ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the adult-pupil interactions and considers the research evidence on the nature and impact of talk between Teaching Assistants and pupils. The chapter has two main sections: first, descriptive research on the nature of interactions in classrooms and, second, the effects of these interactions on pupil learning and achievement. The aim of the study was to describe teacher and pupil classroom interactions and activities in a sample of junior school classrooms and then relate these to pupil's progress in school. Robin Alexander developed the concept of dialogic teaching to stress the way he feels classroom pedagogy should maximize the amount of substantial contributions from teachers and pupils with the aim of exploring ideas, testing evidence and moving pupil's thinking on. The chapter refers to all those with equivalent classroom-based support roles collectively as teaching assistants/aides (TAs) and focuses on a number of approaches, and each type of approach has different strengths and weaknesses.
