Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has emerged as a response to Europe's calls for increasing plurilingualism, due to its dual-focused approach which aims to foster and consolidate both non-language subject matter and language learning. As the approach becomes more widespread, more resources become available to help teachers facing…

This article reviewed international data from English-language peer-reviewed studies on the use of TAs in inclusive classrooms from the past 10 years concerning: (a) the roles of TAs; (b) the impact of TAs on students, educators, and inclusive education; and (c) the factors that influence the performance of TAs. These studies suggest that unclear…

This study utilised role theory to investigate teacher aide roles within regional schools in Queensland, Australia. Twenty primary schoolteacher aides were interviewed; data were triangulated with 27 teacher aides' responses to a follow-up questionnaire and interviews with 6 administrative staff. Data suggest that classroom instructional support…

This article presents a qualitative study of how the individual roles and ideologies of four Arabic and Somali bilingual classroom assistants at an elementary school in Sweden both mirror and challenge larger discourses about language, education and social integration. Data were analyzed using the theoretical constructs of positioning and reveal…

In Victoria, Australia, one of the major roles of the teachers' aide (TA) is to assist students with disabilities to access their education. Researchers have identified the inconsistencies in defining the roles of the TA, in a variety of settings, by TAs, teachers, parents, and other research participants. Four main themes that have been…

This paper presents the outcomes of a Spanish study on aspects of the background, skills and perceptions of three groups of teachers -- content teachers, language teachers and language assistants -- working to implement CLIL in the monolingual area of Andalusia, Spain. The research was based on a questionnaire completed by 130 informants and…

This study explored the feasibility of training school teaching assistants to provide the treatment, Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing to treat childhood apraxia of speech (CAS, also known as developmental verbal dyspraxia). The study used a single case experimental design across behaviours and a qualitative evaluation of teaching assistant…

This article details a mixed methods study designed to examine the impact of a group process consultation model in helping staff manage challenging behaviour in the nurture group setting. It relates to two geographical clusters of staff, including teachers and teaching assistants, running 11 nurture groups in a major metropolitan area in the UK,…

This pilot study describes an intervention package, MODELER for Read and Talk, designed to provide enriched language interaction for children with complex communication needs who require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). MODELER (Model, Encourage, Respond) includes (a) modeling AAC as you speak, (b) encouraging communication…

Teachers are often faced with the challenge of teaching students with high functioning autism without any formal professional development in autism. Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) are a service which is able to provide short-term support for teachers. One of the roles of RTLB is to provide teachers with the required support to…

This paper presents findings from an empirical study that investigated the learning experiences of deaf students in mainstream secondary classrooms, from teaching assistants' (TA) perspectives. These findings indicate that effective collaboration between mainstream teachers and specialist teachers of the deaf (ToD) is required to ensure…

The shift in paradigm from exclusion to inclusion in education in Zimbabwe, in alignment with the global world, has resulted in a significant number of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) being educated in mainstream primary school classrooms. Consequently, new demands are being made on teachers who are not necessarily adequately…

This study sought to validate a new measure, the Classroom Cohesion Survey (CCS), designed to examine the relationship between teachers and classroom assistants in autism support classrooms. Teachers, classroom assistants, and external observers showed good inter-rater agreement on the CCS and good internal consistency for all scales. Simple…

As a result of their high contact time with children, particularly children identified with special educational needs, it is widely acknowledged that teaching assistants (TAs) have great influence on pupils' education (Balshaw). However, recent research into the impact of TAs on pupils' learning has questioned TAs' usefulness in…

There is considerable need for adoptable evidence-based interventions for implementation in public classrooms serving children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) during the preschool years, an important period in neurodevelopment. Barriers to implementation, including gaps in teacher education, contribute to the research-to-practice gap, and may…