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Abstract

The study is done with the purpose of examining the conditions for teaching assistants to execute teaching. The research questions are:

• What do the teaching assistants’ tasks consist of?
• What sort of training and skills do teaching assistants need to be accomplished at their assignments?
• How do teaching assistants, special needs teachers and headmasters perceive who is responsible for the training and/or development of skills of the teaching assistants?

The study was conducted at four schools in three different municipalities. As a method, interviews have been used. 22 respondents have been interviewed; 10 teaching assistants, 8 teachers and 4 headmasters. A pilot study was made before the main study. 15 teaching assistants participated in the pilot study. The study also includes a review of work descriptions. Two such documents have been reviewed. The theoretical starting points of the study are professional theory and the organizational theory of scientific management. KASAM is another theoretical starting point used in the study. The study provides an overview of previous research that shows that teaching assistants should support students and teachers by contribute to the educational process with all that it entails. The research also shows that teaching assistants and teachers have no or little time to plan their work together which can make cooperation more difficult. It is found that teaching assistants are not often trained for their assignment. The result of the study confirms previous research results. The result, in this study, shows that teaching assistants themselves mean that their main task is to support students in different ways throughout the day. Principals feel that teacher assistants seldom ask for training. Teaching assistants on the other hand means that principals are responsible for finding relevant training for teaching assistants. The education of teaching assistants varies. Principals believe that a secondary education with focus on child care and nursing is preferred, but that a health education sometimes is required. Teachers would like teaching assistants to have more training in pedagogy. Teacher assistants themselves mention that personal suitability is important to work as a teacher assistant. Principals confirm this.