Co-teaching continues to be a common method of instruction, allowing students with disabilities to engage in the general education curriculum. While there are numerous exemplars of excellent co-teaching, there is more that can be done to assist preservice teachers as they learn to bridge the gap between the student's Individualized Education…

Students with disabilities are increasingly participating in co-taught classes where they have access to the general curriculum. However, researchers have discovered that co-teaching often resembles solo teaching and does not include specially designed instruction shown to be effective for students with disabilities. How can middle and secondary…

A sociocultural context of interruption and instability illuminated our teacher candidates' funds of knowledge and identity (e.g., Esteban-Guitart & Moll, 2014) during the global pandemic of 2020. Their expertise, skills, and self-understandings strengthened both the mentor-teacher candidate relationship and student engagement. Teacher…

Co-planning is considered an integral part of a successful co-teaching relationship in which both teachers have parity and use their individual expertise to benefit all students. However, the literature has not discussed adequately how co-planning is achieved within the parameters of the already full schedules of two teachers. This column shares…

Imagine getting on the tandem bike of co-teaching. You have a lot to decide. Who sits in the front and takes the lead? Who takes the backseat? The fact is, neither classroom teachers nor secondary content-area teachers have proven eager to give up leading their lesson when they have a co-teacher present, whether to support ELLs or students with…

Beginning special education teachers today are highly likely to be asked to co-teach with general education teachers at some point in their career. Besides supporting their students, new special education teachers may be tasked with persuading their colleagues to try out both new methods of collaboration and unfamiliar models of instructional…

At St. Joseph's School for the Deaf in New York, teachers worked together toward the common goal of developing and implementing a spiraling English Language Arts curriculum that would allow each teacher to build on skills students developed in earlier classes. They collaboratively developed instruction following the literacy workshop model…

Teaching is complex; teachers and school leaders crave more meaningful collaborative experiences to make sense of that complexity. However, the structural, cultural, and historical factors involved with schooling impede the extent to which teachers can collaborate. Teachers spend five to six periods of the day teaching classes, largely working in…

We have witnessed, over the past century, an evolution in the manner in which students with disabilities are educated. Indeed, the quality of education students with special needs receive, in many ways, may be more aptly termed a revolution -- from a legal and pedagogical perspective. The tremendous strides special education has made during this…

In this article, teacher education faculty of a medium-size university, historically grounded in teacher preparation within a rural context, describe their ongoing work to transform their practice in order to prepare special and general educators who co-plan, co-teach, and co-assess with their counterparts in the field. Follow-up research with…

A large percentage of students with disabilities are being educated in the general education environment for a majority of the academic day. Many educators have chosen co-teaching as the most appropriate method of educational service delivery to meet the needs of this population of students. To ensure the success of this delivery method,…

Japanese lesson study--Jugyou kenkyuu--which is a cornerstone of Project DELTA (Developing Educators Learning to Teach Algebraically), adds a new twist: the teachers take turns publicly teaching the collaboratively planned lessons with their own students for the rest of the team to observe and then analyze, based on the students' learning. Lesson…

This article relates the story of a first grade teacher and a child who was the only deaf student in the entire school. Because he had no one who could communicate with him--not teachers, not students, no one, this situation tugged at the hearts of a committed team of professionals. A teacher of the deaf, a first grade general education teacher, a…

A hearing loss of any type has the potential to adversely impact development leading to language, literacy, social, and academic delays. Currently, approximately 87% of students who are deaf or hard of hearing spend at least part of each day in a general education classroom. In order to optimally benefit from receiving educational services in the…

As a service delivery option for students with disabilities, coteaching continues to gain popularity. Successful coteaching largely rests upon the compatibility of coteachers. Sometimes conflict may occur when two teachers with different backgrounds and views work closely together. This article focuses on why conflict is inevitable in cotaught…