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link titleCo -Teaching in the Regular Classroom: The Advantages of Two

Descriptions, definitions, synonyms, organizer terms, types of

Co-Teaching, the practice of having two or more educators in a classroom, delivering or assisting in the daily lesson, is becoming more common in today's school. The No Child Left Behind Act, more standardized testing and the inclusion laws require schools to find alternative ways to deliver instruction and meet the needs of a larger variety of students. Co-teaching can be done in several ways, and can range from a second teacher simply visiting the classroom to see what instruction is going on, and to assist anyone who seems to need a little extra help, to team teaching, in which both teachers plan, deliver and assess the student's work.

School districts can no longer have a class with more than 25-30% special eduction students without the class being considered special eduction. Many schools will have to spread their special education students out among many more classes in order to ensure they are being included in a "regular" class. The addition of a second teacher or instructional aid is beneficial in classes that contain special needs students.

Co-teaching has been defined as an instructional delivery approach in which general and special educators share responsibility for planning, delivery and evaluation of instructional techniques for a group of students; general and special educators work in a coactive and coordinated fashion, which involves the joint teaching of academically and behaviorally heterogeneous groups of students in integrated settings. Although co-teaching integrates components of collaboration and team teaching, it is not solely collaboration or team-teaching. In co-teaching, the teacher to student ratio is decreased. Typically, co-teaching is used to provide services for students with mild to moderate disabilities in the general education setting. General and special educators are present while co-teaching in the general classroom, thus maintaining joint responsibility for specified classroom instruction. Research shows that general educators have expertise in knowledge of the curriculum while special educators have expertise in instructional processes used to teach individual students who may learn atypically. There are a variety of co-teaching approaches. Each approach is designed to enhance different types of activities or for learning environments. (Sileo 2005)

CoTeaching Methods

Several articles give guidelines and the responsibilities for the two teachers who are co-teaching. The following information, from "Collaborative Teaching", explains several different models of co-teaching require different efforts on the parts of the teachers.

For example:

1. One Teaching- One Observing: This method takes little joint plan time, but gives the non teaching teacher a chance to see the curriculum in play, train in co-teaching situations, and gives an extra person to meet the needs of all students.

2. One Teaching- One Drifting: This method takes little joint plan time, special education teachers can be used as an aid for all students. Allows resource teachers to visit/help a variety of classrooms.

3. Station Teaching:Both teachers have specific responsibilities in the classroom. Lower teacher/student ratio. Students with disabilities can be included more often in groups.

4. Parallel Teaching: Lower teacher/student ratio, creativity, independent lesson planning

     I have recently started co-teaching with an instructor that teaches in our jr. high program.  He has limited abilities in the content area of math and I lack some of the creativity to create meaningful and engaging assignments.  He is bringing a new excitement to my lesson planning and he is gaining a deeper knowledge and understanding of teaching math.  I choose to include this here because I believe this exemplifies the parallel method of co-teaching.- B. Johnson

5. Alternative Teaching: reteaching, small groups, ADD/ADHD students in particular benefit

6. Team Teaching: Shared Responsibility in teaching and planning, creative freedom for teachers

Co-Teaching Strategies

A number of strategies exist to help teachers adjust to a co-teaching environment. These strategies tend to focus on the two primary difficulties teachers face when implementing this model. The first difficulty is the actual transition to a two-teacher environment. Wendy Murawski and Lisa Dieker offer the following steps to help ease this transition:

- Assess the current curriculum. What kind of collaboration currently exists between general education and special education? These questions allow both teachers to understand what differences will exist between the existing environment and the new co-teaching environment. By defining the differences, the path to co-teaching becomes more clear.

- Move in slowly. What is our joint understanding of co-teaching? Questions like this avoid an abrupt change to the environment that the participants may not be ready for. Moving in slowly does not necessarily reflect a time value. It is an understanding that asking some questions about the expected goals is important in establishing measures of success.

- Involve an administrator. How is the District addressing the least restrictive environment mandate? Without administrative assistance, co-teachers run the risk of not having a safety net. An administrator who is involved and supporting of the co-teaching environment will work with scheduling, parents, and the community to foster support for the model.

