Background: A number of studies of the roles and responsibilities of teaching assistants have been conducted in Australian jurisdictions, but much of this research has been small-scale or geographically localised. Method: The present study was the largest survey conducted in Australia to date and involved a survey of 361 teaching assistants in New…

This article revisits a previous publication which questioned how Teaching Assistants (TAs) manage behaviour in mainstream English primary schools (Clarke and Visser, 2016). That paper highlighted the lack of specific research in the area and noted, that despite increases in research on TAs work, there remained a lack of understanding in relation…

This article explores two aspects of special needs education (SNE) for pupils in compulsory schools in Finland and Norway, who according to official procedures, have been granted SNE. The two aspects are "educational settings" for the implementation of SNE and "formal competence" among those who implement the SNE to which the…

This paper reports a small-scale qualitative research project, carried out in the south of England. Ten children (aged ten-eleven) with a range of SEN, from mainstream primary schools, took part in individual semi-structured interviews about their TA support. Child-friendly interviews utilised toy props and a creative 'Ideal TA' activity to aid…

Aim/Purpose: This study sought to understand the views of both teachers and students on the usage of humanoid robots as teaching assistants in a specifically Arab context. Background: Social robots have in recent times penetrated the educational space. Although prevalent in Asia and some Western regions, the uptake, perception and acceptance of…

We determined that significant differences existed between assessment scores of at-risk children taught by assistant teachers with different levels of education using standardized assessments (Teaching Strategies GOLD [TSG] and Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening [PALS]). A 1-way MANOVA indicated that assistant teachers' level of education…

This book addresses the critical need for highly qualified personnel to work with students that have varying support needs, and provides a framework for analyzing these needs. The exploration of Positive Behavior Supports in this text will serve as a guide to help prepare teachers, teachers in training, and other service providers to adequately…

IOE (Institute of Education), UCL's Faculty of Education and Society (University College London, UK) has a long tradition of engagement with schools to support young children's learning and co-produce knowledge through research-practice partnerships. From the first demonstration schools in the early 1900s to engagement with contemporary research…

Following a learning experience with one of her Year 2 students, whose extreme and challenging behavior required extra support from a teaching assistant (TA) but who loved practical hands-on science days and investigations, it occurred to the author that there must be hundreds of children and TAs all over the UK facing challenging dilemmas every…

A key metaphor used to describe the complexity of what teachers do is that of professional knowledge landscapes. This conveys the idea that effective practice should be explored in relation to how teachers perceive pupils, but also to how teachers see themselves and questions of professional identity. The research reported here was part of a…

This study was designed to identify professional development needs of classroom teachers and exceptional education assistants who teach regular and exceptional education students within the same classroom. The researcher assessed the needs of classroom teachers and exceptional education assistants using a Likert scale survey to identify areas of…

Treatment integrity is a critical component to fully understanding the relationship between implementation of evidence-based interventions and student outcomes. Research shows that school-based implementers require support beyond what is typically provided to consistently implement interventions with adequate levels of treatment integrity, and…

Despite the growing presence of students as partners (SAP) in education research and the overlap of goals with learning assistant (LA) programs, there is little research done on pedagogy- and curriculum-focused student partnerships that involve LAs. LAs have expertise as both teachers and learners, so why not leverage this expertise to improve the…

Assistant teachers play an important role in Head Start and other early care and education (ECE) programs. This study found that assistant teachers contribute to classroom quality in the program's day-to-day implementation. Thirty-eight assistant-lead teaching teams from Head Start preschool classrooms across 14 Head Start centers within the…

The intended purpose of this qualitative transcendental phenomenological study was to describe the experience of athletic trainers in the secondary school setting who supervise career technology education (CTE) health science students in the sports medicine pathway at high schools in Texas. Through the lens of the social cognitive career theory…