have to wait until these conditions are met to receive training. We want TAs to do what professionals do, and take control of developing their own practice. Improving the interactions you have with pupils on a moment-by-moment basis is something of which you can take ownership and that will make a noticeable difference to the learning of pupils you work with.

A framework for scaffolding learning

So, as a TA, how do you improve the interactions you have with pupils through scaffolding? We will discuss scaffolding in detail in Chapter 3, but here we provide a brief overview. Scaffolding is a quite ubiquitous phrase in schools, but the practice it is used to describe is often some distance from the very specific set of skills we have in mind. For us, scaffolding involves:

• recognising a task as a series of smaller learning goals;

• carefully observing the progress of the pupils as they complete each part of a task;

• only intervening if the pupil has not been able to overcome a difficulty independently (giving them time to try by themselves first);

• giving specific help or feedback when a pupil needs help with a part of a task;

• providing the minimal amount of help needed to achieve.

Throughout the scaffolding process, the focus should be on encouraging the pupil to think of strategies they can use to solve the problem for themselves. To put it into a sentence, your role is to help pupils to know what to do when they do not know what to do. This is more difficult than it sounds!

It is easy to be drawn into providing more help than is needed, particularly if you feel under pressure for pupils to complete the work or if you are concerned that the pupil is held back by, or is becoming upset with, being unable to do part of the task. Sometimes TAs ‘over support’ (e.g. providing more help than is really needed) as a strategy to contain the behaviour of a pupil who is frustrated at being unable to access the learning, because their reactions may affect others in the class.

However, scaffolding is the key to providing a quality learning experience. When carried out correctly, scaffolding leads to:

• Greater independence: pupils are able to plan the next steps, problem-solve and review what they have done. They are able to do these things because the TA has helped them to develop these skills over time.

• The ability to cope with learning challenges and setbacks: often referred to as ‘resilience’, pupils are more able to persist with a learning challenge by drawing on a range of problem-solving strategies. The safety net of support remains accessible when these strategies fail.

• Developing a relationship with failure: TAs often support vulnerable pupils who have an ingrained fear of failure. They are reluctant to attempt something for fear of getting it wrong, so reinforcing a perception of...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• The Teaching Assistant’s Guide to Effective Interaction
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Introduction: Teaching Assistants and their Roles in School
• 1 The Teaching Assistant as Scaffolder
• 2 The Value of Planning the Right Task and Pupils Taking an Active Role in Interactions
• 3 The Principles of Scaffolding
• 4 Scaffolding Strategies
• 5 Assessment for Learning: Providing Valuable Feedback for Teachers and Pupils
• 6 Promoting Effective Group Work
• 7 Delivering Intervention Programmes
• Conclusion
• Appendices
• Index