The Co-Teacher's Guide

Intensifying Instruction Beyond One Teach, One Support

Jennifer L. Goeke

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780429624322
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

This pragmatic guide provides concrete, detailed strategies for co-teachers looking to expand their instructional methods and involvement beyond the One Teach, One Support model. Including step-by-step examples, practical scenarios, and visuals of successful implementations to help you quickly and effectively put these tools into practice, each chapter also highlights specific tensions that can arise in your co-teaching partnership and frames effective solutions to move beyond them efficiently and effectively. While designed for both teachers in a co-teaching pair, the book's tools can easily be applied on your own, making this an ideal resource for co-teachers with limited common planning time.

1

Moving Beyond One Teach, One Support

Box 1.1Anticipation Guide for Chapter 1

•The co-teaching literature consists largely of recommendations for how co-teaching should happen but lacks conclusive evidence regarding whether it is a worthwhile instructional model for students with disabilities.

•One Teach, One Support is the most widely used co-teaching model and the model with the most potential for overuse and abuse. It relegates the special educator to the role of an assistant and may not constitute a true special education for students with disabilities.

•Co-teaching must deliver on two fronts: (a) specially designed instruction (SDI) in skills students don’t currently have but need to access the general education curriculum and (b) access to rich, engaging content within the general education curriculum.

•Reconciling these two objectives is the central challenge facing co-teachers.

•This chapter provides a rationale for why moving beyond One Teach, One Support is necessary, possible, and preferable to the co-teaching status quo.

This chapter describes where we’ve been for the last few decades as co-teachers, and where we need to go to intensify co-teaching beyond One Teach, One Support. The challenges involved in co-teaching have been extensively documented (e.g., Friend et al., 2010; Keefe & Moore, 2004; Mastropieri et al., 2005), from turf issues to lack of common vocabulary to the fragile nature of collaborative relationships. In the decades since co-teaching has emerged as a prominent special education service delivery model, these challenges have taken on even more nuanced dimensions. Inconsistencies persist in definitions and implementation, lack of adequate professional preparation, and the challenges involved in situating co-teaching in a supportive, collaborative school culture (Friend et al., 2010).

Despite an increasing majority of students with disabilities spending at least some portion of their school day in a general education classroom, discouraging results on high-stakes tests for students with disabilities have raised questions about the potential of co-teaching as a service delivery model (Murawski, 2006; Scruggs et al., 2007). As a result, there is widespread recognition that we must do more to ensure that students with disabilities make meaningful progress, participate in a rigorous curriculum linked to high-quality learning standards, and experience the kind of specially designed instruction (SDI) research tells us is most effective for addressing their learning needs. As the field of special education ponders the move beyond One Teach, One Support, a key question is whether co-teaching has the necessary quality and intensity to meaningfully affect outcomes for students with disabilities.

This chapter presents background knowledge on the current status of co-teaching research and practice, as well as examples of how co-teaching currently plays out in real-world classrooms. We’ll examine some of the challenges of co-teaching and then take a broad look at the four co-teaching roles that comprise the heart of this book.

The Current Status of Research on Co-Teaching

Given that co-teaching emerged relatively recently as a model of special education service delivery, the field currently lacks solid research-based conclusions in which to ground co-teaching practice. A plethora of resources exist that offer advice on how to co-teach; far less research exists that documents whether or not co-teaching is effective in terms of student outcomes. Co-teaching does not lend itself to systematic, large-scale research because it is implemented in idiosyncratic ways across districts and schools. Thus, studying co-teaching is difficult and research findings may not be generalizable across co-taught settings. Here is a brief summary of what we know:

•Co-teaching consists of a three-stage process: co-planning, co-teaching, and co-assessing. Effective co-teachers coordinate these activities—preferably with strong administrator support and dedicated planning time within the school day.

•Researchers have identified the six most widely used co-teaching models (see Table 1.1), although variations may exist.

•Much of the writing and scholarship on co-teaching has been devoted to the co-teaching relationship—its importance, how to cultivate a positive co-teaching “marriage,” how to resolve conflicts, delineate roles and responsibilities, and so on. Successful co-teaching hinges on establishing a professional relationship between partners, preferably in advance of classroom implementation (Ploessl et al., 2010; Trent et al., 2003). This involves the co-articulation of goals, roles and responsibilities, classroom expectations, and student needs (e.g., Hang & Rabren, 2009; Ploessl et al., 2010; Sileo, 2011; Trent et al., 2003).

