THE EFFECTS OF TEACHER COLLABORATION, CO-TEACHING AND SOLO-TEACHING 

Introduction

Nowadays, the problem of educating the students with special needs is critically important. Compared to the typically developing students, pupils with disabilities are less likely to go to college, have a lower graduation rate, and tend more to be retained for one year or more, have low earning potential and tend to be involved in the penal system. The need for change is evident, as special education students deserve to be involved in an effective education program and productive learning environment. Co-teaching serves as a general advantage to the special education profession as it allows the students to interact more efficiently to the learning. Major areas to be covered include the advantages of co-teaching model in relation to special education and the model itself. 

Co-teaching model

Co-teaching model is basically combining a general teacher and special teacher in a comprehensive learning environment in order to provide a high-quality instruction to meet the varying requirements of the students (Wilson &Blednick, 2011, p. 1). The inclusive classroom environment allows providing students with special needs and typically developing students with equal conditions and learning opportunities.

Though the beneficence of co-teaching model seems to be evident, researchers have different opinions regarding its efficiency in an inclusive learning environment. Some researchers prefer solo-teaching to co-teaching, while others believe that the efficacy of co-teaching depends on the approach. Thus, it is essential to gain a deeper insight into the issue and evaluate the different scientific positions for finding the most accurate one.

The purpose of this study is to identify the benefits of teacher collaboration, co-teaching and solo- teaching to improve student achievement in special education. What are the many challenges that the co-teaching and solo- teaching face to improve performance in special education students? What changes will occur and what are the implications if any method works co-teaching or solo-teaching?

Concerns Related to Co-Teaching Model

Wilson and Blednick (2011) indicate that the most significant concern associated with the use of co-working model in inclusive education is putting the needs of the students with learning difficulties ahead of typically developing students. Such situations happen due to the inadequate professional development of teachers, insufficient time to plan lessons and units, and administrators’ failure to encourage productive co-teaching (Wilson &Blednick, 2011).

An additional obstacle to the effective co-teaching is a poor coordination of teaching roles and delineated relationships between co-teachers. Susan E. Gately and Frank J. Gately (2003) emphasize the importance of collaboration, as its absence leads to the failure of the co-teaching model. Research encourages co-teachers to develop an effective relationship through familiarity with the curriculum, physical arrangement, curriculum modifications, instructional planning and presentation, classroom management, and student assessment. All of these tasks cannot be achieved without the proper interpersonal communication between co-teachers. If teachers prefer working independently and lack professional ethics, they cannot integrate co-teaching model into the educational process successfully (Gately & Gately, 2003).

McDuffie et al. (2009) also put at doubt the efficiency of the co-teaching model, indicating that the use of two teachers in the classroom is not necessary. Data was collected on the use of two classrooms learning experiences of students with disabilities in co-taught classrooms and solo-taught classrooms. The results of the investigation showed that students with disabilities interacted in the solo-taught environment more actively compared to co-taught classes (McDuffie et al., 2009). This data indicates that the students found it more comfortable to interact with one another rather than having a mix in a co-taught class. However, both methods are required in order to have an ample time and space for interaction and success.  

Co-teaching model faces several challenges. The first is related to the increased attention toward the students with special needs, what can decrease self-esteem and educational enthusiasm of typically developing students (Wilson &Blednick, 2011). The second is the absence of effective communication between co-teachers, what makes the idea of co-teaching inefficient. The third obstacle is represented by the individual differences between students with special needs, as some of them may feel more comfortable in solo-taught classes (McDuffie et al., 2009).

