ABSTRACT
This chapter gives some context on the teaching assistant (TA) role and outlines the particular teaching and learning role for TAs developed through the research, the work with schools and the training programmes. The roles and responsibilities of the TA and the teacher should be in relation to the pupils in their class – this is key for establishing an effective working relationship. The chapter introduces the scaffolding framework that structures the material in the rest of this book. The teacher has overall responsibility for planning and monitoring the progress of all pupils. The TA’s role is to scaffold learning through interaction, and feedback information about pupil performance. Scaffolding involves carefully monitoring a pupil’s performance and providing the least amount of support required to move them forward when they cannot solve the problem themselves.
