Teacher Assistance Teams: A Model for Within-Building Problem Solving

Abstract

Although regular classroom teachers can meet the needs of many mainstreamed children within the regular classroom setting, situations arise when teachers need assistance. In such cases, the classroom teacher often has no place to turn for help. Rather than addressing this problem in the traditional inservice format, the present study proposes a teacher support system model for classroom teachers. Based on a survey of perceived prerequisite skills and competencies for dealing effectively with learning and behavior disorders in the classroom, the Teacher Assistance Team concept was developed to provide a day-to-day peer problem-solving group for teachers within a particular building. The goal of the team is to obtain more efficient and effective delivery of special help to children by placing the initiative for action in the hands of classroom teachers.

Prereferral Interventions

“…In the majority of the cases included in this study, referring teachers' first source of assistance outside their classroom was their grade level team and/or a master teacher. This pattern more closely resembled the Teacher Assistance Teams (TATs) developed by Chalfant, Pysh and Moultrie (1979), than the Pre-referral Intervention Teams. TATs are comprised mostly of classroom teachers who meet to assist each other with the brainstorming, development, implementation and follow-up evaluation of failing students' instructional interventions, such as these referring teachers and their teams reportedly do in this district.…”

“…Specifically, this study suggests that collaborative consultation in a form that closely resembles the teacher assistance teams (TAT) developed by Chalfant, Pysh and Moultrie (1979) were more effective for ELL referrals than were the multidisciplinary teams that most closely resembled the intervention assistance teams (IAT) (Graden, 1989). This finding needs further validation from future studies.…”

“…In addition to their greater combined training and experience, as well as personal knowledge, with these ELLs, these grade level teams might be more effective problem solvers because of many attributes of TAT-type teams, which these Stage I contributors resemble. Namely, these teachers might emphasize the expertise of these referring teachers in developing and implementing highly appropriate and effective interventions for ELLs (Chalfant, Pysh, & Moultrie, 1979).…”

“…These teams were designed in hopes of enabling classroom teachers to teach such students, thus lowering referrals to special education (Chalfant, Pysh & Moultrie, 1979;Graden, Casey & Christenson, 1985). Lower referrals to special education imply more resources for all students on campus.…”

“…The success of TATs in reducing the number of referrals for special education assessment has been documented in several studies (Chalfant, Pysh & Moultrie, 1979).…”