- Get to know your partner. Are there any pet peeves to know about before co-teaching? Personality differences are exacerbated in an environment where there are two leaders. Understanding your partner's likes and dislikes, and teaching and classroom management styles, is imperative in creating a sound foundation for student success.

- Create a workable schedule. How often will co-teaching occur? There are a number of practical questions that must be addressed when moving towards a co-teaching model. Scheduling is one of the most important practical considerations, as not only teachers, but students as well, benefit from a regular and transparent schedule in the classroom.

Advantages for Regular Education Teacher

The advantages of co-teaching seem obvious. Fewer students to teacher ratio, alternative teaching methods, individualized attention and modified assignments and assessments are just a few of the obvious advantages. Other advantages according to The Inclusion Facilitator, include the following:

1. Learning opportunities to reach ALL students.

2. More time to focus on content and less on individual problems.

3. With help of special educator, meet the needs of individual student learning styles.

4. More time to learn, share and use learning strategies.

5. Twice the opportunity to assist students.

6. Background info on special education students is provided.

7. Assistance for ALL students labels or not.

8. Support for students who need organizational strategies!

9. Professional growth . . . greater personal satisfaction!

Advantages for the Special Educator

1. Time effective

2. Teach with a content area expert and learn the expectations of the general classroom.

3. Spend more time and energy in assisting students to develop motivation, effort, and responsibility for their own learning.

4. Have more opportunities to use learning strategies within content areas and to move toward generalization.

5. "Reality check" for student goals within the general education setting.

6. Partnership with a colleague in support of student IEP goals.

7. Rewards of viewing first hand students' success and establishing credibility among their peers.

9. Improved student behaviors.

10. Mutual learning and appreciation for each other's expertise.

11. Professional growth . . . greater personal satisfaction!

12. Improved understanding of the content area.

Advantages for All Students

1. More time spent working cooperatively and learning content

2. Strong emphasis on learning skills, organizational responsibility, and preparedness.

3. Diverse learning techniques and teaching techniques

4. Improved self esteem

5. Opportunities for leadership and growth within the least restrictive environment

6. less fear of failure

7. Better or more meaningful grades

8. With two teachers in the room, they can model partner and group activities for how students should act when working with others.

Application in classrooms and similar settings

The idea of having two teachers in a classroom seemed foreign and unusual to me in the beginning of my career. After researching the subject and seeing it work in the classrooms of my schools, I was won over to the idea of co-teaching. After spending years modifying assignments, tests and projects to meet the needs of my special education students, I realized that having a special education teacher in the room with me, and helping me plan lessons would eliminate that step for me. Another personal advantage is the support in the classroom that a special education professional can add on a daily basis. Many of my colleagues report that all students benefit from the additional teacher in the room, and most regular education students enlist the help of the special education teacher as much as the special education students. Teachers also say that it is much easier to maintain parent contact, do timely grading, and maintain class control with two instructors responsible for the class.

While there is a move to include more co-taught classes in most school districts, there does seem to be some resistance from the teachers who are being asked to perform the duties. According to an editorial by Millicent Lawton in the Harvard Education Letter, regular education teachers are sometimes resistant to the idea of having another adult in the classroom. As a regular education teacher, I admit too, to being a little leery of having another teacher in the classroom. How will this other teacher judge my abilities as a teacher? How will we work together, and how will we make decisions that fit both our teaching styles? And, like the Stephen, how will we decide who is "the boss"? According to Lawton, co-teaching must be a partnership, with each teacher given specific responsibilities agreed upon by the involved teachers. She notes one model, the complimentary model, in which the regular education teacher is responsible for the teaching the majority of the content, and the special education teacher is responsible for helping the students to use the information given by giving individual help, visual aids, clarifications, and support. This allows the content area teacher to be the lead teacher in the overall instruction. This may be a good starting point for those, like myself, new to the experience. Most importantly states the Collaborative Teaching handbook is that "teachers who share the same classrooms or work closely in some other collaborative relationship must have training and agree about several issues in order for inclusion to be effective..." Without similar attitudes about classroom management, assessments and general curriculum issues, co-teaching could be difficult and stressful. Teachers who are given training and support from the school administration are much more likely to have a successful teaching experience.

