The Essex TA project: Working Together

1
The Essex TA project Working Together

• Karen Vincett, Senior Educational Psychologist
• Gary Thomas, and
• Hilary Cremin (now at University of Leicester)

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Challenges in putting research into practice

• Karen Vincett, Senior Ed Psych, Essex
• For a start you really do need an LEA which has
  an awareness of the importance of research (good
  research) and finding out what works in real
  world classrooms. 
• Often what people are asking for is consultancy
  and not really research.
• Essex is unusual in wanting practice to be
  underpinned by some research.
• Funding streams are an issue.  Standards funds
  are one way but often these come in with guidance
  on how they are to be used.

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Numbers of TAs (000s) 1997-2003
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Problems in practice

• People not sure of roles to play
• People can get in the way of each other
• Where special needs are concerned, problems of
  TAs being Velcroed to particular children
• Special needs ghettoes may be formed

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Models for working

• Room management
• Zoning
• Reflective teamwork

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Two phases

• Phase 1 Schools followed prescriptions for
  working the three methods.
• Phase 2 Schools created their own combinations
  of methods.
• In each phase the models were evaluated on
  whether children were doing what they were
  supposed to be doing (on task or engaged)

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Phase 1 room management
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Phase 1 zoning
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Phase 1 reflective teamwork
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Phase 2 sample school
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Outcomes

• Ongoing development in the work of Essex schools
• Three years of funding, at 10-20K per year
• Publications
• Vincett, K., Cremin, H. Thomas, G. (2005)
  Teachers and Assistants Working Together.
  Maidenhead Open University Press.
• Cremin, H., Thomas, G. Vincett, K. (2005)
  Working with teaching assistants three models
  evaluated. Research Papers in Education, 20 (in
  press).
• Cremin, H., Thomas, G. and Vincett, K. (2003)
  Learning zones an evaluation of three models for
  improving learning through teacher/teaching
  assistant teamwork, Support for Learning, 18, 4,
  154-64.

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Final thoughts

• Setting up a joint project can be difficult ...
  you and I havent had problems because we are
  such jolly nice people, but trust me this is not
  the norm. Nasty words like intellectual property
  rights rear their ugly heads unless egos can be
  kept in train.