Co-Teaching How Do General and Special Education Teachers Perceive Their Respective Roles in Various Co-Teaching Models?

Abstract

Co-teaching is used in many different academic levels from elementary schools to college. Co-teaching can be both a positive and negative experience for those who participate in a co-teaching environment. Co-teaching is also known as Cooperative Teaching, Collaborative Teaching and Team-Teaching. Co-teaching is when a general and special education educators teach together in a diverse academic environment.

This research focused on an online survey completed by twenty-four co-teachers (15 general and 9 special educators) in a high school located in the Midwest part of the United States. The survey was sent via email and the participants were given one week to answer all twenty questions, with the last question providing an area for co-teachers to write additional comments regarding their co-teaching experience. The questions were based on 4 point Likert scale with the following choices: strongly agree, agree, disagree and strongly disagree. The survey was divided into three major headings; general information, students and working together.

Results from this study showed most of the participants have been teaching between 1-5 years and over 11 years. The majority (71 %) of the participants have co-taught between one-five years. Over half of the co-teachers felt a co-teaching classroom benefits the students. Three-quarters felt they share equal responsibilities and had a positive relationship with their co-teacher. Forty-six percent of the co-teachers felt students tend to approach one teacher more often than the other in the co-teaching classroom. Only 42% of the participants plan their lessons together and 58% disagreed as to having adequate time for planning. See chapter 4 results for more information regarding the results from the survey.