The Role of the Paraprofessional in Bilingual Education.

When the paraprofessional in bilingual education is used effectively, individual needs and individual differences of the students are met. An approach to the training of the paraprofessional has been developed at the Merrimack Education Center (MEC). The training program involves active participation of all paraprofessionals. Understanding and synthesizing child growth and development principles as well as knowing the specific duties of the paraprofessional are necessary components of the training program. Over the past five years, MEC, acting in the role of an educational brokerage center, has continuously interacted between professionals and paraprofessionals in order to reassess the needs of communities continuously for the formulation of new immediate and long term behavioral objectives. Based on these objectives a variety of programs has been prepared for workshops of varying sizes and lengths of time, and semester courses to meet the variety of needs. The bulk of this document describes one program designed to meet the specific needs of instructional aides in an urban area. Program instruction is couched within a framework of understanding the process of human behavior and how children learn within a social-psychological environment. Reinforced consistently in the role of instructional aide is the need for the pupils to identify with elements and people within the community. Instructional aides can be adequately trained in ten weeks. (Author)