The essence of cooperative teaching in

1. “COOPERATIVE
TEACHING”
RAMIL P. POLINTAN
Head, Mathematics Department

2. What it Takes to Have Two Teachers
Successfully Share a Class?
When teachers are
committed to work
together for the
success of all
students in their
classroom, a
cooperative teaching
model may be a
successful option.

3. A Cooperative Teaching Model
In a cooperative teaching model, one
classroom is shared by two or more teachers.
These teachers will share all responsibility
including planning, instruction, and grading.
Typically the co-teaching classroomis an
inclusion class with both a regular education
teacher and a special education teacher. These
teachers must share a common goal, and
believe that co-teaching is a better method of
teaching for their students to see success.

4. Cooperative Teaching: a
Common Goal
 There should be an obvious
cooperation in a classroom where two
or more teachers share instructional
responsibility. A common goal that both
teachers are dedicated towards seeing
to fruition will tie them together and
enable them to work together towards
that common end.

5. Cooperative Teaching: a
Common Goal
These co-teachers must work together,
open and honest about their strengths and
weaknesses in order to present lessons in
the most beneficial way for all students.
This model will not work if the teachers do
not share the same end goal. As with any
team, this must be the case or neither
teacher will succeed.

6. Cooperative Teaching: a
Personal Belief
Each teacher involved in a cooperative
teaching model must believe that the
model will work and indeed must work,
in order to see their goals succeed. If
teachers believe in what they are doing,
the model has a better chance at
success than those teachers who are
not completely convinced.

7. Cooperative Teaching: a
Personal Belief
Teachers who believe in the cooperative teaching
model will work together, play off each other in
every day instruction, find necessary time to plan
together, and be open to suggestions. This type of
teaching model, when both teachers believe in
making it work, will benefit all students. What
better situation than to have two dedicated, trained
teachers, each with her own specialty skill set,
working with each individual student in the same
classroom?

8. Cooperative Teaching: a
Personal Belief
Teachers who do not fully believe in the
cooperative teaching model, or who cannot find a
way to work with their cooperating teacher, will see
at most, limited success in their classroom. The
pitfalls to co-teaching include a lack of respect for
the other teacher, and to a degree, a resentment
of someone else in your classroom or of teaching
in an inclusion classroom.

9. Cooperative Teaching: Finding
Success in the Classroom
Many teachers are placed in a co-teaching
position without their input. Many times a co-
teaching relationship between teachers does
not work, because one teacher or the other is
not fully sold out to making the model work.
These teachers must find a way to overcome
these negative thoughts and resentments in
order to find success in their classroom.

10. Cooperative Teaching: Finding
Success in the Classroom
One of the most common problems between
co-teachers is a lack of proper respect for the
other teacher. Both teachers must be equals,
neither reducing the other to the position of
assistant or aid. Both teachers must respect
the other’s time, ideas and teaching style
while at the same time accepting that neither
is perfect.

11. Cooperative Teaching: Finding
Success in the Classroom
Co-teaching, where two teachers share
the responsibilities of a single
classroom, must find teachers who
share a common goal and a strong
personal belief in the model to find
success in the classroom.

12. What is co-teaching?
Co-teaching is a model that
emphasizes collaboration and
communication among all members
of a team to meet the needs of all
students.

13. What is co-teaching?
 Co-teaching is typically perceived as
two educational professionals working
together to service a group of
heterogeneous learners.

14. What is co-teaching?
These teams come together for a common purpose,
typically to meet a wide range of learners more effectively.
These teams may have a long-term agenda for working
together (an entire academic year) or short-term agendas
such as completing a unit together or preparing students
for some specific skills. Despite the numerous co-teaching
relationships that can exist, for the purpose of this module,
the examples will focus on collaboration between general
and special education teachers in the general education
classroom. If you have other types of relationships in your
school, then simply reflect on how those roles relate to the
ones described.