Evidence of effectiveness

When I asked a young man, Stephen, about having two teachers in his speech class, he said that it was great because one of the teachers was always around to help, and he didn’t have to wait so long when he got stuck doing in class work. He also said that it was a little strange at first because the kids didn’t really know who was in charge, or “the boss”. Stephen said that he, and the rest of the class, got used to two people teaching, but that was a little “weird” at first.

Another student, Mariah, said that having her resource teacher in her health class really helped her feel more comfortable with being in a regular classroom after being in many modified classes. She said that even though the work was harder and more complicated she felt like she could do it because her resource teacher was in the room if she got stuck or didn’t understand something. The regular education teacher says that having the special education teacher in the classroom has helped raise the overall student performance of the students. “Everyone benefits from having a co-teacher with a special ed background. While many kids don’t even know that my teaching partner is a special education teacher, they do know that she is there to help anyone who needs help, or needs a different explanation about how to do an assignment or project.” That “different explanation” is perhaps one of the most important aspects of a co-taught classroom. Having more than one approach to tackle a problem definitely benefits all students.

Critics and their rationale

If all the school districts in the country that are emphasizing collaboration were to ask teachers what the primary barrier is to teacher collaboration, the answer would be "time." Time has been highlighted in numerous reports about collaboration (e.g., Cook & Friend, 1991a; Idol & West, 1991; Redditt, 1991). In some schools, collaboration becomes so important that significant time is taken from pupil instruction. In others, the lack of adequate time leads to hasty problem solving and unsuccessful "quick fix" ideas. In yet others, the absence of time prevents teachers from employing many of the more sophisticated co-teaching approaches available. Although there is no ideal response to the problem of not having adequate time to collaborate, schools are beginning to find creative ways to make time within busy schedules. A sample of these innovative solutions to a chronic dilemma is presented in Figure 2.

A second major cost of collaboration arises from the need to prepare teachers for collaborative approaches. A dilemma many schools encounter is this: When collaboration is first discussed, perhaps in a teachers' meeting or at an Administrative Council session, professionals look at one another and say, "So? It's all just common sense." However, as Benjamin Franklin so aptly noted, "Common sense isn't." The point is, even though many teachers are intuitively skilled at working collaboratively, the demands of ongoing professional collaboration often require sophisticated skills for communication and conflict resolution that teachers may never have needed before. They may also need information on how to run efficient meetings, how to listen, and how to manage resistance. Without adequate time to develop these skills, time to discuss instructional philosophies, and so on, collaboration is unlikely to be sustained. Thus, staff preparation costs should figure significantly in decisions to promote collaboration.

A third cost of fostering collaboration is the threat it may pose for teachers who are most comfortable with an isolated approach to education (Friend & Cook, 1992). The traditional culture of schools has rewarded teachers who were satisfied with working alone and receiving few benefits and little input from others. As collaboration is considered, teachers who are comfortable with traditional schools may find collaboration frightening. They may fear that they do not have a significant contribution to make; they may be concerned that the personal cost in terms of time is too dear; or they may worry that others will be evaluating their skills (Cook & Friend, 1990). Administrators who would like to foster teacher collaboration are likely to need to devote considerable attention to this matter.

Another cost of collaboration is the possibility of increased conflict among teachers. When the adults in schools work more closely with one another, it is more likely that their differences will emerge (along with their similarities). Many teachers are uncomfortable with conflict; they may find it awkward and may prefer to avoid tackling issues instead of participating in a conflict (Friend & Cook, 1992). However, conflict could just as easily be placed on the list of benefits of collaboration, since conflict indicates that professionals are sharing real ideas with conviction.

http://www.slc.sevier.org/tcollab.htm

My school district recently made the decision to end many of our co-taught classes for lower level students, preferring to bolster our offering in self contained special education classrooms. The decision has caused mixed reaction thus far, but the thought was that this will help bolster the test scores of special education students. MG

Alternative explanations due to Diversity considerations

I co-taught Kindergarten for one year and I don't think I'll ever do it again! While my students were given the opportunity to work with two different teachers and experience different teaching styles, my personal opinion was that it was more headache than it was worth. My co-teacher was extremely lazy and uninterested in teaching. Unless I took the lead by teaching a lesson, she would hand the kids worksheets or put in a video. Also, the way she addressed students was often condescending and unprofessional. For the benefit of the students, I kept all my opinions to myself and never expressed them as to avoid conflict and confrontation. I can tell you now that I refuse to teach with this particular teacher EVER and I am very weary about co-teaching in the future. -N.R.

