Teacher Collaboration Case Study

In my classroom, I demonstrate collaboration by attending the Kinder PLC meeting every Tuesday. These meetings help the grade level teachers to collaborate. For example, to come up with ideas on how to teach a specific concept, talk about any updates, student assistance team (SAT) , and data analysis. I demonstrate collaboration by working with my colleagues to come up with writing prompts and writing rubrics. By doing this we make sure the expectations in each classroom are the same.

In the following study researchers compared two instructional approaches; co-teaching inclusion and solo-taught special education for students with learning disabilities in regard to their overall academic achievement. Participants of the study included twelve inclusive/co-teaching classrooms, which were compared to thirteen special education classrooms. In the co-teaching contexts the emphasis was centered on the inclusion of students with learning disabilities into a general education classroom. Co-teachers were free to choose the instructional method they would embark. Special education teachers solely instructed students with learning disabilities in small group classrooms.

Students with special needs need deserve the same education general education students are presented with. The philosophy of “ Disability Inclusion” concentrates on creating a safe, loving, and effective learning environment for students who suffer from physical, learning, and behavioral disabilities. When a student with disabilities is placed in the same environment as a non-disabled student, the results show wonderful improvement. When we are able to discover the strength of the student we are able to see just how much the student can improve in an inclusion classroom. Disability Inclusion not only sets a new beginning for an equal education of special education students, but it allows for more interaction with the child, and a more hands-on assessment.

Collaboration between teachers is a key component to professional development that will lead to higher student achievement. There is a need for schools to set up time for teachers to be able to collaborate together. This allows for teachers to help each other, matchup content, teach each other new and best practices, troubleshoot student issues just to name a few of the areas that collaboration time can help foster within a school. The key is to build time for teachers to be able to collaborate during the school day or week. This collaboration time needs to be between grade levels, departments, and cross curricular when needed. For many schools this is an afterthought to the school schedule or a fleeting thought after the master schedule is completed. A principal needs to keep an open mind to any strategy that will enable the teachers to be able to collaborate for the good of the students and the school.

The teacher needs to prepare students to be accepting of the special needs students by being honest about the nature of the child's disability and/or behavior difficulty. Although inclusion seems like a great idea that should be of some form of benefit for all involved, if not handled properly it can become a very stressful situation

Shaffer & Thomas-Brown found five structures to co-teaching that are beneficial to all students in the inclusive setting. The five structures are one teach, one assist, station teaching, parallel teaching, alternative teaching and team teaching. In the one teach, one assist structure the general education teacher would lead the instruction while the special education teacher watches and assists the students as needed. The station teacher structure is designed so that each teacher is responsible for certain content and divide the teaching based on the components they will teach. In the parallel teaching model, both the general and special education teacher teacher plan collaboratively, but work separately with a small group of students to present

Orr (2009) conducted interviews with special education teachers and the attitudes they have seen in their schools since inclusion was implemented in their schools. Orr (2009) chose fifteen teachers, which included fourteen female and one male teacher who agreed to participate in the study so it was a purposive criterion sample. Twelve of the fifteen teachers taught in a suburban area, two in a rural area, and one in an urban area; but they varied in the age they taught and school. Seven of the fifteen teachers taught in a self-contained classroom while the remaining eight taught in a resource room, where they only saw a student for less than an hour or two a day. Another pattern that showed was that many teachers found that they did not receive any classes that focused on differentiation or inclusion while completing their undergraduate work (Orr 2009). These results are important when considering the implementation of inclusion because it may mean that there is a need to reteach teachers. It is important to consider professional development classes district-wide before implementing inclusion in the classroom.

Very interesting questions, Tim. Is a designated leader needed for teacher collaboration? I believe that is your question. When I was a teacher at Carmel High School, we held PLC meetings weekly. During the first year, the administration appointed leaders to each PLC. The second year, the administration team changed their directive and allowed teachers to form their own PLC's in groups of 4-5, following the same format as the previous year. What happened when they allowed the staff an option of their team and leaders was amazing. The staff took, what during the first year as a directive, and during the second year with given the room to self-identify their group leader, outcomes started to occur. From that point on, annually the teachers

A professionally developed ELT teacher establishes a one-to-one relationship and dialogue between themselves and an expert who guides them through behavioral and cognitive modeling, academic and career counseling, emotional and scholarly support, advice, professional networking and assessment. Also, at school settings where a professionally developed ELT teacher works as a teacher, they seek the expertise and support of their co-teachers as a well as more experienced teachers to adopt innovative practices. They, moreover, attend teacher training programs in which role modeling, acceptance, confirmation, counseling and friendship (Kram, 1985), technical support or contextualized guidance (Wang & Odell, 2007) are emphasized.

Collaboration in the world of education has become an increasingly popular method of addressing a variety of school issues, such as curriculum design, behavioral plans, professional development and management of resources. One of the areas in which collaboration is becoming more popular is co-teaching in special education, where special education teachers and general education teachers share the planning and instruction responsibilities for inclusion classrooms (Friend & Cook, 2010). As academic standards for the education of students with disabilities are held to the same standards as their typical peers due to the No Child Left Behind Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the co-teaching model has been increasingly

In my opinion the education departments are not doing enough to encourage schools and explain to the teachers the benefits of inclusion to both the children with disabilities and the rest of the students (Ashman & Elkins, 2009). Children are our future and it is important that through inclusion they learn to understand that differences make us who we are. I think it also further teachers the message to booth the children and the rest of the community that of social justice which says just because your different doesn’t mean you don’t deserve fair treatment (Ashman & Elkins, 2009).

Many children have had learning disabilities for many years. Each year more and more of these children are being helped. Schools are working to improve their special education programs and to have all kinds of students work together in the same classroom. The practice of inclusion was started because educators felt that special needs students would achieve more in traditional classrooms with non-learning disabled students than they would in special education classes. However, research findings suggest that there really is no difference in academic achievement levels for special needs students when they are placed in regular classrooms.

Marin (2014) discusses the issue of inclusion and how important it has become in today’s education system. Her study focuses on whether teachers are generally prepared to deal with students with SEN in mainstream schools, the advantages and disadvantages of inclusion in schools, and whether teachers need any additional training in the field of special education to respond to the needs of SEN children. Her report found (using a quantitative approach for her investigation) that 66.2% of teacher’s from the research had encountered students with SEN. This is a significantly high number and suggests that teachers have to be prepared to deal with, and respond to those kid’s needs, and diversity in the classroom.

A lot of people do not agree with inclusion in classrooms. They say, “the disabled student might be disruptive” or “the other students might get upset when the teacher has to slow down for the disabled student.” All students have their right to an education, whether it be inclusive or not. If a student is disruptive, the teacher should be able to handle it. Although people think inclusion has many disadvantages, there are far more advantages and benefits for all students, teachers, families and even for communities. Since everyone can benefit from inclusion,  we as society should make schools and communities inclusive.

Students with disabilities are covered under the Federal Law of free and appropriate education, also knowns as FAPE. This law ensures that students with disabilities are serviced in the best environment that will not negatively impact their educational access due to their disability. Some students with disabilities needs are best met in an inclusive setting. This would include a special education teacher and a general education teacher. In some co-teaching classrooms, there is the misunderstanding of what co-teaching or inclusion should look like, or for some, how to evaluate its effectiveness. Dr, Maureen Pugach (March 2011) states in her article that special educators often take a back seat in the general education classroom, as opposed to truly co-teaching. Teachers who co-teach should be co-planning and co-assessing. However, there seems to be an abstention of these practices in the inclusion setting. There is a true benefit to students academically, socially and emotionally when there are two teachers fully invested in the inclusive classroom model.