•Studies of co-teaching have overwhelmingly focused on perceptions of co-teaching by students (who tend to view it positively) and teachers (whose opinions are mixed). Some teachers question the practicality and logistical feasibility of co-teaching. Others are skeptical that general education is the appropriate placement for some students.

•Although it may be implemented at any level, co-teaching is most often used at the elementary and secondary levels. Researchers have identified particular challenges for co-teachers at the secondary level, such as the increased difficulty of the curriculum and assignments, the depth of content mastery required, the faster pace of instruction, less positive attitudes of teachers toward co-teaching, and the need for students to have independent study skills (Dieker & Murawski, 2003; Keefe & Moore, 2004).

•Implementation of co-teaching varies across districts and schools. Some special education co-teachers are scheduled across multiple classrooms, settings, grade levels, and content areas in a single day. Other schools have adopted a model in which special education co-teachers are “specialized” within a specific content area or cluster (e.g., the humanities vs. mathematics and science).

•Research documenting the effectiveness of co-teaching for meeting students’ academic needs is emerging, but still limited (Friend et al., 2010; Scruggs et al., 2007; Sweigart & Landrum, 2015; VanGarderen et al., 2012), and the results are mixed. Two large-scale meta-analyses of co-teaching research produced inconclusive results (Murawski & Swanson, 2001; Scruggs et al., 2007). Scruggs and colleagues (2007) found co-teaching to be effective at the elementary level, but not more effective than a resource room or consultation with the general education teacher. Similarly, Murawski and Swanson (2001) found co-teaching to be “moderately effective” (i.e., an effect size of 0.4) for influencing student achievement. They found the highest effect sizes for reading and language arts achievement and the lowest for mathematics achievement. However, these findings should be viewed with caution because (a) only six studies met the criteria for inclusion in their meta-analysis and (b) not all of these studies included a control group. At the secondary level, co-teaching research is particularly sparse (Magiera et al., 2005; Nierengarten, 2013).

•Anecdotal evidence cites the affective benefits of co-teaching, including: increased inclusivity/understanding/reduced stigma of students with disabilities; an increased sense of support, collaboration, and reduced isolation of teachers; and reduced instructional fragmentation for students with disabilities.

•Research suggests that cultivating change in co-teaching practices is difficult (Solis et al., 2012).

Table 1.1 The Six Co-Teaching Models

Model	Definition	Strengths	Weaknesses
One Teach, One Observe Use: Occasionally	One teacher has primary responsibility for leading instructional activities, while the other teacher observes the teaching, typically taking notes for assessment of student learning or behavior and for providing constructive feedback about the lesson.	The observer can progress monitor, conduct functional assessments or formative assessment.	Only one teacher has an active role.
Team Teaching Use: Occasionally	Co-teachers share leadership during instructional activities. A well-planned teaming lesson consists of a seamless flow of instruction with no fixed division of authority. From a student’s perspective, there is no clearly defined leader; both teachers lead instruction, interject information, assist students, and answer questions.	Co-teachers model teamwork and share instruction (e.g., one demonstrates and one writes on board; one teaches content and one teaches strategy). Blends unique skill sets from both professionals.	Intense co-planning is required for both co-teachers.
Parallel Teaching Use: Frequently	Co-teachers lead the same instructional activities to two parallel groups of students at the same time. For example, both teachers deliver the same lesson in two different parts of the classroom.	Lower student to teacher ratio. Stud...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Information
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Author Biographies
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Co-Teaching: The Current Landscape
• 1 Moving Beyond One Teach, One Support
• 2 Use Data to Intensify Co-Teaching
• 3 Support Acquisition
• 4 Support Working Memory
• 5 Support Big Ideas
• 6 Support Independence
• 7 Integrating the Co-Teaching Roles With Established Co-Teaching Models
• 8 Using the Co-Teaching Roles in Language Arts and Literacy
• 9 Using the Co-Teaching Roles in Mathematics and Science
• 10 Beyond One Teach, One Support: Strategies for Mindful Co-Teaching