Does co-teaching work? Views on co-teaching practice in inclusive classrooms

Elisabetta Ghedin & Claudia Caserotti Dep. FISPPA, University of Padova, Italy elisabetta.ghedin@unipd.it claudia.caserotti@gmail.com Does Co-Teaching Work? Views on Co-teaching practice in inclusive Classrooms Keywords: co-teaching, inclusion, special and general teachers Introduction: In the Italian context children with special educational needs and disabilities are included in mainstream schools since the Italian legislation had recognised the importance of the process of inclusion for the activity and participation dimensions of the child as well as the importance of the environmental factors for the determination of a disability. In order to better serve all students in the general education classroom, it is an imperative that co-teaching has to be included as an instructional strategy in today’s classrooms. Purpose: This study investigates the practice of co-teaching, defined by Villa, Thousand, & Nevin (2008) as two or more people sharing responsibility for teaching some or all of the students assigned to a classroom. In other words co-teaching may be defined as the partnering of a general and a special education teacher for the purpose of jointly delivering instruction to a diverse group of students, including those with disabilities or other special needs, in a general education setting and in a way that flexibly meets their learning needs/wishes (Friend, 2008). The purposes of this study are the following: - to identify the importance of co-teaching practice for both teachers and pupils; - to identify barriers and obstacles that limit and make difficult the success and implementation of co-teaching and strategies that, instead, make the co-teaching a positive experience for both teachers and pupils. Method: In the first phase of the study a semi-structured interview was created with the aim of identifying the major themes. These themes were categorized into logistical, philosophical, and relationship issues. In the second phase twenty general and special education teachers of kindergarten and primary schools were interviewed focusing on the similarities and differences in teachers'opinion regarding the co-teaching model and the obstacles and facilitators they encounter to implement the co-teaching practice. Moreover, two lessons in kindergarten and primary school were videotaped in order to document the practice of co-teaching and its influences on the students’ well-being. The interviews were analyzed with the software Atlasti. Results: The results will be presented and discussed in the paper, as well as the main educational implications of the results. The study provides results directly derived from the implementation of the co-teaching practice in Italy, the unique context of full-inclusion of children with disabilities in mainstream schools. Discussion: It follows that co-teaching can be important because allows teachers to blend their teaching skills, strategies, and expertise to increase the school's effectiveness at meeting the needs/wishes of the students and to ensure that all children learn.