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Back To Module ListModule Main | Module Description | Instructional Outcomes | Instructional Proficiencies | Instructional Events | Instructional EvaluationCollaborative Teaching Author Anita L. DeBoer, ED.D., Ball State UniversityModule Description This module is developed to enhance your knowledge and skills related to collaborative teaching. Given the legal and ethical requirements for including and educating, whenever and wherever possible, students with learning and behavioral disabilities in general-education classes with their age appropriate peers, educators are required to work collaboratively around planning, instructional, and behavioral issues related to the educational needs of all students in their classes. Through this module, you will understand the purpose and the processes for effectively designing a co-taught class. Additionally, you will know how to plan and evaluate the efficacy of a collaborative environment. Instructional OutcomesAs a result of completing this module, you will be able to:
Standard 2: Performances #1, #2, #3
Standard 4: Performances #3, #4
Standard 5: Performances #1, #3, #5 #6, #7
Standard 9: Performances #2, #5, #6 Instructional EventsTo complete this module, you will need to:
There are 12 “Task for Completion and Discussion” activities that you will be asked to respond to throughout this module. These tasks will assist you by providing opportunities for deeper understanding, additional practice, and reflection on the content with others in your “discussion group”.
Collaboration:
Collaboration in regard to co-teaching is defined as people sharing responsibilities as they work together to achieve mutual goals.
(The key word in this definition is mutual.)
Mutual means a project or program is developed and delivered by two or more persons.
Mutual does NOT mean “parallel play” where two or more people work side-by-side with no common goals, purposes, or collaborative planning around instructional or behavioral issues.
Essential Elements of Collaboration
Just because people collaborate does not mean that positive benefits will accrue. The following are the essential elements that must be present in every collaborative relationship for it to yield the benefits you desire:
Collaborative Structures
Currently, there are 3 collaborative structures for providing services to students who are experiencing learning and behavioral problems in school. They are:
Until recently, pull-out programs have been the most common form. In such a program, students are removed from their general-education classes for a part of their instruction.
The failure of this structure over time is attributed to the general finding that teachers rarely collaborate around student expectations and goals. They engage in parallel play, that is, “You do your thing and I’ll do mine”. They fail to plan together on a regular and ongoing basis. When collaboration is absent, programs for students are uncoordinated. As a result, students fail to generalize information across settings, that is, they are unable to transfer their learning from one classroom to another. For example, a support teacher may teach a student a cognitive/learning strategy such as how to use a comprehension strategy when reading a textbook. The student is unlikely to use that strategy in other classroom settings unless all of his/her teachers are aware of this expectation and assist the student to generalize the new learning.
A second structure for educators to collaborate around student-related issues is consultation. In this program, educators meet on a regular basis to collaboratively plan and problem solve with the intent of designing effective interventions for students who are enrolled in a general-education class on a full-time basis. This model has been used for 30 years in some districts across the country.
A third structure for collaborating is collaborative teaching. This is the most recent one to evolve. Again, students are maintained in their general-education classes on a full-time basis. Educators with different knowledge, skills, and talents share responsibility for the design, delivery, and evaluation of instruction for a diverse group of learners. Whenever possible, both professionals are simultaneous present in the classroom.
Collaborative teaching is the focus of this module.
Making decisions re: structures
It is important for both general educators and support teachers to collaboratively decide which structures best meet the needs of individual students. This decision is made only after the goals and objectives for each student have been clearly identified. To do otherwise is not only bad practice, but places you in noncompliance of federal law. It is possible for a student to receive his/her instruction through one, two, or all three of these structures simultaneously depending upon his/her identified needs and how these needs can best be met. Therefore, a student could conceivably be receiving some instruction in a co-taught classroom, some specific, supportive instruction in a pull-out program, as well as receiving consultative services to his/her teachers from support teachers who have the required expertise to facilitate quality instruction.
Collaborative Teaching
What it is:
What it is NOT:
Above Average: Completes ALL 12 “Task for Completion and Discussion” assignments.
Average: Completes “Task for Completion and Discussion” assignments #s 1-9.
Below Average: Completes “Task for Completion and Discussion” assignments #s 1-6. |