Research School Network: Thinking Together: How TAs Can Use Questions to Build Independence Dr. Niki Kaiser, Director of Norfolk Research School

“Have you seen a task like this before?”

This is a deceptively simple question. But asked at the right moment, it can nudge a child to think metacognitively and move them from stuck to unstuck, helping them build habits that lead to greater independence.

So how can we support our valuable TAs to help children in this way, with simple questions that guide thinking?

Recommendation 2 in the new Guidance Report from the EEF on the deployment of Teaching Assistants suggests that TAs should scaffold learning to develop pupils’independence. Questions like these lie at the heart of that best practice.

Scaffolding: The Art of Fading Out

What do we mean by effective scaffolding?

At its best, scaffolding is temporary: there to get pupils started, help them monitor their progress, adjust their strategies, and learn from mistakes. But it must be removed. If we don’t take off the stabilisers, we’ll never learn to ride a bike! 

The EEF describes scaffolding as ​“complementary to teaching” and central to developing metacognition and self-regulated learning: the ability to plan, monitor and evaluate one’s own learning. 

This is where TAs can make a difference: not by simplifying the work or spoon-feeding answers, but by prompting pupils to think about how they are thinking. 

This is exemplified in the diagram from the guidance. To promote pupil independence, TAs should ​“help” less (in other words, avoid simply correcting pupils or giving them the answers) and instead scaffold. Ultimately, we want to reach a point where pupils can self-scaffold, whether or not a TA is present.

Prompts That Promote Thinking

Let’s return to our original prompt: Have you seen a task like this before?

This is a classic metacognitive prompt. It encourages pupils to plan before diving into problem-solving and to reflect on useful past strategies. It’s especially valuable when pupils feel unsure how to start. 

While some pupils may naturally approach tasks this way, many do not. That’s where TAs come in. They can help pupils embed this kind of thinking, so it becomes a habit — and eventually something they do independently.

The EEF’s Questioning Habits Tool provides a helpful summary of prompts TAs can use in everyday conversations to support metacognitive thinking:

At the start (planning):

· ​“Where will you start?”
· ​“What do you already know that might help?”

While they are completing the task (monitoring):

· ​“Is your approach working?”
· ​“What could you try instead?”

Reflecting after completing the task (evaluating):

· ​“What went well?”
· ​“What would you do differently next time?”

These are not time-consuming interventions. They don’t require special training or extra resources — but they do require thoughtfulness and consistency.

A Gradual Release that supports habits

One of the core principles in the EEF’s guidance is to give the least support first.

In a busy classroom, it’s tempting to jump in the moment a child looks unsure. After all, we’re in education because we want to help! But by stepping back, even briefly, we give pupils the chance to surprise themselves, and build strategies that will serve them in the long term. 

For example, a Year 8 pupil is struggling to balance a combustion equation. They’ve started by balancing the oxygen atoms, but it’s not working, and they’re beginning to tie themselves in knots. 

A TA might say, ​“Try starting with hydrogen instead.” 

This could help the pupil complete the task — but it misses the point and denies them the chance to find their own strategy. 

A better prompt might be: 

“I can see you’re starting with oxygen there; it makes it a bit harder to balance the others, doesn’t it? What else could you try starting with?”

This small nudge invites reflection and independent problem-solving. Independence is built through repeated cycles of supported thinking. 

To nudge the student even further towards metacognitive thinking, the TA could follow up by asking what they did, what worked, what didn’t, and how they might approach it differently next time.

Building Habits That Last

The ultimate aim of scaffolding is not task completion, it’s transfer. We want pupils to carry these ways of thinking into future problems, lessons, and even beyond the classroom.

But that doesn’t happen by chance. It takes routine and repetition. This is where TAs can really make a difference.

TAs can help embed these habits by making metacognitive prompts part of the rhythm of the lesson: asking a pupil to explain their plan before starting a task, pause midway to check progress, and reflect at the end on what they’ll do differently next time.

Words Matter

Words matter – they shape children’s thinking and approach to their work, and help make the shift from dependence to independence. This doesn’t happen overnight, but with practice and purposeful prompting, TAs can be instrumental in turning short-term support into long-term success.