Teachers’ aides working in secondary school settings: preparedness and professional learning

In Victoria, Australia teachers’ aides (TAs) are employed to provide support to students with disabilities in accessing their education. The role of the TAs varies within and across school settings. Drawing from the findings of a quantitative study, the purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of teachers’ aides’ perceptions of their preparedness to perform 18 student-related tasks within the state secondary school setting in Victoria, Australia. In all, 163 participants completed the on-line questionnaire. The results of the study showed that that in general TAs perceive there are tasks relevant to their roles in supporting students with disabilities; and there are tasks that are not applicable to that role. The TAs in this study considered that they had training that enabled them to effectively perform the listed student related tasks to support students with disabilities in the secondary school environment.