An investigation of the deployment and practice of Teaching Assistants (TA) in Italian, mainstream primary classrooms: TA class roles and support for children with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities

Ciletti, Lorenzo (2023) An investigation of the deployment and practice of Teaching Assistants (TA) in Italian, mainstream primary classrooms: TA class roles and support for children with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities. University College London, Doctoral Thesis.

Abstract

Internationally, Teaching Assistants (TA) play a crucial role in the mainstream education of children with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND). They support children with SEND, whereas teachers deal with whole-class instruction. Despite TAs’ help, children with SEND were found to progress less than their peers. Researchers blamed the inadequate, if any, training of TAs, negatively impacting their instruction and children's learning. Also, they argued that children with SEND might overly rely on the nearby TAs to complete their classwork, thereby compromising their thinking and learning. The current research was carried out in a country that provides TAs with wealthy training and whole-class responsibilities, notably Italy, in order to provide a nuanced understanding of TA deployment and practice. The research relied on a series of thematic analyses of the classroom observations of a single TA (Study 1); and interviews with 31 other TAs (Study 2). The thematic analyses converted the continuity of the observational and interview data into discontinuous, thematic codes. The findings were displayed a) quantitatively by counting the frequencies of the thematic codes in the data stream (i.e., systematic observations); b) qualitatively by describing the codes. Socio-cultural theories were used to interpret qualitative and quantitative results. Despite their whole-class responsibilities, the participating TAs were found instructing children with SEND and less frequently collaborating with teachers for whole-class education. Also, the research findings suggested that the TAs did not effectively scaffold the thinking of children with SEND, regardless of being well-trained. Among the many teaching patterns, the research found that the TAs were correcting children’s mistakes or supplying them with the answers to academic tasks, thus closing down children’s thinking and learning. The findings and their relation to TA conditions of employment and training are further discussed in the thesis.

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