Co-Teaching Guide

Co-Teaching Philosophy

When the special and general education teachers effectively establish a productive co-teaching environment, they not only develop a strong teaching partnership, but also foster a positive learning environment where all students have an equal opportunity for success. Simply providing external supports is not predictive of co-teaching success. Instead, teachers need to establish and improve on challenges in constructing a compatible co-teaching relationship by learning and drawing from each teacher’s unique qualities and expertise. Students are highly receptive to co-teaching, evoking a high level of student participation, an increased tolerance of individual difference, and cooperation with teachers and peers. When administrators are receptive to the needs of successful co-teaching teams, teachers will be inspired to continue co-teaching and foster wide acceptance for all collaborative teaching models among colleagues.

Get to Know Your Partner

The foundation to a successful co-teaching environment is the relationship between the special and general education teachers. As with any relationship, the key component is clear and honest communication between parties. Preparing to use this method of instruction and service delivery takes an extensive amount of collaboration, planning, and a motivation by all involved. 

Finding a teaching partner whom is a good match is important. Clear and honest communication is critical for the success of a collaborative partnership. A co-teaching team needs to purposefully communicate each individual’s beliefs, philosophies, and feelings toward the academic achievement of students in the classroom. This may include what roles and responsibilities one feels comfortable performing. 

The results of each participant should be analyzed jointly to better understand each person’s perspective and teaching styles. The beliefs survey should be completed at the beginning of each school year, before any planning of instruction takes place. This will help each member of the co-teaching team to better construct effective instruction based on the results. Teachers reflect on components that must be present in order to deliver high-quality instruction and classroom structure such as behavior management, lesson planning instructional delivery, and student learning. Taking the survey allows each member to identify areas of unity in philosophy that will enhance their success as a team. This will also make apparent any areas of discrepancy that need to be addressed initially to prevent future conflicts, both in planning and delivery.

Co-Teaching Models

Once a schedule of planning sessions has been established, co-teachers can begin to examine instructional factors such as student ability, academic performance, disabilities, and content. This will allow the co-teaching team to determine lesson objectives and choose which co-teaching model will deliver the most effective instruction. Currently, six models for co-teaching have been established and are commonly used in educational settings. These models include:

1. One Teach, One Observe: The purpose of this model is in the event that data needs to be collected to assess various instructional components. One teacher leads instruction while the other gathers data, observes classroom behavior, etc.
 

2. Station Teaching: The Purpose of station teaching is to decrease the student/teacher ratio, present targeted insertional content and/or cooperative learning. Students are broken into three or more heterogeneous groups. Teachers can provide direct instruction at a station or monitor multiple stations. The small groups rotate around the stations. 

3. Parallel Teaching: The purpose of parallel teaching is to decrease student/teacher ratio and target students' instructional needs. Students are divided into two homogeneous groups. Each group is led by a co-teacher. Each group receives the same content but through differentiated instruction. 

4. Alternative Teaching: The purpose of alternative teaching is to re-teach the at-risk students while providing accelerated content to the remaining students. Based on previous assessments, both teachers will decide which students are at-risk. One teacher works with the at-risk group while the other continues to provide accelerated instruction. 

5. Teaming/Team Teaching: The purpose of teaming or team teaching is to share the roles of lead teacher in delivering instruction and providing student support. While team teaching, co-teachers should act as "one brain in two bodies". For example, both teachers may facilitate a discussion while performing different roles such as writing on the board emphasizing key points.

6. One Teach, One Assist:  the purpose of one teach, one assist, is to deliver instruction and monitor student progress. As one teacher leads the whole class, the other teacher provides support, answer questions, monitors student behavior, etc.

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Assigning Roles

Once the co-teaching team has chosen a model and developed a plan for instruction, teachers should assign specific roles and responsibilities for each other. This will ensure accurate delivery of the lesson plan. Specific roles must be assigned in a collaborative manner.  Since the special and general education teacher each possesses unique qualities and expertise, gaining an understanding of individual perceptions toward various teaching responsibilities should be realized. 

To accomplish this, each teacher should complete a responsibility survey. This will include what roles and responsibilities one feels comfortable performing.The results of this second survey will compliment each individual’s beliefs, philosophies, and feelings toward academic achievement, established in the beliefs survey. Continuing with the concept of open and honest communication, each member should discuss the survey results to assign roles and responsibilities collaboratively. Both surveys should open up communication regarding individual expectations and responsibilities for each member’s role in the classroom.   

Co-Teaching Benefits on Students

Students have a vested interest in their education and are stakeholders in the success of the co-taught inclusive classroom structure. Using the co-teaching model benefits all students with a meaningful education and social experience. Students with disabilities exposed to a co-taught classroom have an increased level of appropriate behavior, self-confidence, academic performance, social skills, and had greater access to the general curriculum. Inclusive classrooms give students without disabilities the opportunity to gain an understanding of the learning difficulties those students with disabilities experience. This exposure promotes tolerance and acceptance for individual uniqueness. Students without disabilities who receive instruction in a co-taught environment perform significantly better on state assessments than peers in a traditional general education classroom. Similarly, the greater access to the general curriculum allows students with disabilities to perform at a higher level on state math and reading assessments. Co-taught classrooms can be considered a high-leverage strategy that increase achievement and shrinks the achievement gap in reading and math for students with disabilities. As co-teaching models are increasingly applied across school districts, students with disabilities will continue to realize and be strengthened by these benefits while teachers continue growing in their professional development.   

Co-Teaching Benefits on Teachers

A majority of teachers who participated in co-teaching agreed the experience contributed to improving his/her individual teaching practices, perspective, and professional development. As part of this collaborative process, both members of the co-teaching team are able to draw from one another’s unique experiences and expertise to enhanced his/her own individual teaching practices. Specifically, special education teachers increased content knowledge, while general education teachers improved classroom management and curriculum adaptation. Teachers gained a pronounced willingness to collaborate and proactively address challenges related to students, faculty, and seeking out new teaching strategies. Using the co-teaching model is also beneficial for new teachers in providing peer mentoring and collaboration. The popularity of co-teaching has led to a growing number of school districts providing professional development programs to support teachers interested in co-teaching. There is an increasing emphasis on the “power of two” teachers to develop instruction that takes full advantage of both teacher’s unique expertise and skills to address the individual needs of all students.