The Changing Role Of The Teaching Assistant Education Essay

The Changing Role Of The T severallying auxiliary Education leavenA brief history into the changing role of the commandment ally. payable to the governments 2003 opening move to change the laging structure within schools, the role of the Teaching Assistant has changed signifi enkindletly in recent grades (Pugh, J. 2007) and has, in turn, led to numerous publications and studies concerning the effectiveness of these changes on childrens learning. Historically, pedagogics assistants, or auxiliaries as they were sometimes formerly kn have, were non learn method bountifuls who helped qualified teachers by carrying fall out day to day preparative and administrative tasks and providing pastoral disquiet to children. (Clayton. 1993) However, in 1998, the Local Government bill published a summary of a Green Paper, (1998), in which they outline proposals for employing a greater number of support staff 20,000 by the year 2002 in distinguish to leave much support for teac hers. The summary in each case announced the governments suggestions for a more effective use of, and better discipline for, education assistants and other school support staff which, along with a subsequent OfSTED review (2002a, p6) declared the fatality for training that would, match either proposed structure of qualifications and to facilitate career progression. Working as a instruction assistant thus became a career and so began the real take roughly the role of the program line assistant.During a UNISON conference on Building a World Class Education Service Estelle Morris tell that tenet assistants have a vital role to play in our gradationrooms(Morris, 2002, cited in Unison, p.2)But what does that role entail? As with many theorise titles within the working environment, the title learn assistant is often see in a variety of ways but one everyday theme I have encountered, when questioning educational staff, is that all teaching assistants are facilitators of le arning and therefore are essential elements in the forwarding of learning for children. How the facilitation is carried out, however, is less(prenominal) clear and open to individual interpretation by both employers and employees.The ability of an individual to enhance a pupils learning bear depends on many factors and will often be decided by the environment in which they are employed. Through personal experiences I am convinced that a school which values the contributions of its support staff will provide professional cultivation opportunities and will, therefore, create a worth(predicate) imaging that will support children, teachers and the school itself.Supporting teaching and learningA teaching assistants role is to support the learning of all children. In order to do this they, like any educator, need to have a intimately sagaciousness of how children learn. In the book, Teaching and Learning in the Early Years, Whitebread (2008, chapter 1) discusses Piagets ideas that children need to feel and hold control over their learning. Whitebread continues by exploring Vygotsys claims that it is the role of the adult to provide opportunities for social interaction and to support the child in go out of their comfort zone or level of actual victimisation and towards their potential via their zone of proximal development. To do this, a teaching assistant must understand how to promote curiosity amongst children objet dart providing opportunities for discussion and exploration. With authentic order sizes in the region of up to 30 pupils, a associate teacher will often be unable to engage in this vital tone of develop childrens learning and so it is essential that reinforcement adults are equipped with the skills to scaffold learning and to provide opportunities for them to develop the expression needed to be able to discuss and explain their ideas. (Bruner 1983, cited in Peabody journal of Education, pp 64-66)Just recently I was fortunate to be le ave-taking of an initiative to promote reading amongst a group of reluctant male readers who had, for chartless reasons, formulated an opinion that reading was a chore to be undertaken with displeasure and only when instructed to do so. My role was that of the enable adult as expound by Chambers (1991). By providing them with an chance to share and discuss each others reading experiences I was able to, over the course of only a week, unleash in them a willingness and enjoyment of reading. The outcome of this quickly became unmingled in their understanding of written text. The children also began writing with enthusiasm, using their bear knowledge and experiences as a result, they are in control of their own learning. The children feel empowered by the fact that they are directly liable for the progress that they are making and continue to enjoy our weekly discussions about their reading and progress.The children mentioned do not have special educational needs, as is often the case for pupils being supported by a teaching assistant. Children with SEN require a higher level of support and this has, historically, been provided by teaching assistants. (Alborz et al, 2009a) This has previously been an area for debate with The Daily Telegraph (2009) publishing an bind claiming that research shows that, Pupils make less progress in schoolrooms where schools employ more teaching assistants. This article states that teaching assistants often support lower attaining pupils, resulting in them being less supported by a qualified teacher and to them making limited progress. The article does not, however, take into account the training of the teaching assistants. While reviewing the impact of workforce