To date, no systematic review of international literature has been conducted that has focused on the key question of whether and how support staff in classrooms have an impact on pupils' learning and participation in schools and classrooms. Put simply, is there evidence that pupils learn and participate more effectively in mainstream schools when support staff are present in classrooms? This systematic review was published by EPPI-Centre in 2003. Systematic reviews aim to find as much as possible of the research relevant to the particular research questions, and use explicit methods to identify what can reliably be said on the basis of these studies.