15. What are the Keys to Successful
Co-Teaching?
As with any teaching technique, the skill of the
teacher is as important, if not more important,
than the technique. However, in co-teaching
there are (at a minimum) three critical issues
that teams should address prior to starting the
process. If you are currently co-teaching, you
may want to reflect on these issues to refine
what you are already doing.

16. Keys to Successful Co-Teaching
 Planning - This seems obvious, but co-teaching teams
need time to plan and a commitment to the planning
process. If one teacher shows up on time and the other
always arrives late, then this lack of commitment can
hinder the teaming process. Teams should not start their
planning period with kid specific issues, but they must
focus on planning a lesson for the entire class. Kid
specific issues should be addressed throughout the
planning process or after the lesson planning is
completed. Remember, if no planning time is available,
this will limit the types of co-teaching that can be used in
your school.

17. Keys to Successful Co-Teaching
 Disposition - The philosophy of the two teachers
working together is important to consider. If one
teacher believes all students should be included and
appropriate accommodations are essential, while the
other believes that having high standards means
treating all students the same, these differences can
greatly hinder the co-teaching process. Before
starting the co-teaching process, discussing your
perspectives on issues such as fairness, grading,
behavior management, and philosophy of teaching
are important in order to become an effective team.

18. Keys to Successful Co-Teaching
 Evaluation - This area is one that is lacking in many
individual classrooms and in many schools which have
adopted a co-teaching approach. If co-teaching is
happening school-wide, then a systematic method should
be used to evaluate both teacher satisfaction and student
learning with this model. If teachers are working in a team
setting, then at least every 4 weeks, they should set aside
a few minutes to discuss two critical questions: "Is how
we are co-teaching meeting the needs of both teachers?"
(For example, is the special educator meeting individual
students' needs, and is the content teacher meeting local
and state standards?

19. Keys to Successful Co-Teaching
and most importantly, "Is what we are doing good for
ALL students?") If the co-teaching process is only
beneficial for a student with a disability to gain social
skills, yet everyone else cannot learn because of
disruptions or because the curriculum is being modified
for everyone, then these teachers must talk about this
issue and how to more effectively address this
student's needs and still ensure the entire class is
learning. If such issues arise, it does not necessarily
mean that co-teaching should not continue, but
modifications and adjustments should be an expected
part of the co-teaching process.

20. What are the Barriers to
Effectiveness?
 Several things can stand in the way of
effective teaching in general. However,
some issues that are unique or critical
to the co-teaching process are
described below with some
suggestions as to how to address these
issues.

21. Barriers to Effectiveness of Co-
Teaching
1. Time - The amount of time to plan, the time spent developing a
school-wide support structure for co-teaching, the time spent to prepare
the students, and the time teachers are given to develop a personal as
well as a professional relationship can all greatly impact the co-teaching
process. This statement does not mean that co-teaching has to take
more time, but initially the time must be dedicated to create a school
and classroom that support teaching teams as well as including
students. Leadership must either lead teachers in using this type of
model or must empower teachers to develop their own skills. Also
critical to making this type of structure work school-wide is that the
schedules of students with disabilities and co-taught teams should be
created first, and then other activities must fill in around these important
structures. No matter how creative, a limited amount of time or structure
for this process can jeopardize the success of this model.

22. Barriers to Effectiveness of Co-
Teaching
2. Grading - Just as the time and structure must be
determined and scheduled prior to the start of a co-
teaching relationship, the same should hold true for
grading. Co-teaching teams must determine prior to the
start of the semester how they will grade students with
diverse learning needs in their classrooms. Other ideas
for grading are provided below, but the most important
variable to remember is to determine how students will
be evaluated prior to the start of the semester instead
of at the end of the grading period.