The Benefits of Co-Teaching Model

The researchers outline the usefulness of the co-teaching model in an inclusive learning environment, listing a wide range of model’s benefits. First of all, co-teaching model provides a detailed level of instructions, which can be obtained from a comprehensive understanding of the requirement from the students, curriculum difficulties, adaptation of materials, and continuous assessment (Wilson &Blednick, 2011). Besides it, thanks to the co-teaching model used in inclusive classroom settings, students with special needs feel tolerance, while typically developing students learn how to respect diversity. Additionally, stigma, which is attached to the students with disabilities attending the segregated education classes, becomes significantly reduced. Students with disabilities feel the support of educational professionals and their classmates, what positively affects their academic performance. Due to this, the social and achievement gaps between students with special needs and typically developing students are diminishing. In this way, thanks to the use of co-teaching models, what the students require at any instance rise and therefore expand the horizon of these students’ learning abilities.

The researchers believe that the most compelling benefit of the co-teaching model is the promotion of diversity in an educational environment. Inclusion begins basically from classroom moving into the global level. An inclusive educational environment starts with administration and staffing thereby encouraging and embracing multiplicity as well as the decision to meet the requirements of individual student (Carpenter &Dyal, 2007). Co-teaching allows the students gain access to engage, flexible, and many other activities so that they all can become equally successful learners. Besides, co-teaching in inclusive environments provides supportive and collaborative relationships between administration, parents, staff, faculty, and the community. In such a way, educational institutions and community can begin working together for achieving the common goal - providing people with special needs with equal opportunities, tolerance, respect, and understanding (Carpenter &Dyal, 2007). In this way, the mission of co-teaching is more global than just educational, as the co-teaching model is the way to promote inclusion philosophy and share it with the community. Thus, developing and maintaining co-teaching models can help students with special needs not only to become successful in studies but also take on the active position in life, promoting the ideas of inclusion and diversity.

Mageria and Zigmond (2005) carried out a comparative analysis of solo-teaching and co-teaching, observing the instructional experiences of students with special needs studying in eleven co-taught classrooms. The results of the investigation are opposite to the research carried out by McDuffie et al. (2009), as Mageria and Zigmond have found that students with learning difficulties received more individual instruction in the co-teaching environment, that is why co-teaching model allowed them to be more interactive. On the contrary, the solo-teaching model has been marked as unproductive, as interactions between general education teacher and students with special needs were significantly lower than those in co-teaching environment (Mageria&Zigmond, 2005).

In this way, some researchers indicate that co-teaching is exceedingly productive in inclusive education for at least three reasons. First of all, using the co-teaching model in inclusive education helps to eliminate the psychological difficulties and stigmas typically encountered by the students with special needs during studying in segregated schools (Stang& Capp, 2004). Second, co-teaching is the most productive way to promote the ideas of diversity and inclusion, what means that the effects of co-teaching utilization do not have educational significance only, as they play a vital role in the improvement of the community (Carpenter &Dyal, 2007). Finally, some researchers find co-teaching to be more productive than solo-teaching, as students with special needs do not actively interact with general education teachers (Mageria&Zigmond, 2005). Thus, the benefits of co-teaching models are evident, that is why it is worthy to use them in inclusive education.

The Strengths and Weaknesses of Particular Co-Teaching Methods

There are significant differences between scientific findings regarding the benefits of solo-teaching and co-teaching, as some researchers find the first option to be more useful, while others indicate that co-teaching is more appropriate for inclusive classroom environments. Such differences appear due to the improper understanding of the nature of the co-teaching model.

According to Cook and Friend (2004), this model consists of six different methods, each of which has a set of particular strengths and weaknesses. The researchers indicate that these six models are as the following; one teach/one drift, one teach/one observe, parallel teaching, team teaching, station teaching, and alternative teaching approaches. Both the special education teacher and the general education teacher must collaborate effectively for recognizing the particular strengths, competencies, and comfort level of each other and meeting the unique needs of all students (Cook & Friend, 2004).

One teach/ one drift model allows one teacher to take the lead and the other to move throughout the classroom and assist students with instructions, check their understanding, and monitor activity. The peculiarity of this model is that it does not require much planning, just the coordination of co-teachers’ efforts for maintaining parity. In inclusive environments, the use of one teaches/ one drift model is beneficial both for teachers and students. Pupils can see the collaboration of teaching responsibilities, exploring the necessity of discipline for all children (Embury, 2011).    

