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The world of the primary school
The world of the primary school

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3.1 What is the value of teaching assistants?

In 2009 a systematic review of research literature by Alison Alborz and colleagues found that teaching assistants who are trained and supported can have a positive impact on the development of basic literacy skills of individual or small groups of children, and that, in addition, ‘“sensitive” TA support can facilitate pupil engagement in learning and social activities, with the class teacher and their peers’ (Alborz et al., 2009, p. 1).

However, there are contradictions in the research literature. A large-scale study by Blatchford et al. (2012) examined two aspects of the impact of teaching assistants:

  1. the effects on teachers in terms of their workloads, job satisfaction, levels of stress, and their teaching
  2. the effects on pupils in terms of their learning and behaviour, measures of positive approaches to learning, and their academic progress in English, mathematics and science.

As might be expected, given other research studies, the researchers found that teaching assistants had positive effects on teachers and their teaching. Surprisingly, however, they found a ‘negative relationship’ between teaching assistant support and pupils’ measured academic progress. We find this hard to believe.

The authors do not attribute blame to teaching assistants, however. They explain this finding by pointing to factors governing teaching assistants’ working contexts, the general lack of briefing that they receive, and the need for teachers to share their own, higher-order skills and knowledge. Nevertheless, our contacts with teaching assistants and their work over a long period suggests that the reality is more complex than this.