1. Get started
Start by watching a short video. Then read the cartoon, quotes and key principles. They introduce the main ideas covered in this module. Discuss these as a group. The learning outcomes describe what you’ll achieve once you’ve completed the six steps.
Using classroom layout and support staff strategies to support a student’s learning and peer interaction
Having an adult by a student’s side for all or most of the school day can actually interfere with a student’s inclusion as a participating member of the classroom community.
— Giangreco et al., 2005, p. 28
I would like to get less support and I would like to decide who supports me … and in which parts of my schedule … If I were allowed to use the computer more I wouldn’t need so much help at school. It’s not much fun having all these old ladies hanging around me all the time.
— Secondary school student, quoted in Egilson & Traustadottir, 2009, p. 27
Key principles
- Teachers and teacher aides are responsible for creating learning environments that support all learners.
- In inclusive classrooms, all students have opportunities to be as independent as possible. They are connected to others and self-determining in their everyday decisions.
- The role of the teacher aide is to support teachers to create the conditions necessary for an inclusive classroom environment.
- The ways some teacher aide support is used may have negative impacts on students.
- Excessive one-to-one support for a student may reduce teacher engagement with the student and their sense of responsibility for them.
- When teacher aides spend a lot of time in close proximity to a student, those students can become over-dependent on adults and their peers may keep their distance.
- Teacher aide support should help ensure that all students in the classroom are learning alongside and with their peers and teacher.
- ‘Natural supports’ are the everyday relationships and opportunities in a school that can help all students participate. These supports should be considered for students with additional learning needs.
- Peers are important natural supports.
Learning outcomes
This module is intended to support teachers and teacher aides to achieve four aims:
- Identify and describe how they can influence the opportunities all students have to engage and participate in learning.
- Identify effective and ineffective ways of creating an inclusive learning environment.
- Plan and implement a new strategy that supports opportunities for students to participate and contribute in a shared learning activity.
- Reflect and evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy in enhancing student contributions and participation.