{"id":5940,"date":"2016-03-31T10:09:15","date_gmt":"2016-03-31T09:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stonebridge-blog.positive-dedicated.net\/?p=5940"},"modified":"2018-04-03T15:16:00","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T14:16:00","slug":"teaching-assistants-make-a-real-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/teaching-assistant\/teaching-assistants-make-a-real-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Teaching Assistants Make a Real Difference?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>The number of teaching assistants\u00a0in classrooms has trebled in the last decade<\/h2>\n<p>The recent increase in job openings for teaching assistants has sparked the age-old debate: can teaching assistants make a real difference in the classroom? You can get the answer to this question in many ways. First, people can look at the numbers. Schools are spending\u00a0increased sums\u00a0year on year for the salaries of teaching assistants and other support staff. It&#8217;s reasonable to assume that they wouldn\u2019t be spending this much money if they\u2019re not getting something out of it.<\/p>\n<h2>Teachers Address the Debate: Can Teaching Assistants Make a Real Difference in the Classroom?<\/h2>\n<p>This brings the discussion to the second way of answering the question \u201ccan teaching assistants make a real difference in the classroom?\u201d Many teachers would answer that question with a \u201cyes.\u201d According to many teachers, teaching assistants are helping make a difference for\u00a0pupils inside the classroom. Some of the things that teaching assistants (TAs ) are able to achieve include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They help reduce the stress low-attaining pupils\u00a0often experience inside the classroom. That\u2019s because TAs focus often their undivided attention on these pupils, thereby helping them cope better with the lessons.<\/li>\n<li>TAs help reduce the workload for teachers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How Schools are Responding to Ensure a \u2018YES\u2019 answer to the Debate: Can Teaching Assistants make a Real Difference in the Classroom?<\/h2>\n<p>Despite these proven positive effects of having TAs, some people still find themselves asking, \u201ccan teaching assistants make a real difference in the classroom?\u201d Many schools have started to employ the following strategies to dispel all the doubts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Prepare the teaching assistants\u00a0 for deployment. The schools can do this by giving teachers and teaching assistants\u00a0 enough time to liaise prior to the start of the class. This move helps\u00a0to ensure that teaching assistants\u00a0do not go blindly into the classroom.<\/li>\n<li>They need to know what lessons will be taught for the day, what tasks the pupils\u00a0are expected to perform, and so on. The teaching assistants\u00a0 will also receive briefing on what skills the low-attaining pupils\u00a0should develop at the end of the lesson.<\/li>\n<li>Professionalise\u00a0 the teaching assistants\u00a0 role in the classroom. Schools are starting to create a clearer definition of what they expect the teaching assistants\u00a0 to contribute in the classroom.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>More schools are also focusing on the way that teaching assistants\u00a0 interact with the students<\/h2>\n<p>Some research has shown that one hindrance to learning is the tendency of teaching assistants\u00a0 to spoon-feed their pupils. Schools address this issue by training teaching assistants\u00a0to hold their nerves in the face of a student\u2019s obstinacy.<\/p>\n<p>Another reason for spoon-feeding is the fact that the teaching assistant\u00a0may have grown attached to the pupil. This compels the TA\u00a0to give too much help to the pupil, especially during class recitations in a bid to end the pupil&#8217;s\u00a0suffering.<\/p>\n<p>Teaching assistants\u00a0are encouraged to give the pupils\u00a0enough time to think for themselves and to find the answers on their own. Teaching assistants\u00a0 who are already well-trained in these strategies definitely have better chances of getting employed in the school of their choice.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Bm7kmLa_Ll8\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Become\u00a0an effective teaching assistant<\/h2>\n<p>You should find it easier to obtain an interview and indeed get a job if you either have a qualification, or are currently undertaking an accredited\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/category\/teaching-assistant\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><i>teaching assistant course<\/i>.<\/a>\u00a0On the other hand, if you are already enjoying the job of teaching assistant, accredited training can help you become more effective and secure in your role.<\/p>\n<h2>How do you think TAs make a difference?<\/h2>\n<p>Please comment in the box below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The number of teaching assistants\u00a0in classrooms has trebled in the last decade The recent increase in job openings for teaching assistants has sparked the age-old debate: can teaching assistants make a real difference in the classroom? You can get the answer to this question in many ways. First, people can look at the numbers. Schools [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":5942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[350],"tags":[308,168,34],"class_list":["post-5940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-teaching-assistant","tag-classroom-behaviour","tag-teaching-assistant","tag-teaching-assistants-and-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5940"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18377,"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5940\/revisions\/18377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}