The Teaching Assistant's Guide to Effective Interaction

The Teaching Assistant’s Guide to Effective Interaction is the definitive guide to teaching assistant-pupil interaction and an invaluable professional development tool for classroom support staff and the teachers who work with them. The authors’ research and development work with schools has highlighted the need for specific, practical guidance on the role of the teaching assistant.





This highly practical and accessible book sets out a role for teaching assistants that focuses on developing pupils’ independence and ownership of learning. Based on a classroom-tested framework, and covering the main contexts in which teaching assistants work, it includes practical strategies and reflective activities to help you improve the support you provide to pupils in everyday settings. This book will help you to:




Improve your interactions with pupils
Understand the principles behind effective classroom talk
Carefully scaffold pupils’ learning
Work effectively in collaboration with teachers
Support the Assessment for Learning process
Support group work and collaborative tasks
Deliver intervention programmes.


This book is an essential read for all teaching assistants. It will also be of interest to school leaders, SENCos and teachers, in both primary and secondary schools, who wish to improve their use of teaching assistants and their own interactions with pupils.