As a teacher, I have assisted in co-teaching in several areas of of education. As a special educator it is almost mandatory that you be able to co-teach, as the students you have must learn in the least-restricted environment. In this capacity, I have co-taught science, keyboarding, health, and a variety of other subjects. As Barrier (1994)states, there are three main ways to co-teach. They are teaching, and allowing the main teacher to assist. assist and allow the main teacher to teach the subject, and finally divide the responsibilities with each teaching one half of the class. I prefer to be able to teach one-half of the class, and the remainder of the time working on- on one with the special needs groups. In this way, I get to know the regular education students, as well as those on my case load. Co-teaching can be a very rewarding experience, and can help to build very positive professional relationships with other regular education teachers. I have learned many things through co-teaching that I may not have experienced otherwise, eg. covalent bonding of molecules, chemistry, computer programming, etc. This leads me to believe that it would be beneficial for all teachers to experience the benefits of co-teaching at least once during their careers. Pat Johnson

Testimonies

As a Pe Teacher in my current school district, all PE classes are taught with co-teachers. I have found that co-teaching has both its positives and negatives. First, the added support with discipline created by 2 teachers as opposed to one can definitely be a plus to co-teaching. It also is a great way to collaborate on ideas to create better, more large scale lesson plans, as two heads are better than one. Some of the cons for co-teaching include agreeing on what lesson plans to do and how to incorporate them, and frustration if your co-teacher is not a team player and does not provide support when needed. - Amy Neighbors

I co-taught during student teaching, with another student teacher. This was a great experience and we already knew each other, so we benefited from that. The model we followed was closer to the one teaching, one drifting model, which I felt most comfortable with. In my opinion, depending on the classroom situation, the content expert should stick with teaching the content while the special education teacher provides individual assistance to the students. Overall, my experience was very positive, but I think it really takes a perfect match in order for co-teaching to work effectively. If it is forced upon teachers and set up without much regard, it can be a disaster. - Jillian Grady

At my Pre-K-8th grade school, the middle level teachers that teach language arts co-teach together. They have been doing it for over four years now. Even though they get less plan time than other teachers because of the way it is set up, the would rather co-teach than teach by themselves and get more plan time. The room has a great set up where there is a partition that divides the two rooms, and the partition is always left open. The teachers are dedicated to the subjects and spend time once a week planning for the upcoming lesson plans. I think it really works for them because they are dedicated to co-teaching and always schedule time to plan together. With their ideas combined, they come up with creative ways for students to showcase their work whether it is through technology or the arts. From what I have observed in their classroom, I would like the opportunity someday to co-teach also. M. Yao

The school district I am currently with is studying how best to approach co-teaching. We are trying to move away from the idea of co-teaching being the main classroom teacher and a special education aide. We believe that it is most important that the teachers in the classroom are seen as equals. Both should contribute in the grading, teaching, and planning. However this is currently not working do to the fact that we do not have common planning time. We also are not matching up our teachers at all, it is more of an assignment. We have to understand that this needs to be a collaborative give and take effort. You will never find two teachers that agree on every approach but if we learn to trust other teacher’s judgments and let them work as equals we will see a stronger collaborative co-teaching model. MM

I have found co-teaching to be a difficult transition due to a conflict in personality with the special education teacher. I think in order for a co-teaching scenario to work you must have similar teaching styles and personality that fit your colleague, otherwise it is doomed to failure. - K. Berry

I was a co-teacher during my 1st year in 2005-2006. The other co-teacher was also in her first year. While we had a great strategy, our school did not give us any help with setting up our system. We spent a lot of time after school creating our lessons, taking turns on who taught what, and grading all of the paperwork. With all the extra work, this was able to help the students learn the material because of all of the adults in the room. If the school would have given us the same free period, it would have been more ideal instead of having to stay after school all the time to complete are work. C. Grice

Librarians often find themselves in co-teaching positions. While it is not quite the same as co-teaching a class for a semester or grading period, librarians are often called upon to collaborate with classroom teachers in order to make a more productive learning experience for students. In my own position as a librarian, I am required to teach library lessons on research skills to junior English students for their major paper. The classroom teacher will usually begin the class, but will then turn the bulk of the instruction over to me, while he or she will manage student assignments and attendance. Expectations as to who will do what are made clear at the beginning of the project. I feel that the students enjoy "stepping out" of their regular classroom experience when they come into the library, which leads to better papers overall. -A. Peso

