Personalisation at the sharp end: the contribution of support workers to inclusive teaching for stud

1
Personalisation at the sharp end the
contribution of support workers to inclusive
teaching for students in secondary education

• TDA supported RD Award (SEN T34736) Trainee
  teachers
• tapping into Paraprofessionals in secondary
  schools (TaPs)

2
Research Context

• Research is based in a medium sized comprehensive
  school (1170 students 11-16 years) in Weston
  super Mare (WsM)
• OFSTED (2006) rates the school as good and the
  school is working hard to move from good to
  great.
• Special Needs in the school is described by
  OFSTED (2006) as outstanding the model is
  that of an Inclusion Coordinator (INCO) working
  in the Education Extra Base managed by two
  Learning Support Managers (KS3 and 4).
• The school works with the three other WsM
  secondary schools in a Federation known as Weston
  Education Partnership (WEP).
• Diarists involved participants from two other WEP
  schools one secondary and one Special School
  with secondary aged students.
• Diarists from 3 other secondary schools
  Backwell, (N. Somerset), Preston, (Yeovil) and
  Churchfields (Swindon)

3
Research Data Collection (1)

• 14 Five-Day diaries from School Support Workers,
  including
• 2 Higher Level Teaching Assistants (HLTA)
• 2 Learning Support Managers (HLTA equivalent)
• 4 Teaching Assistants, including one who works in
  a School for students with PMLD, and one who
  works with Looked after Children
• 2 Learning Support Assistants
• 1 Learning Mentor
• 3 Paraprofessionals from USA
• Diary Analysis has produced a Grid of Categories
  which analyse in broad terms the contents of the
  diaries. 20 categories were identified, of which
  11 relate to activities in which all support
  workers engage.
• 25 hours of lesson observation of students who
  receive support - these observations have taken
  place mainly in lessons where support has been
  given but also in some lessons where no support
  has been provided. Observations confirm the
  categories identified.

4
Research data collection (2)

• Key issues were identified from the diaries in
  relation to the activities undertaken by support
  workers, leading to the formulation of 14
  interview questions, centring on issues raised by
  support workers.
• 13 video-taped interviews have been undertaken
  this has involved live interviews with all the
  5-Day diarists except those from USA, by whom the
  same interview questions were answered on-line.
• Video-taped interviews also took place with the
  Inclusion Co-ordinator (INCO) at PCS and the
  Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) at
  Backwell School, in order to provide contextual
  data for the diaries.

5
Findings of the research to date

• Wide range of organisation of learning support in
  school, with differing terminology for support
  workers job titles and roles, even within the
  scope of this small scale project.
• Craft knowledge of support workers in carrying
  out their roles using subtle and flexible yet
  focused strategies, indicating broad agreement
  between participants on strategies for working
  with students.
• The video clips included give a flavour of the
  craft knowledge which the research seeks to
  highlight for trainees to assess