One teaches/ one observes model is very similar to the previous one, but it requires a deeper collaboration and instruction planning within teachers. Under this model, one teacher takes the leading role, while the other is observing student’s participation and collects the necessary data for further analyzing it. This model is less productive in inclusive environments than the previous one, as using it creates an illusion of solo-teaching.

Parallel teaching allows two teachers to divide the class into two equal groups and provide each group with the same information but in different ways. The use of this model is beneficial for inclusive environments, as it encourages peer interaction and verbal communication. However, parallel teaching decreases student-teacher ratio that is why it cannot be considered fully appropriate for the students with special needs (Karten, 2005).         

Station teaching allows the co-teachers to divide the studying content within three or more groups throughout the classroom and rotate from one group to the other. Station teaching encourages the active integration of students with disabilities into the studying process. Besides, it makes both co-teachers equal, what is beneficial for inclusive classrooms. Within alternative teaching model, the class should be divided into a small and a large group of students. This approach is highly productive in inclusive environments because it includes assessment of skills, reduction of group size, remediation, review, and extension of activities for the students with special needs. Thus, using alternative teaching in inclusive environments is highly effective.

Under team teaching model, co-teachers deliver the same instructions simultaneously. Using this approach requires mutual trust, efficient collaboration, and commitment. Besides, co-teachers should have shared vision of instruction and planning. This model can be also beneficial for inclusive classroom environments, but only if the collaboration between co-teachers is effective enough (Cook & Friend, 2004).

Conclusion

In conclusion, using co-teaching models allowing both teachers to take an active participation in the educating process is exceedingly beneficial for inclusive classrooms. Even though teaching in inclusive learning environments creates many obstacles for modern educators, with the help of appropriate resources and methods, these obstacles can be eliminated. In particular, using one teach/one drift, station teaching, alternative teaching, and team teaching models can significantly increase the academic performance of the students with special needs as a benefit to the system. These methods of co-teaching provide students with professional growth opportunities and increased participation in the studying process, thus encouraging enhanced student achievement.

The challenges that face co-teaching and solo- teaching include the requirement for trainers, support, choice and communication.  These methods not only benefit the students with disabilities, but they also improve the learning of all students, build stronger relationships between educators, establish coordination between schools and community, and promote complementary pedagogical skills. The benefits of co-teaching and solo- teaching are the fact that they allow the repeated act of learning for the students. The repeated act allows the students to have quality education and ample time for involvement with the students.  

References

Carpenter, L., &Dyal, A. (2007). Secondary Inclusion: Strategies for Implementing the Consultative Teacher Model. Education, 127(3).    

Cook, L. & Friend, M. (2004). Co-Teaching: Principles, Practices, and Pragmatic             Embury, D. (2011). Does Co-Teaching work? A Mixed Method Case Study Evaluation of Teaching as an Intervention. Retrieved from EBSCO host September 25, 2011.

Gately, S., & Gately, F. (2003). Understanding Coteaching Components. Teaching Exceptional Children, 33(4), 40-47.                    

Karten, T.J. (2005). Inclusion Strategies That Work. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press

Magiera, K., &Zigmond, N. (2005). Co-teaching in middle school classrooms under routine conditions: Do the instructional experiences differ for students with disabilities in co-taught and solo-taught classes? Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 20, 79-85.

McDuffie, K.A., Mastropieri, M.A., & Scruggs, T.E. (2009). Differential effects of peer tutoring in co-taught and nonco-taught classes: Results for content learning and student-teacher interactions. Exceptional Children, 75, 493- 510.

Stang, K., & Capp, G. (2004). Co-Teaching: Collaboration at the Middle Level. Academic Exchange Quarterly, 8(3).

Wilson, G., &Blednick, J. (2011). Teaching in Tandem: Effective Co-teaching in the Inclusive Classroom. ASCD.