Keywords

Co-Teaching, Secondary Education, General Education, Special Education, Roles, Interactions

Abstract

This study focused on identifying the components that contribute to instructional delivery in co-taught secondary classrooms in hopes of enhancing the understanding in the field of co-teaching in various secondary content areas. Employing a non-experimental mixed method research design, the study integrated qualitative and quantitative methods to gain insight into general education teachers' roles in solo-taught and co-taught classrooms and special educators' roles in co-taught classrooms. Instrumentation included the use of the Teacher Roles Observation Schedule (TROS), the Colorado Assessment of Co-Teaching (CO-ACT), interview questions, and field notes. The quantitative portion of the study consisted of event recordings of teacher interactions (TROS), co-teacher perception rating scale scores (CO-ACT), and class seating charts to monitor the occurrence of one-on-one interactions with students in both settings. The qualitative portion of the research study consisted of the researcher gathering ongoing field notes and teacher interviews. The researcher sought to identify the interaction behaviors of secondary co-teaching teams. The most and least successful co-teaching teams were identified based on the findings. The findings indicate teacher preparation programs need to prepare all teachers to first consider the diverse learning needs of all students and second, to effectively collaborate in inclusive settings. Special education preparation programs need to include more secondary content teaching courses. Likewise, general education preparation programs need to prepare future secondary general educators to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of students with disabilities. In addition to improvements in teacher preparation programs, school leaders need to provide ongoing support for co-teachers via planning time and professional development, so they can maximize the collaborative potential embedded within the co-teaching model.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2010

Advisor

Dieker, Lisa

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Education

Department

Child, Family, and Community Sciences

Degree Program

Education

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0003318

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0003318

Language

English

Release Date

August 2010

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

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