How do learning support staff work with pupils? The role of scaffolding

Background Internationally, learning support staff (LSS) assist children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) in completing classroom tasks; meanwhile, teachers manage whole-class instruction. Despite LSS help, children with SEND often progress more slowly than their peers. Researchers largely attribute this outcome to the inadequate, if any, training of LSS. The LSS training gap contributes to practices, particularly providing task answers, that minimise pupils’ thinking and learning.Purpose This research investigated LSS practices in Italy: a context that is relatively underexplored, despite providing the most comprehensive LSS training worldwide. It posed the following research question: How do LSS design task-level support for children in Italian primary schools?Method The research drew on classroom observations of a single primary-school LSS member and interviews with an additional 31 primary-school LSS. The data were thematically categorised into task-level practices (such as prompting). Scaffolding principles were applied to interpret their impact on children’s learning, insofar as the LSS fostered children’s responsibility for task engagement and learning new content.Findings Despite receiving extensive training, the participating LSS restricted pupils’ independence in task completion by providing answers. They also employed other highly directive strategies: notably, transforming classroom tasks into multiple-choice questions that included potential solutions. While extending the international literature on LSS strategies, these alternative approaches similarly narrowed tasks, demands, responsibility, and learning potential.Conclusion The research sheds light on LSS practices in Italy while advancing understanding of LSS pedagogy in the international literature. It also illustrates that a positive association between training and effective scaffolding practice cannot be assumed. Appropriate training and working conditions are therefore needed to prepare LSS for their essential and demanding role.