Importance and possibilities of a teacher assistant in school integration of children with disabilities.

For my thesis I have chosen the theme of the importance and possibilities of a teacher assistant in school integration of children with disabilities. The research was conducted in the district of Český Krumlov. There are currently 20 basic schools and 26 kindergartens of which eight basic schools and two kindergartens have integrated pupils with disabilities. My two hypotheses are based on the fact that teacher assistants are the ones who, in my opinion, form an indispensable part of a pedagogic team, ensuring successful and beneficial integration of disabled children into the regular type of schools and school facilities and affecting the process of integration (hypothesis 1). Moreover, I believe that the competencies of two different professional groups, being teacher assistants and personal assistants, are often confused and neither professionals nor the lay public are able to clearly distinguish between their functions (hypothesis 2). In order to obtain information in respect of the set out issues, the method of interviews in the form of questionnaires was used. The questionnaire was designed for directors and teachers of basic schools and kindergartens integrating pupils with disabilities and also for parents of disabled children integrated in a regular school. The processed data are displayed in graphs and tables. Both the raised hypotheses have been confirmed. It was revealed that the respondents consider a teacher assistant as an indispensable element without which the school integration would not be successful. Some of them refer to their previous experience when no teacher assistant was available. The hypothesis which assumed confusion of competencies of an assistant teacher and a personal assistant was also clearly confirmed. The research revealed that some respondents suggested an interesting idea to unify these two assistants' functions into one that would fall under one resort. By this diploma thesis I would like to contribute to the explanation of ambiguities in the competences of a teacher assistant and a personal assistant and to promote the importance of a teacher assistant in school integration of children with disabilities