Books

Teaching Assistants, Inclusion and SEN. International Perspectives on the Role of Paraprofessionals in Schools

This first collection of international academic writing on the topic of teaching assistants serves as an indicative summary of current research and thinking in this field, and as a point of departure for future research and development.

With contributions from leading researchers, this timely and important book draws together empirical work on the deployment and impact of TAs from various perspectives, and from a range of methodological approaches. 

Essential reading for academics, researchers and students interested in special educational needs, disability, and inclusion, and those interested in the role of paraprofessionals in labour markets.

The Inclusion Illusion. How Children with SEN Experience Mainstream Schools 

Based on the UK’s largest observation study of pupils with high-level SEND, this book exposes how attendance at a mainstream school is no guarantee of receiving a mainstream education. 

The way schools are organised and how classrooms are composed creates a form of ‘structural exclusion’ that preserves mainstream education for typically-developing pupils and justifies a diluted pedagogical offer for pupils with high-level SEND. Policymakers, not mainstream schools, are indicted over this state of affairs. 

This open access book prompts questions about what we think inclusion is and what it looks like. Ultimately, it suggests why a more authentic form of inclusion is needed, and how it might be achieved. 

Including Children and Young People with SEND in Learning and Life

Marking the 40th anniversary of the Warnock Enquiry (1978) into special education in the UK, this edited volume explores the legacy of the Enquiry, considering how it has impacted on policy and practice relating to SEND and inclusion, and how it will continue to do so. 

Offering historical perspectives and drawing on professional and personal experiences, high-profile contributors, including practitioners, researchers, campaigners and parents, reflect on the Enquiry and consider how successfully its recommendations have been implemented. 

This invaluable text widens current debates by exploring how persistent problems concerning inclusion and the education of learners with SEND may be resolved. 

Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants in Primary Schools

Drawing on the lessons from one of the world’s leading research and development efforts involving TAs, this is the most authoritative text yet on how to design a whole school plan to improve TAs’ deployment, practice and preparedness, and put it into action.

Structured around a unique and empirically sound conceptual framework, this book provides essential principles, practical tools and workable strategies, developed through collaboration with hundreds of UK schools. It focuses on ensuring TAs can thrive in their role, and presents the tools and techniques needed to do so accessibly, and is illustrated with case studies on school and classroom practices.

The Teaching Assistant’s Guide to Effective Interaction (2nd edition)

This second edition is the definitive guide to TA-pupil interaction. An invaluable professional development tool for classroom support staff and the teachers who work with them, this new edition answers the need for specific, practical guidance on the role of the teaching assistant.

This practical and accessible guide sets out a role for TAs that focuses on developing pupils’ independence and ownership of learning. Based on a classroom-tested framework and covering the main contexts in which TAs work, it includes a range of strategies and reflective activities to help improve the support provided to pupils in everyday settings. Fully updated with examples from schools, and key learning points summarised in each chapter.

Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants (2nd edition) 

TAs are an integral part of classroom life, but pioneering research by the authors found the more TA support pupils received, the less academic progress they made. Yet it is decisions made about TAs by school leaders and teachers that best explain this provocative finding.

The second edition draws on the experiences of schools that have put this guidance into action via the MITA programme. It has helped many primary and secondary schools rethink the role, purpose and contribution of TAs, and add real value to what can be achieved in classrooms. This book provides much-needed and evidence-informed guidance on how to unleash the huge potential of TAs, and is essential reading for all school leaders.