It is necessary to provide students both with and without special needs and the classroom teachers with special education support services in order to achieve successful inclusion applications. The determination of teachers' opinions about the applications they carry out is important in the planning and achievement of the future applications. The…

Researchers, teacher educators, and co-teachers are keenly aware of the issues related to obtaining--and more important, keeping--good co-teaching teams. In fact, educators frequently relate co-teaching to a marriage; unfortunately, research clearly indicates that many co-teaching marriages result in struggle, separation, or even divorce. This…

One of the primary ways schools are addressing the need for accountability and individualization is through a technique known as co-teaching. Co-teaching is considered a viable option for ensuring students have a "highly qualified" content teacher in the room, while also ensuring that all students' individualized education needs are met by an…

Co-teaching, the pairing of general and special education teachers in a general education classroom, requires a high degree of expertise on the part of both teachers. Done well, it can be compared to a strong marriage--partners sharing and planning, reflecting and changing. Done poorly, it can be described as a blind date--co-teachers just waiting…

The purpose of this paper is to provide brief descriptions and links to a number of reputed websites on various topics and issues of special education. The web sites are organized in the following categories: (1) Teaching in Inclusive Classroom, (2) Policies, Procedures, & Process of Special education, (3) Students with High Incidence…

In recent years, special educators' roles and responsibilities have undergone significant transformations deriving from both internal and external sources. This article initially reviews some of the reform movements that have sought to bring research-based practices into the classroom, particularly for students considered exceptional or at-risk.…

Background/Context: This study is based on prior research regarding the need for explicit social instruction for children with special needs, cooperative educational models, and the goals and relative successes of inclusive educational practices. The author refers to several studies on these subjects, including those by Kavale and Forness; Salend;…

This article describes a multiage classroom led by three co-teachers who facilitate the education of 42 students ages six through nine years. The classroom is located in a public school district that practices inclusion and subscribes to the principles of whole schooling. A literature review defines the concepts of co-teaching, multiage education,…

Doherty and Coggeshall combined their two classes--one regular education and one special education--and, agreeing on the value of reader's theater and storyboarding for all students, embarked on a team teaching effort that resulted in improvements for all students, and unprecedented success for "special" students. A template for storyboarding is…

Thirty-two qualitative investigations of co-teaching in inclusive classrooms were included in a metasynthesis employing qualitative research integration techniques. It was concluded that co-teachers generally supported co-teaching, although a number of important needs were identified, including planning time, student skill level, and training;…

What's the best way to find out what really works--and doesn't work--in education for students with disabilities? Listen to the experts: the students themselves. In this one-of-a-kind book, students with a wide range of disabilities give readers a rare inside look at their past and present school experiences, both in self-contained classrooms and…

Two chapters of the book, "Toward Inclusive Classrooms," are abstracted here. The chapters concern team teaching a seventh-grade science class and developing a sixth-grade science exhibition. They show how teachers cooperated to plan for inclusion of students with disabilities, how difficulties were handled, evaluation procedures, and…

Adaptation and modification of science instruction for students with special needs requires collaboration between all educators involved in delivering the curriculum. Further, the collaboration between educational professionals in elementary and secondary schools can be effectively modeled in teacher education programs. This paper describes…

This commentary on a previous article (Odom 1999) that investigated 16 inclusive programs in 4 regional U.S. locations notes the omission of environments other than classrooms in the study, such as home settings and family day care settings. The absence of specific characteristics of the programs described is also criticized. (Contains seven…

This commentary on a previous article (Odom 1999) that investigated 16 inclusive programs in 4 regional U.S. locations notes the omission of information about the quality of services, providers' perspectives, the extent to which what practitioners say corresponds with classroom practice, and range of special services delivered. (CR)