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Teaching assistant in playground
A recent report from the Education Endowment Fund looked at the evidence around how schools can make the best use of teaching assistants. Photograph: Alamy
A recent report from the Education Endowment Fund looked at the evidence around how schools can make the best use of teaching assistants. Photograph: Alamy

How teaching assistants can make a real difference in the classroom

This article is more than 9 years old

There’s no shortage of research into TAs’ impact on students. But what bits should schools act on? A group of academics set to find out

The number of full-time teaching assistants (TAs) has more than trebled – from 79,000 to 243,700 – since 2000. Schools spend approximately £4.4bn on support staff, which equates to 13% of the education budget.

But research into classroom support has highlighted a problem: despite the spending, it’s not necessarily having the desired effect on student achievement. The most detailed study on the the use of TAs in schools, the Deployment and Impact of Support Staff (Diss), showed that students with TA support made less progress than children of similar ability, who received little or no help. More worryingly, this was most noticeable among special educational needs (SEN) students, who traditionally attract the most TA time. The problem is that students with the most needs end up spending less time interacting with the whole class and their teacher.

There’s plenty of evidence to prove TAs can make a real difference. Classroom teachers reported more positive effects, saying that TAs helped to reduce stress, workload and disruption in class.

So what does the evidence tell us about how best to deploy TAs? In a recent report, Making Best Use of Teaching Assistants, the Education Endowment Fund set out to answer this question. Experts devised seven recommendations based on an analysis of existing research. While the recommendations are primarily for headteachers and senior leadership teams (SLTs) – the authors stress that overhauling the TA’s role will be much more successful if management take the lead – classroom teachers and special educational needs co-ordinators (Sencos) will also find the strategies useful.

The recommendations are split into three categories: use of TAs in the classroom; TAs making interventions outside the classroom and linking the work of teachers and TAs. Here’s what the evidence tells us:

Use of TAs in the classroom

School leaders need to think carefully about the role TAs play in their school and rigorously define the best way for them to work with students and teachers. The report suggests an audit – taking into account the current arrangements, students’ needs and the school’s goals.

Rather than using TAs as an “informal teaching resource for low-attaining pupils”, the evidence suggests they should supplement, rather than replace teachers. In particular, TAs should not be used to make up for a lack of teacher attention on low-attaining or SEN students, but rather their support should allow teachers to spend more time with these students.

This doesn’t mean that support staff can only play an administrative role. There is clear evidence to show how TAs can help students take ownership of their learning, encouraging them to ask questions and take risks. But schools must ensure TAs are robustly trained and supported in understanding the teaching methods and pedagogies, and how to apply them. This would help to ensure some pitfalls – such as over-prompting, spoonfeeding and focusing too heavily on making sure the task is done – don’t undermine all the potential of their support.

There’s also the omnipresent issue of time. While it’s like gold dust in schools, it’s impossible for TAs and teachers to complement each other’s work unless they find time to meet, discuss and prepare for lessons. There are a number of ways this can be done – using assembly time to get sorted; joining teachers during their planning, preparing and assessment (PPA) time; ensuring TAs have detailed lesson plans in advance – are just some of the strategies suggested.

TAs delivering structured interventions

Evidence shows that TAs have the most positive effect – around three or four months’ worth of extra academic progress across the year – if their interventions are formal and in small groups. The report says: “Crucially, these positive effects are only observed when TAs work in structured settings with high-quality support and training.”

One of the trickiest problems is making sure these interventions are based on evidence. This is essential if they are to be consistent and good-quality, but there are very few programmes in the UK that have this kind of verification, so it can be difficult. There are, however, some common characteristics of effective interventions. These include brief, regular and consistent sessions, TAs getting the right training, and supporting resources including lesson plans with clear objectives and outcomes. TAs should also not deviate from how the programme is delivered and they must use assessment to identify which students need support and track their progress

Integration

Last but not least, schools must make sure that students understand how their TA intervention connects to their formal learning. Interventions often happen away from the classroom. Since teachers and TAs struggle to find time to collaborate, many students are left to work out how what they have learned with the TA fits into the curriculum. In primary schools, it’s best if teachers align the content of interventions with their lessons, while in secondary schools, department heads should co-ordinate the roles of TAs so teachers can have full control and plan their provision.

Next step …

This blog about the EEF’s report is just a starting point for a wider discussion about support staff. If you’re a TA, or a teacher who works with your TA in a particularly innovative and effective way, we’d love to hear about. Leave us a comment below or tweet us @GuardianTeach.

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More on this story

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  • Treated like dirt, these teaching assistants have become the lions of Durham

  • Teaching assistants to be balloted on strike action in County Durham

  • Most school support staff have been assaulted by pupils

  • Schools battle to support special needs as teaching assistants lose jobs

  • I’m a County Durham teaching assistant. We deserve to keep our jobs

  • I work as a teaching assistant so why am I being paid only £20 a day?

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