As an English teacher in a co-taught classroom, I rely heavily on my co-teacher to assist me in the day to day procedures and management of the class. I have been in a co-taught environment for four years and every year I understand my role, and my co-teachers, that much more and every year the teaching becomes more unified and natural. The role of the co-teacher is to participate in the lesson, be a support for students when the teacher can not, and help accommodate individuals that may need special attention, particularly when the regular ed teacher can not. I will attest to the trials that can arise between two teachers trying to both teach, particularly with different styles of management and how this needs to be resolved with discussion and collaboration in order to make the environment an effective learning environment for the students in the class. However, once the environment is established, the teaching takes on a whole new voice because there are two teachers assisting, contributing, and over-seeing the students, which, if done right, can make for a wonderful experience for all those involved, students and teachers alike. - B. Chambers

We currently have a pair of teachers in my school who co-teach at a 5th grade level. These two women were originally each full-time 5th grade teachers, but had children at the same time and chose this route. It has worked beautifully for them and has had a variety of impacts on their students and other staff. One teacher teaches all of the language arts in the morning, she teaches her class alone for spelling, reading, writing, etc. She is a completely different personality type than her counterpart. She is soft spoken and always smiling.

The other co-teacher teaches math and social studies or science. She teaches math to her students alone and has consistently had her students perform at high levels on the ISAT test in Math. She will switch students with other 5th grade classes for Science or Social Studies as that grade level rotates for these subject. She is a very strict, tough, loud and exhuberant teacher. She is always in a rush and her students literally run down the hall trying to keep up with her. She has a "no nonsense" approach to teaching.

This works well for some of the students, not all. When my own child was in this grade level, she didn't have either of these women, but she did have friends who were in their class. Oftentimes, a student would really like one teacher and not another, leaving the child to have a great half-day and a "not so great" half-day. It also allowed the students to be taught by different personalities, which was a great pre-curser to middle school, where they would have a different teacher for each class. Unfortunately, there occasionally was a problem with continuity when it came to behavior problems or basic classroom management. I know these two women worked (and still do) very hard to communicate with each other so there was an even flow to the student's school day. I think, as in most things, that you will never find a situation to please all people, but this was a very interesting situation for the teachers and students alike. D.LePla

My experience with co-teaching has been frustrating to say the least. I have been assigned to teach co-taught math classes on more than one occation and have been dissapointed in the lack of training and collaboration time that was given to myself and the co-teacher. Compound this with the fact that the co-teacher did not really understand the Algebra well enough to be an effective instructor, they ended up acting like a teacher's aid, not a co-teacher. My frustration stems mostly from lack of training and support the district gave teachers who are put into co-teaching situations. I really believe that co-teaching can be extremely effective, but both teachers have to know best practice in the ways of co-teaching...something our district does not provide. - J. Linnenburger

My experience with co-teaching has been more positive but has definitely had some challenges that we have overcome. My co-teacher and I actually get along great and share many common interests despite quite an age difference (she is much more older than I with a lot more teaching experience). I think the best thing is really communicating with each other even when time does not allow. If you guys are not on the same page, your students will realize that and things will be even more chaotic. We do more of a paired teaching, and kind of split up the teaching role. Students are used to seeing both of us in front of the room, they don't even know who is the "math" teacher and who is the "Special Ed" teacher and we think it is better that way. I enjoy co-teaching and it is nice to have someone to share the teaching responsibilities. It is also nice to have someone to discuss classroom issues and to collaborate on how to be better teachers for our students. E. Kaffel

I'm a Preschool/PreK teacher of special needs students who participates in a co-teach model with the general ed PreK teacher. I can definitely say that, while I truly believe in inclusion for my kids, the co-teaching has been difficult. We've had some communication problems, a few instruction issues and some misconceptions to work through to provide the best environment for all of the students - and I can say without a doubt it is nowhere near perfect. I don't believe this is something I would do again, unless I had a tremendous relationship with the other teacher prior to taking the position. - M. Hooper-Mortensen