Teaching Assistants Making a Difference in the Lives of Students

Contributed by Donita Bell, International Educator, China

At the recent ACAMIS Teaching Assistants Online Conference in early July, 139 teaching assistants attended the ‘Teaching Assistants Making a Difference in Students’ Lives’ Conference. While the attendance at this week of professional development was evidence enough to show how these co-teachers are committed to their roles, it was also an opportunity to acknowledge the outstanding contribution of our valued teaching assistants.

During the inspiring week of workshops, teaching assistants all over China, joined online from their schools, their homes, work time, or their summer holidays, to network, learn, share and increase their knowledge and skills. This motivated group of assistants embraced the week-long workshop to upskill as life-long learners through keynote presentations, optional workshops, and a chosen job-alike.

As a presenter, it was inspiring to see how our valued assistants are making a difference in the classroom through the many facets of their roles. It also seemed more than appropriate to use the reference that Sue Larkey, Australian educator, and author, uses. Instead of the title “teaching assistants” or TAs. She refers to them as Teaching Angels and I believe this to be very appropriate.

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Working as an educator for 30 years, 10 of which have been international has allowed me to witness the huge impact upon students’ achievement and self-esteem, that a caring, attentive adult who truly knows ‘a child’, can make. Having worked with these paraprofessionals, it is possible to recognize the qualities they bring to their roles. Throughout the workshop, teaching angels were sharing stories of their daily interactions with students and how they perceived their role.

From teaching assistants that brought joy to students with specific support needs, to children who support play opportunities in early years, to high school assistants who were seeking ways to provide positive encouragement to hormonal teenagers who sought connection and purpose, it was evident that teaching assistants are making a difference in the lives of students.

What Qualities do Teaching Assistants bring to the classroom?

Using a values list identified by Brene Brown (2018), teaching assistants reflected upon their individual values that inform their feelings, thinking, and actions and therefore their role with students. Values such as safety, well-being, respect, and belonging were amongst the most commonly identified. Values that shape us are instilled in the children we work with.

Nishioka, in Sparks (2019) discusses ‘empathy’ as an important quality of teaching staff. Through getting to know students well, understanding students’ cultural differences, our TAs often have an authentic understanding of students’ culture and language, particularly in international settings. Teaching assistants are also representative role models for sharing and helping others to understand and reflect upon the diverse perspectives and beliefs of students.

Gathering data from the teaching assistants that work in my current school and throughout the workshop, also helped to identify that our teaching angels perceive their most important role as supporting students. They described the connections they were making with younger and older students as built upon trust, clarifying learning goals, and the ability to give time and attention to those students who most needed it.

Teaching Assistants themselves identified attributes such as patience, open-mindedness, positivity along with being principled, honest, flexible, collaborative, and good communicators. These qualities were commonly found in the experiences shared throughout discussions, as well as the willingness to learn from each other, ask questions, and identify more effective strategies for teaching and scaffolding student learning and behaviour.

Relationships, Relationships, Relationships

A teaching assistant’s presence can boost a child’s self-concept, providing the capacity to bring out the best that students have to offer. Research and experience recognise how adult-child relationships are foundational to students’ academic and personal development. The values and beliefs that these co-teachers bring to their role are helping make students feel safe and seen. The trust that is established between teaching assistants can even sometimes exceed those between teacher and student.

Teaching assistants have gained my utmost respect, due to their supportive and caring nature and the cultural and linguistic insights they provide classroom teachers with. The invaluable time and effort they invest to get to know students brings the importance of relationships further into focus.

Rita Pierson (Ted Talk, 2013) explains how every child needs a champion. This heart-warming talk inspires anyone who works with children to be a champion for a child- someone who recognizes their potential and who anticipates how to guide them on a path to succeed. Those who work closely with students can support their steps towards finding and achieving their goals. This ‘champion’ gives students the much-needed boost to their social-emotional well-being, which impacts their capacity for learning.

A positive working relationship between teachers and teaching angels also ensures a strong team approach to ensuring that our collaborative efforts are focused upon students’ personal and learning needs. When teaching assistants work closely with teachers, students are at the core of their planning. Through this cooperative effort, learning goals are aligned, but it is relationships that make all the difference in the overall well-being and success of a child. (The Education Trust, 2021; Sparks, 2019).

In busy classrooms, teaching assistants are building relationships with children, often in one to one, or small group contexts that enable them to really ‘get to know’ a student and give students individualized attention and support.

Through the modern world experience of COVID, these relationships have grown even more important in our classrooms today due to uncertainty surrounding other aspects of life. “Strong relationships with teachers and school staff can dramatically enhance students’ level of motivation and therefore promote learning. Students who have access to more strong relationships are more academically engaged, have stronger social skills, and experience more positive behaviour” (The Education Trust, 2021). Teaching assistants are contributing and helping to ensure that students are feeling emotionally and physically safe. This role of teaching assistants can never be underestimated.

To children, teaching angels are someone who values each of them as a life-long learner with guidance and care. To families, teaching angels are often a connection to home language and one of the adults who build strong relationships with their children. To educators, teaching angels have valuable knowledge about how to support children through opportunities to get to know the student, as a part of the team around the child, and as a crucial member who collaborates with classroom teachers.

Through opportunities to work with and learn besides our teaching assistants, we are creating more and more capacity to truly ensure that we hold the social-emotional well-being of students at the center of all learning. Acknowledging our teaching assistants for their roles, their professional learning, and recognizing the diverse ways this happens every day in the classroom is going to ensure that we are all making a difference in students’ lives.