| Coteaching is an instructional strategy that improves the achievement of students with disabilities, but few researchers examined the impact of coteaching on general-education students. Vygotsky's social-constructivist perspective of learning, the zone of proximal development, was the theoretical framework used in this research study. The influence of coteaching on general education students' mathematics End-of-Course Test (EOCT) scores is not known. The purpose of this retrospective and predictive, non-experimental, quantitative study was to determine if participation in coteaching classrooms makes a difference in the academic achievement of general-education students' 9th-grade mathematics EOCT scores. The study examined achievements of 9th-grade general-education students from a Georgia high school. The achievements of general-education students in traditional and in coteaching classes, moderated by gender, were analyzed using individual scaled scores from the 9th-grade mathematics EOCT. The study was designed to determine if coteaching and gender have an effect on the academic performance of general-education mathematics students. Data for this study were analyzed using an independent t-test and ANOVA. Results revealed that general-education students performed at higher levels in traditional mathematics classes than in coteaching mathematics classes. In addition, in traditional mathematics classes, girls performed slightly better than boys while in coteaching mathematics classes, boys performed better than girls. On average, cotaught girls failed to meet the average passing proficiency level. |
