Given that the government is committed to recruiting 50,000 extra teaching and teaching assistants by 2006 (Smithers, Guardian 18 October 2002), arguably the best use of teaching assistants can be achieved when they are properly briefed about the learning outcomes, content and appropriate styles of presentation for the group of pupils with whom…

Describes the process and outcomes of placing four disabled adults and one mother of a cerebral palsied child as teaching assistants in preschool, second- and fourth-grade classrooms in two California schools. Suggests that the employment of disabled persons in public education is an effective way of integrating special needs children into regular…

Describes a training program for classroom assistants which focused on development of reflective skills. The program used short video recordings of classroom situations followed by group discussion. A framework for evaluating the video situations and discussing them is also offered. (DB)

The paper provides guidelines for establishing and operating teacher aide programs in special education. Chapter I considers legal aspects of using paraprofessionals with emphasis on the stance of the Nebraska Professional Practices Commission. A second chapter outlines the roles and duties of teachers and aides, offers sample job descriptions for…

The Discovery Room is a mental health oriented primary school intervention for children with learning and behavioral difficulties in the classroom which has been steadily modified over a four-year period through accommodation to real-life needs of an inner city school. In the Discovery Room, a special teacher works with children singly or in pairs…

Follows the development of a simulation game called the Language Assistant Game (LAG) designed to give practice to classroom language assistants in explaining meaning to students. The game simulates explaining in one's native language to students who are learning that language. Describes the competitive elements of the game and its different…

This brief report summarizes results of two British national conferences to allow classroom learning supporters to provide their perspectives of inclusion of students with disabilities in mainstream classrooms. The report focuses on the participating learning supporters' recommendations for developing their work and their suggested next steps. The…

Describes challenges rural school districts meet in recruiting young, talented teachers, particularly those facing tough new federal standards for hiring teachers in Title I schools. Describes how some school districts are meeting the challenge through emphasizing the benefits of rural schools, identifying and assisting high school students with…

The two traditional ways of dealing with students' inabilities to read--holding them back or passing them on to the next teacher--were rejected by one Delaware district anxious to improve its first-graders' reading skills. Teachers suggested involving parents, providing more reading time, and using teacher aides more effectively. A successful…

Workforce remodeling in England has been presented as a means to empower school staff through a restructuring process which has possibilities to dramatically shift the ways in which they operate. This initiative has also included a number of legislative requirements intended to help embed the more technocratic aspects of the remodeling process.…

This project was conducted to identify unique competencies required by special education aides (teacher aides) and other caregivers of young children with special needs. Through a literature review, six nationally or state published competency lists were found, along with other lists published by various community colleges. The lists were analyzed…

This report describes a practicum project that was intended to develop, implement, and supervise a building teacher aide training program and to determine its impact on the performance of forty building teacher aides in the Dallas Independent School District. The design of the training program was to improve the performance of teacher aides in…

Discusses a project in which a young graduate student from France, fluent in three languages, spent one school quarter assisting in language classes in a public secondary school. A pretest and a posttest, administered to measure student attitudes before and after the experiment, are described. (AMH)

To help recruit African American and Hispanic teachers, Southwest Texas State University started a program in 1992 called Enhancing Diversity in Teaching. Funded by a foundation and the Texas Education Association, the program provides university scholarships for paraprofessionals working with bilingual, Chapter 1, migrant, or special-education…

In Florida, a group of paraprofessionals worked with students struggling to read at grade level. The students' gains show that the intensive attention of these professionals to small groups of students can make a significant difference. This article presents a study about the effectiveness of paraprofessionals' and teachers' instruction for…