Psychology for Teaching Assistants

Teaching assistants need to have a particular understanding of how children's minds work and this book provides it. It outlines the psychology of human development, the psychology of learning and the psychology of institutions and groups, emphasizing multiple perspectives and contextualizing the information in the current debates and practices of special education and inclusion. In the sections on development and learning, particular attention is devoted to language development the emotional impact of loss, including discovering disability in a child the psychological effects of abuse cognitive curricula learning empowerment through independence The section on institutions and groups looks particularly at processes in groups leadership models interpersonal communication violence, aggression and bullying emancipatory psychology.

Christopher Arnold is a senior educational psychologist with Sandwell education authority's inclusion support service.