Development of Teaching Skills for Teachers in a Coteaching Setting with General and Special Student Populations

Coteaching is one method of meeting the education challenges presented by a diverse population of students in inclusive classrooms prompted by the reauthorization of Individuals with Disabilities Act in 1997 (IDEA) and the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Administrators in one high school are concerned that many coteachers have experienced difficulty working cooperatively; this is affecting the achievement of students in the shared classroom. Historically, special education teachers and special needs students were isolated from their peers. Research shows that this may have an adverse affect on both the psychological and academic development of special education students. The purpose of this phenomenological project study was to determine skills needed for coteachers who share a classroom to effectively include and serve the needs of a diverse population and to provide a Professional Development for Coteaching manual addressing those skills. This qualitative research included triangulated data from open-ended questionnaires, forced-choice surveys, and classroom observations in coteaching settings. Topological analysis was conducted to align teacher perceptions and behaviors related to coteaching. The data revealed that most of the coteachers saw themselves as assuming an active role in the cotaught class, but actual coteaching was evident in few instances. The implications for social change are improved student achievement through collaboration between coteachers to provide accommodations, as well as access to the same social and academic opportunities for all students. This professional development will also benefit the teachers and school system by reducing conflict and the need for intervention by administrators or the reassignment of coteachers.