I found the presentation by Melissa Kinnear in the link below on the underutilisation and lack of consistency in the ways teaching aide human resources are used in schools to be very insightful.
https://usq.au.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=c2829feb-b4ba-4350-ba18-b39200369d8e&start=0
It was particularly alarming to realise the negative impact teacher aides can have when mismanaged, impacting on student inclusion, learning and self-efficacy. This reminded me of working in business where a fellow manager once said, “you need to make sure everyone on the boat with an oar is rowing the boat in the same direction”. I gained an appreciation of the importance of clarity in defining the role and scope of work teacher aides will perform (Blatchford et al., 2009), including in behaviour management, aligning to the value of integrity in the Queensland College of Teachers (n.d.) Code of Ethics.
The video highlighted some useful strategies to keep in mind for future practice including providing question stems for the teacher aide to use to support student efficacy as contrasted to racing to “get through the content” and using the teacher aide to support with data gathering (such as circling the room noting number of students who understood the task).
References
Blatchford, P., Bassett, P., Brown, P., Koutsoubou, M., Martin, C., Russell, A., Webster, R., and Rubie-Davies, C. 2009. “Deployment and Impact of Support Staff in Schools: The Impact of support Staff in Schools (Results from Strand 2, Wave 2). Institute of Education, University of London: Department for Children, Schools and Families.
Kinnear, M. (n.d.). Considerations for Effective Use of Teacher Aides and Support Staff: Supporting student Outcomes and Improvement. [Video]. Ponopto. https://usq.au.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=c2829feb-b4ba-4350-ba18-b39200369d8e&start=0
Queensland College of Teachers. (n.d.). Code of Ethics for Teachers in Queensland. https://cdn.qct.edu.au/pdf/CodeOfEthicsPoster20081215.pdf
Queensland Department of Education. (2021, July 8). Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) A systems approach to school improvement. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/4C1S7ooFvtU?si=I8rcn2Q0od0xXb1S
You need to make sure everyone on the boat with an oar is rowing the boat in the same direction.
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