23. Barriers to Effectiveness of Co-
Teaching
3. Student Readiness - Even 10 years ago many students with
disabilities were not included into the general education curriculum.
They were often pulled out and taught separate skills or curriculum.
It is important to remember that simply including students into
general education co-taught settings may not ensure their success.
One of the struggles that teachers at upper grade levels must
acknowledge is that many students with disabilities have received a
disjointed education and may have large gaps in their knowledge
base. Just as teachers take the time to prepare themselves for a co-
teaching relationship, this same type of preparation may be needed
to assist students with disabilities who will be included in the class
who have either academic or behavioral gaps compared to their
peers.

24. Barriers to Effectiveness of Co-
Teaching
4. Teacher Readiness - Even in the strongest schools with the
strongest teachers, resistance to a co-teaching model can occur
because teachers often are considered to be autonomous. The
best way to address a school-wide co-teaching model is to let
teachers know (preferably using a family model) that they will be
co-teaching next year. Then allowing teachers collective autonomy
to design models or structures that will work for them but using
collective accountability that these structures must show teachers
should be allowed collective autonomy to design models or
structures that will work for them, along with collective
accountability which shows how they are using co-teaching to
ensure all students are in their least restrictive environment and
making strong achievement gains.

25. Friend, Reising, and Cook (1993) identified five
options teachers typically use when
implementing a co-teaching model.
As teams progress through these 5 types, it is
important to remember these types are hierarchical
across three variables.

26. The Three Variables.
 First, as you move down the continuum of models,
more and more planning time together is needed.
 Second, as you progress in the models, teachers need
an equal level of content knowledge to make the model
work effectively. This equality of content knowledge can
be the greatest barrier to team teaching at the
secondary level.
 Third, as you move down the continuum, teachers must
share the same philosophy of inclusion and have a level
of trust and respect.

27. What are the five types of co-teaching?
1. Lead and Support
2. Station Teaching
3. Parallel Teaching
4. Alternative Teaching
5. Team Teaching

28. Lead and Support
One teacher leads and another offers
assistance and support to individuals or small
groups. In this role, planning must occur by
both teachers, but typically one teacher plans
for the lesson content, while the other does
specific planning for students' individual
learning or behavioral needs.

29. Station Teaching
Students are divided into heterogeneous
groups and work at classroom stations
with each teacher. Then, in the middle of
the period or the next day, the students
switch to the other station. In this model,
both teachers individually develop the
content of their stations.

30. Parallel Teaching
Teachers jointly plan instruction, but each
may deliver it to half the class or small
groups. This type of model typically
requires joint planning time to ensure that
as teachers work in their separate
groups, they are delivering content in the
same way.

31. Alternative Teaching
One teacher works with a small group of
students to pre-teach, re-teach, supplement, or
enrich instruction, while the other teacher
instructs the large group. In this type of co-
teaching, more planning time is needed to
ensure that the logistics of pre-teaching or re-
teaching can be completed; also, the teachers
must have similar content knowledge for one
teacher to take a group and re-teach or pre-
teach.

32. Team Teaching
Both teachers share the planning and
instruction of students in a coordinated
fashion. In this type of joint planning time,
equal knowledge of the content, a shared
philosophy, and commitment to all
students in the class are critical.

33. PREPARING STUDENTS FOR CO-
TEACHING
One of the critical components of a co-
taught classroom is the climate created
for students who are included,
especially if they are coming from a
self-contained model.

34. Summary
Like any educational practice, co-teaching can
be successful if implemented in a school that
embraces the philosophy of inclusion, by
teachers who have had time to define their
roles and are given continued time to plan. In
addition, the students with disabilities who will
be served in the co-taught setting need to be
prepared for this change of service delivery.

35. Summary
Finally, administrators and teachers must
develop tools to evaluate the success of all
students in this model if they are to measure
their success and to make changes when co-
teaching is not working. In the following section
there are numerous tools that can assist you in
thinking about your school, your classroom, and
most importantly your students in attempting to
create the most successful co-taught
environment for all students.

36. Enjoy your
workshop!

37. Enjoy your
Training!