remodeling, a report by OfSTED (2004) express that when a teaching assistant is appointed to work with carefully chosen pupils and is provided with the training to do so effectively, the pupils make significant progress. This is, of course, as puff up as the obvio us benefits of providing the teacher with more time to focus on other pupils.Having worked alongside several teaching assistants employed to support children with SEN I have witnessed the immeasurable benefit to the pupil and the class as a whole. The teaching assistants enabled the pupils to be included in a mainstream classroom and envision of attack the curriculum, while allowing the class teacher to support the majority of the pupils. Their support concern the re-enforcing of the whole class teaching, giving the pupil the confidence to participate in class discussions, simplification of vocabulary, offering praise and encouragement and feedback on the blameless task. Following the lesson, the teaching assistant also provided the teacher with assessment and monitor feedback to enable assessment of and for learning. This assessment has become a vital aspect of the role of the teaching assistant and supports the teacher and pupil by enabling differentiation and personalised lea rning to become every day practice. (OfSTED, 2002b) counsel published by the NFER (2002, cited in DfES, 2005, p.22) found that when teachers and teaching assistants work in concert the results are a more effective level of teaching and learning.An representative of this is a scenario I have experienced recently where a teaching assistant supported the learning of the majority of the class while the class teacher focused on the children with SEN. As a result of the teacher and teaching assistant having spent time working together to plan the lesson, the teaching assistant was able to support the learning objectives and assist pupils in their achievement of them.Teaching assistants can also, when included in the planning of a lesson, actively participate in the de stand upry of the lesson providing an alternative viewpoint or by playing a character in role. One such(prenominal) example was provided by my colleague who, upon realising that many of the pupils within the class had miscon strue a key concept, pretended to be confused and raised a hand to ask for clarification. As a result, pupils developed a clearer understanding of the lesson and therefore, the teaching assistant had played an important role in developing their learning.By implementing a mixture of all of these approaches and with effective training and guidance, teaching assistants can provide invaluable support for all children within any lesson.Teaching assistants also support behaviour management within classes and can provide an alternative level of perception within the classroom. In perfunctory Literacy lessons, I have observed a teaching assistant documentation a pupil with ADHD and have no doubt that without her presence, the class teacher would have to spend a large proportion of the lesson subsidence the child and addressing low level distractions. Personal experience has shown me that children with emotional and / or behavioural difficulties are often more responsive towards a teachin g assistant with whom they can forge a positive adult / child relationship. This can contribute towards the social and emotional wellbeing of the child as outlined by Alborz et al. (2009b).Supporting the teacher and the schoolBesides the opportunity to support childrens learning during lesson time, teaching assistants continue to carry out a multitude of administrative tasks in order to support the class teacher and the school as a whole. The National Agreement, (ATL et al. 2003, p.2), implemented as part of the governments workforce remodelling initiative, states that teachers should not spend their time carrying out administrative responsibilities that do not make full use of their skills and expertise but that these tasks should be carried out by support staff. The agreement outlines twenty-one tasks that teaching staff should not be required to carry out including the preparation of classroom resources, photocopying, the collection of monies for educational visit and the prepara tion and setting up of displays. These tasks must also, therefore, be considered the responsibility of the teaching assistant. Each and every one of the administrative tasks has an impact on the educational environment and therefore contributes towards supporting the development of childrens learning. In practice, however, the need for teaching assistants to be more involved in the delivery of lessons surely means that they too will have less time for carrying out administrative duties which in turn might put across these duties back into the hands of the teachers.In my experience, teaching assistants often offer monotonous support for the school in which they are employed. Many carry out duties beyond their working hours attending extracurricular events and regularly being at the forefront of fund raising activities. They frequently are able to provide a connection between local communities and their schools as they often live in close proximity to their workplace. This is a non essential yet valuable part of their role as it enables teaching staff to be cognizant of local issues and provides a link between parents and schools. (Lipsett, 2008)In summary, the role of the teaching assistant is a developing one, consisting of providing emotional support for pupils in their care and using knowledge and skills to assist in the development of childrens learning while maintaining an excellent level of support for both the teacher and the school community.