“How did you do that?”
“What did you use?”
“Did you count on?”
“Put five in your head… Five… six, seven, eight.”
The child may stare at the adult, in many ways knowing, that if they keep quiet, someone else or the adult will find the answer or explain it for them.
Clueing in the form of questions is of course important; however, questions posed to pupils in quick succession can be unhelpful.
But let’s unpack this example. Not only is the accurate judgement of pupil learning crucial, so is the sequencing of mathematical ideas and scaffolding of independence. That’s a lot. And this requires thoughtful planning between the teacher and the TA in addition to associated training.
Professional development is key
Recommendation two of the EEF’s updated‘Deployment of Teaching Assistants’ guidance report highlights the importance of TAs helping to scaffold learning and to develop pupils’ independence.
Evidence on the effectiveness of scaffolding highlights the need for appropriate training and guidance. Leaders should therefore ensure that TAs are trained to confidently scaffold. This may look different based on the classroom subject and on the age and individual needs of pupils.
Clear and continuous communication between teachers and TAs is crucial for supporting the best pupil progress. In my experience, providing professional development where teachers and TAs are given the opportunity to learn and liaise together is key.
Structuring interactions
In our professional development sessions, we support TAs to use the scaffolding framework effectively.
We use this to provide a structure to their interactions with pupils, as TAs are in a prime position, when working with individual pupils and small groups, to scaffold learning and support the development of independent learning skills.
During our professional development sessions, we build TAs’ understanding around scaffolding and we develop their techniques through modelling and rehearsal which builds confidence before trialling it with their own pupils. Often multiple TAs attend from the same school, which builds that practical social support.
TAs are encouraged, using this scaffolding framework, to give the least amount of help first – to sit back and wait to see how the child initially responds to the maths problem. With the support and direction of the teacher though, TAs are equipped with the resources and knowledge to prompt, clue and model to pupils when appropriate.
Why wait?
One of the key aspects of the professional development I lead for Every Child Counts is encouraging wait time – giving the pupils time to think. TAs are encouraged to observe pupils first, giving time for processing and thinking.
To begin with they may not be used to this, both pupils and adults. TAs talk about how they feel uncomfortable leaving a silence. We even provide little rhymes for the TAs to say to help stop themselves from interrupting.
Evidence suggests that increasing wait time in maths lessons to around three seconds, particularly when higher-order questions are used, can have dramatic effects on learners’ involvement in classroom discussion, leading to higher-quality responses from a greater range of learners. (Tobin, 1987).
We encourage TAs to be consistent with pausing after a question to allow thinking time. This wait time also promotes the idea that maths is not just answering quick-fire questions.
During our training, TAs have fed back that taking those few seconds to sit and wait before scaffolding has made a significant difference to children’s attitudes and independence in maths.
So, what are you waiting for? A few seconds of silence really can be golden.