Teaching assistants need personal touch

Alison Mercer
Wednesday, May 29, 2002

A teaching assistant's personal qualities are even more important than training in determining whether he or she contributes effectively to children's learning, according to research carried out by a team from the University of London's Institute of Education. The research team could not reach conclusive evidence on whether teaching assistants improved children's educational attainment, because in some classes the assistants were used effectively and in others they were not. There were also particular problems when support was not well planned and did not link clearly to teachers' aims and lesson plans.